I posted this on another forum- the good & bad of Rondo

[aSizzLe]

This is stuff most C's fans already know, but the forum I posted it on is a General NBA forum and someone asked about Rondo. I just thought I'd post it here.

Compared to alot of Celtics fans, I have low expectations of Rondo. He will never be an All Star; most likely not even a Star. Barring a huge improvement, I feel he will be a solid starter for the duration of his career.

I'll start off with the negative aspects of his game. His jumper is one of Rondo's major deficiencies. However, he made a tremendous leap from last year to this. His FG% went up roughly 7 points and his eFG% also rose about 7 percent. His shot is still not as consistent as I would like and he often lacks confidence in taking the shot. Improving his jumper should be his main priority over the summer.

Most (let's say 80%) of his offense is a product of one of the Big 3 getting him open shots or spreading the floor for him. He wouldn't be useless without PGA, but they certainly increase his effectiveness greatly.

Another weakness of Rondo's game is his decision making. I think a major cause for this is the tremendous pressure to get each of the Big 3 a sufficient amount of shots to keep them happy. He often passes up nude layups to throw risky passes out to shooters, although turnovers are not a major concern. But sometimes he's overly aggressive when trying to finish at the rim. He often tries to dunk on players who are a foot taller than him and gets rejected.

Sometimes he gambles on defense. I often notice him leaving his man to help out a teammate when it's not necessary to do so. And the opposing team scores as a direct result of Rondo leaving his man. Also extremely aggravating.

Alright here's the good things. I really don't have to mention his defense so I'll just move on to the his speed and athleticism. Rondo is one of, if not the fastest/quickest guards in the league. He can get into the interior of the defense with ease. He also runs the break extremely well because of his speed and ball handling ability, which is also highly superior in comparison to other guards. The guy's hands, which are enormous in proportion to his body, are what gives him the ability to handle the ball. (http://aol.nba.com/media/rookies/rrondo2_600_060814.jpg) I am confident he could beat any And1 baller at their own game, quite handily in fact. That's really not saying much though, as most guards could probably do the same. Nonetheless, Rondo is an elite ball handler.

Now his athleticism. In proportion to his size, (6'1", 171 lbs. It's sad that I know that off the top of my head v.v) he is among the most athletic players in the league, nay, the world. (lol Scrubs) He pulled off a 360 with relative ease earlier in the year. The only current PGs I can think of who could pull that off with such ease are Nate Robinson and Baron Davis, 2 notably athletic players.

And even though I criticized him for it earlier in my post, one thing I LOVE about Rondo is that he has the balls to try to dunk on big men several inches taller than him. It's not always in the best interest of scoring points, but damn does it get me fired up, even if he gets blocked. The one that sticks out most in my mind occurred last year. Chris Bosh was the victim. Rondo crossed up whoever was guarding him (Calderon IIRC), and faked the kick-out to Gerald Green. Bosh was caught off guard as Rajon soared through the air and jammed it right over him, as Chris desperately tried to stop the embarrassment before it happened. I'll never forget that dunk, as well as the utter embarrassment of Rip Hamilton and Jason Maxiell earlier this year.

But the thing I found most impressive about Rondo's play this season was his ability to run the offense and get everyone, mainly the Big 3, enough touches to keep them content. Hypothetically, if you were to take 3 players who are each accustomed to dominating the ball on offense and taking 20 shots per game, and put them in a situation where they have to make personal statistical sacrifices for the betterment of the team, you would assume their would be some issues. That problem has been virtually non-existent for the Celtics. I feel Rondo is one of the main reasons for this. However, Pierce/Garnett/Allen are getting up there in age and they are all ringless, so they had their own reasons for their sacrifices, but I feel Rondo played a huge part in creating the great team chemistry that has made the C's such a great team.

[GuyClinch]

Another weakness of Rondo's game is his decision making. I think a major cause for this is the tremendous pressure to get each of the Big 3 a sufficient amount of shots to keep them happy. He often passes up nude layups to throw risky passes out to shooters, although turnovers are not a major concern. But sometimes he's overly aggressive when trying to finish at the rim. He often tries to dunk on players who are a foot taller than him and gets rejected.

Your being unreasonable in your expectations for a PG. Rondo's decision making is fine for the most part. Jkidd, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and the rest of the elite PG's make suspect decisions as well. So do PP, KG, RA, TA and other Celtics.

http://www.82games.com/0708/07BOS1A.HTM

As you can see Rondo's assist to bad pass ratio is 6.0. I'd hardly call that a "weakness." It's not the league's best but it's not bad. But something lost in these statistics which may favour other PGs is that Rondo has fit himself in a high powered offense without much controversy. Rondo plays unselfishly and doesn't pound the ball. Plenty of other PGs with good "numbers" like say Andre Miller fail in this regard.

Pete

[BigHands]

There is no way of knowing if his progress will continue but he is 10/5/4/ with over 1.5 steals a game at age 22.

Those numbers compare with John Stockton at the same age.

Stockton was obviously a better pure PG and made better decisions at the same age.

But Rondo is a better athlete, plays significantly better defense at the same age, and rebounds far better.

That is not to claim he will be the next Stockton of course, but IMO regular All Star games are a real possibility.

[cloverleaf]

Rondo's a reserve All-Star for the East next year.

[Rondo_Fan]

I'm a big Rondo fan, obviously, but one thing that pissed me off about last night's game was that he started hamming it up when we got a big lead at the end of the third quarter and made a couple of costly mistakes. He cost us like 4 points at the end of the third quarter that we shouldn't have lost.

I'm not as concerned with his shooting as other people seem to be. I mean, in one year he made a huge improvement, and he is so young. He should only be a senior in college this year. His biggest problem shooting now is mental, whereas before it was physical. He can make the shots now. He just has to learn to look for his shot. He is always ready to catch-and-pass. He is pretty much never ready to catch-and-shoot.

[BillessuR6]

I can`t remember when was the last time I saw a player make such huge improvement during a course of one season. I was one of Rondo`s biggest critics at the start of the season but since then he has really developed.

His jumpshot is much better than last year and I expect it will continue to get better each season. What I am most impressed about him is his ability to run a team. At 22 I have full confidence in him at the PG position.

His biggest weakness is that he is sometimes too passive on offensive end, he must attack the basket more but it is tough since he has 3 allstars around him.

If he develops like he did this season I believe he can become one of better PG˙s in the NBA. He needs to improve his jumpshot (like Tony Parker) and he needs to become a more efficient finisher at the rim. If he does that along with gaining more experience which for a PG is extremely important he can definitely turn into a special player...

[ParticleMan]

I actually disagree with a lot of the OP, both strengths and weaknesses.

His jumper is actually average now. It's fine. The main problem is his confidence in taking it. He also tends to drift out a bit farther than he has to, taking a 20 footer instead of positioning himself at 18 feet. For a guy at the edge of his range, that's a big difference.
As an aside, you know another guy who's really struggled with his confidence on his outside shot this postseason? Tony Parker.

I think decision making is one of Rondo's biggest strengths. Again, he makes mistakes, but they are of inexperience. He has great floor vision. I don't mind those passes from under the basket. An open jumper is a higher % shot than a tough twisting layup.

The gambling on defense I also don't mind. That's his strength on D. If you told him to body up guys and stick with them he wouldn't be as effective imo. He wreaks havoc by his ability to quickly get in passing lanes and harrass dribblers. So long as we've got guys like Perk and KG behind him, it's all good.

For negatives, I actually don't think he's that athletic. Fast, yes. But he doesn't have great change-of-direction, nor is he a super-quick leaper. He doesn't have great body control. This is why he has trouble finishing at the rim. Someone like Parker (I keep bringing him up because he would be the ceiling for Rondo) has such great body control that he gets himself layups right at the rim, whereas Rondo usually has to throw up a tough layup from a few feet out. To me, this is the physical reason Rondo will never be an Allstar starter. He may end up a backup a couple of seasons but that's it.

Most of the other negatives with Rondo right now are inexperience. He's been really up and down this playoffs. Even last night was a great microcosm of it. He played great for a while, then at the end of the 3rd he loses focus and the Pistons reel of 6 straight and make it a game again, basically entirely on Rondo. A PG has to manage a game better than that. Then in the 4th he gets flustered by a simple 1-2-2 trap. After a few trips he figured it out but it gave the Pistons a boost. It's probably the first time he's seen that trap done that aggressively. There's a lot of firsts for Rondo in this playoff, and he's learning. I fully expect him to be a lot more consistent next season.

Rondo is basically a rookie. He played last season, but it was a totally different team, totally different circumstances. I'm very happy with him as our PG of the future. He's not a superstar but he does a lot of positive things on the floor, and he is still improving dramatically.

[Rocky5000]

Another strength of Rondo's is his rebounding. The kid can rebound like he's a PF! Remember when he ripped the ball right away from Dirk in Dallas? Because of his athleticism and long arms, he's able to get up above centers and PF for rebounds. How many PG can rebound like him? Jason Kidd is a great rebounder for a point guard, but even he doesn't grab boards as aggressively as Rondo does.