It's Rondo Time

[elrod enchilada]

As long as KG is out, we are going to struggle. Especially on defense. That is obvious. We know Paul and Ray will have to score more, but in my mind tonight's game is really a challenge to Rondo. He has to grow into the role of all-star fearless point guard. When the waters got turbulent in that 2-7 streak, Rondo shrank into the woodwork. We need Rondo to blossom tonight. He has to sink that outside shot he neglected on Sunday. He has to get to the line. He has to make Andre Miller wish he had never been born. He has to realize just how good he is. He has to be fearless.

When Rondo plays his game we are a difficult team to beat, even without KG.

[Kefa461]

As long as KG is out, we are going to struggle. Especially on defense. That is obvious. We know Paul and Ray will have to score more, but in my mind tonight's game is really a challenge to Rondo. He has to grow into the role of all-star fearless point guard. When the waters got turbulent in that 2-7 streak, Rondo shrank into the woodwork. We need Rondo to blossom tonight. He has to sink that outside shot he neglected on Sunday. He has to get to the line. He has to make Andre Miller wish he had never been born. He has to realize just how good he is. He has to be fearless.

When Rondo plays his game we are a difficult team to beat, even without KG.

Agreed...up tempo all night he's at the point.....Gabe also and Eddie at 2 guard with the 2nd unit.

[GreenDreamer]

What happened on Sunday was not really all that unsual. No emphasis was put into getting Rondo into the offensive flow early on in the game. Zero. He's bringing the ball down and feeding it to either Pierce or Allen on almost every possession. He gets swung out to the weakside, and then is basically forgotten. Two of Ray's turnovers, and at least one of Paul's, were the DIRECT result of looking off an open Rondo. This is not all that unual. Ray has practically raised it to a fine art. He looks right at Rondo, and then continues to hold onto the ball and turns it over. Paul has a nasty habit of fumbling into turnovers as well after looking him off. This, by the way, just encourages the other players on the court to do the same exact thing. Doc tolerates this, and when you are the head coach and allow things like that to slide, you are basically encouraging it.

Paul and Ray unfortunately are of the belief that passing for assists is good passing. Paul is especially prone to do this, but Ray does it far too much. Getting an assist is fine if you do it in the flow of the offense, but when you turn down the RIGHT pass in the effort of getting an assist, then you are engaging in BAD passing.

Take, for example, Ray's turnover on the lob pass to Paul in the middle of the game. He had a WIDE OPEN Rondo halfway up the floor, which would have set up a two on one at the basket. What does Ray do? He tries to throw it all the way to Paul, himself, and the Minny defender easily picked it off. Either Ray did not see Rondo, which is unlikely because I don't think that Ray's court vision is THAT bad, or Ray said "I'm going to show what a good passer I am", and basically handed the ball to the Wolves (ever notice that Paul and Ray make a lot of horrible full court passes?). He had another turnover at the top of the key where Rondo's man doubled off of him, while Rajon flared out to the right side waving his arms for the ball. Ray opted to hold onto the ball and turned it over. The defense was merely looking to force the ball out of Ray's hands there, but if you want to play stupid basketball, then they will by all means take the steal. Rondo and K.G. do not usually do stuff like this, by the way, and it is a HUGE reason why they are far better passers than the other two.

Rondo didn't take his first shot until the 3:09 mark of the SECOND quarter. Now did they have a point guard who can guard him? No. Did they have a good interior defense? No. Was he turning shots down EARLY in the game? No. Were picks being set for him? No. Was the ball being passed to him when he was open? No. The thing is that Rondo isn't the kind of guy who can be expected to start looking for his shot if he has been marginalized like that. It was the primary reason for his slow start this season. If he doesn't get shots in early in a quarter, then don't expect him to shoot at all. He, by the way, isn't exactly "inspired" by the proposition of rushing the ball up the court just to hand it off to people who don't pass it back to him. They stop passing him the ball, he stops getting it up quickly. It is a fairly consistent trend.

This is nothing new. He has been that way since he first joined the team. He probably isn't going to grow out of it anytime soon either. So appeals to Rondo to be "aggressive" are basically useless. Either Doc gets with the program and looks to get Rondo going early, or he will have another game exactly like the last one. He'll run the sets that Doc wants, but he wont be particularly effective unless Doc puts an emphasis on getting him going.

[Gant]

Lost in the absurd cloud of controversy over Perkin's hard foul on Maxiell was what happened to Rondo in that game.

Remember Rondo had a great first quarter and didn't do very much after that? Here's what happened: He got stepped on by Antonio McDyess. Mcdyess didn't mean it but after knocking Rondo down on a hard drive the big guy stepped on Rondo's legs, accidentally putting his full weight on them.

Rondo sat on the floor for a little while rubbing both upper legs. He wasn't the same for the rest of the game or in the next game against the Wolves.

Rondo's a slight little dude and takes a lot of hard pounding on his numerous drives. I believe when he's not playing hard that he's actually playing hurt.

[Bad-Thoma]

Lost in the absurd cloud of ABSURD controversy over Perkin's hard foul on Maxiell was what happened to Rondo in that game.

Remember Rondo had a great first quarter and didn't do very much after that? Here's what happened: He got stepped on by Antonio McDyess. Mcdyess didn't mean it but after knocking Rondo down on a hard drive the big guy stepped on Rondo's legs, accidentally putting his full weight on them.

Rondo sat on the floor for a little while rubbing both upper legs. He wasn't the same for the rest of the game or in the next game against the Wolves.

Rondo's a slight little dude and takes a lot of hard pounding on his numerous drives. I believe when he's not playing hard that he's actually playing hurt.

I edited your post for accuracy Gant, hope you don't mind. I agree with you about Rondo, during that stretch where we were 2-7 he was battling sore elbows from a hard landing in the Laker game, and he rarely attacked the basket. I think it's just one more bit of evidence that he's the catalyst for our offense, when he penetrates we end up with easy looks because the ball movement consistently finds the open man on rotations. Until he consistently takes open jumpers we're screwed when he stays near the perimeter and it turns into the Jim O'Brien everyone watch Paul Pierce take his man one on one and kick it out for three's on the double team offense. Which, as to the OP, is probably why Paul and Ray don't always look to Rondo when he is wide open, he isn't always willing to take the shot and when his man is playing off him already it is hard for him to drive to the basket. He's got to become more assertive with that jumper, he already can sink it at a high enough percentage his man would have to respect it... if he though Rondo was going to take it. Considering the marked progress Rondo has made in the last couple seasons in this regard, and considering our gaudy record, I really feel quite confident that this'll come along, and if we just keep winning while it's coming along it's just not that big of an issue .

[return2glory]

Lost in the absurd cloud of controversy over Perkin's hard foul on Maxiell was what happened to Rondo in that game.

Remember Rondo had a great first quarter and didn't do very much after that? Here's what happened: He got stepped on by Antonio McDyess. Mcdyess didn't mean it but after knocking Rondo down on a hard drive the big guy stepped on Rondo's legs, accidentally putting his full weight on them.

Rondo sat on the floor for a little while rubbing both upper legs. He wasn't the same for the rest of the game or in the next game against the Wolves.

Rondo's a slight little dude and takes a lot of hard pounding on his numerous drives. I believe when he's not playing hard that he's actually playing hurt.

That's a great observation, Gant. I agree that play in the Pistons game effected Rondo's play the rest of the way. Especially vs the Wolves where it impacted Rondo's aggressiveness.