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While I am happy with the play of Rajon this year, especially with his improving jumper, he still needs to learn how to play defense.

Rondo struggles to keep fast PG's in front of him. Deron beat Rondo to the basket at will last night. While Rondo is probably the best at stealing or knocking the ball out of players hands when they get past him, he gets beat too often.

Rajon has great quickness to stay in front of his man but his problem is he gambles too much on defense. We need Rondo to contain guards like Ford, CP, Iverson, and Deron if we are going to be successful in winning a championshiop. I hope the coaching staff addresses this with him.

I'm not sure I agree with this, that its a technique issue. To me sometimes he just totally takes games off defensively. Its fairly infrequent, but when he does it he is pretty obvious about it, gambling for steals like you said.

rondo is a good defender, but youre right in the sense that hes still developing as an NBA defender on a night after night basis. he is far better than most second year players, and you cant forget that its hard to guard some of the players he has to. i think its a lot easier to guard a 4-2 than a 5 or a 1. and he gambles a lot, but makes some plays doing it so its hard to argue too much. in a few years when he knows the right times to gamble well be thrilled by his defensive impact in every game.

and the other thing is, you wouldnt hear the guys in the league who get asked about rondo say he was a good defender if he wasnt.

I think Rondo will be excellent but Ainge does need deal with the size issue in the back court.

Smallish PGs often need a big defensive stopper to play next to them.

Cousy and Tiny Archibald are examples and so is Iverson.

House can obviously shoot the lights out and I think he is a keeper because of that but Rondo and House are too small as a pair. Sam I Am is great to have but he does not address this issue.

From a defensive point of view I think a serious back court defender is all that is lacking on the team.....maybe that is Tony Allen eventually but he needs to continue to progress and become much more consistent.

Paul and Ray have had great seasons defensively are you talking about purely off the bench?

TheCelticTruth wrote:Paul and Ray have had great seasons defensively are you talking about purely off the bench?

I wasn't considering PP as he is playing up front these days (I agree he has been excellent)

Ray has been a pleasant surprise but I am looking for a first class stopper on the order of KC Jones, Don Chaney and Dennis Johnson.

Someone strong enough that you can throw at a Billups or Deron Williams and usually prevent them from going off......you will never completely stop them because they are too good but you do need to keep them under some semblance of control.

Back in the Celtic-Laker rivalry in the 1980's Dennis Johnson was the only guard in the league strong enough on D to make Magic Johnson turn to protect the ball as he entered the offensive zone.

Against everyone else Magic just drove forward facing the hoop and had both better vision and improved passing options because of it. Magic still had great games against the Green but us seldom destroyed them because of DJ. And on an occasional night DJ just shut him down at critical points - like the second half of game 4 in 1984 with the C's down 2-1..

Doc put the rookie Tony Allen on Reggie Miller the last time the Celts played the Pacers in the playoffs. Tony was over his head and Doc had to switch Gary Payton onto Miller. Payton did a very creditable job, but to me it just highlighted the need for a defensive force in the back court.

KG usually has the front court covered on D but I always want a back court stopper as well....most Celtic championship teams have had both.

Tony Allen is looking critical to me (possibly Posey). I am a big Rondo fan but a playoff series against Chauncey Billups or Deron Williams (or both) is a brutal match up for the Celtics IMO.

return2glory wrote:While I am happy with the play of Rajon this year, especially with his improving jumper, he still needs to learn how to play defense.

Rondo struggles to keep fast PG's in front of him. Deron beat Rondo to the basket at will last night. While Rondo is probably the best at stealing or knocking the ball out of players hands when they get past him, he gets beat too often.

Rajon has great quickness to stay in front of his man but his problem is he gambles too much on defense. We need Rondo to contain guards like Ford, CP, Iverson, and Deron if we are going to be successful in winning a championshiop. I hope the coaching staff addresses this with him.

You have to be kidding. Why not ask him to go back in time and guard Magic and MJ as well. Of course he struggles containing these guys, so does the rest of the world. Deron Williams has speed, size, and a jumper he is almost impossible to guard one on one when he gets rolling. He just does everything right. The one thing you can do to Williams is go back at him and make him play defense, as you would most great players, that is his weakness and at the moment that isn't Rondo's role but come playoff time it is something this team has to think about.

There is nothing wrong with Rondo's defense, sure he has better nights than others just like good offensive players do. At times he is also at the mercy of the refs, they sent Williams to the line 18 times in that game, somehow I don't think Rondo was going to be able to pick up to many charges. But the kid is 8th in the NBA in defensive rating and while numbers like that are what they are (KG is #1) just listen to the guys he is going against talk about him including Deron;

"Every game since he's been in the league, he has gotten a rip on me, a clean strip, and then he's gone in for a layup," Williams said. "He's got the tools to be one of the best defensive point guards in this league - the long arms, the big, quick hands, the great anticipation. And he's added a lot to his offensive game. You can't play off of him. I got caught in the first quarter doing that and he made us pay."

return2glory wrote:While I am happy with the play of Rajon this year, especially with his improving jumper, he still needs to learn how to play defense.

Rondo struggles to keep fast PG's in front of him. Deron beat Rondo to the basket at will last night. While Rondo is probably the best at stealing or knocking the ball out of players hands when they get past him, he gets beat too often.

Rajon has great quickness to stay in front of his man but his problem is he gambles too much on defense. We need Rondo to contain guards like Ford, CP, Iverson, and Deron if we are going to be successful in winning a championshiop. I hope the coaching staff addresses this with him.

You are right about Rondo's D. As you said, he's pretty good at going for steals and stuff, but he does have some trouble consistently staying in front of his man. I think that will come with more experience though. He certainly has the quickness to stay in front of a lot of PGs. Although, I don't know what he can do to be able to contain guys like CP, AI, etc. you mentioned. They pretty much torch everyone in the league.

To illustrate my point just a little further, Rondo is not only 8th in the NBA in defensive rating he is the only PG in the top 20, not even some backup defensive stopper makes the list.

Who is better defensively than Rondo at the pg spot in the NBA?