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You really love yourself some Rondo.

Nice article, Elrod. I think you are spot on about Rondo and if he continues to shine he'll very quickly become the superstar with the best supporting cast in the league.

Considering his contribution combined with Perk's, and I think we have to keep this starting lineup together for some time. We can't really shake things up and suddenly have a lineup that will be better suited to compete with Lebron and Howard. Of all the players league wide, its been Pierce and Perk who've had the most success defensively against those two.

We will need to find a legit 6th man. Someone who can backup Paul and provide great energy off the bench. Getting a Shawn Marion for that role would be a major coup. Given most team's tendency to wait for the 2010 offseason and Miami's instant success upon jetisoning him; we may get lucky there.

My opinion is if we can add a shotblocker and an impact swingman off the bench, while retaining: House, Davis, Scal, Powe (and to a lesser extent, Walker) -- we'll be in good shape.

As for Marbury, I'm still on the fence. He certainly didn't earn himself a big payday, so I guess if we have room I'd take him at the vet minimum. I gotta say though, his play reminds me more and more of Tony Allen every day (without the steals). Is he really that much better than Gabe Pruitt? I'm not so sure...

Excellent article.

Injuries (Perkins, Powe, KG) and old age (Pierce, Ray, KG) are the biggest worries now.

Wow. I liked just about the whole article. But saying Orlando will be a 'Powerhouse' just because of Howard is a stretch. The guy is extremely overrated and we witnessed this with our own eyes over 7 games. His offense is limited to easy dunks. He has nothing else besides that on offense. His D is mean, but he isn't ALL THAT IMO. We handled them easily with KG in the line-up, while they had Nelson too. There is no way in hell they beat us if KG is healthy, everybody knows that. Cleveland is 80% LeBron..without him they are decent at best. Everybody knows this. They have a good team, with good solid players, but that freak Bron just makes them look SO much better. If we can somehow manage to pull a trade or sign an SF that can help Pierce in checking LeBron we can beat Cleveland. I really think the rest of the league should be alot more worried about how they will beat a healthy Boston, than Boston being worried about how to match the rest of the league. Hope that makes sense..

Good article, however I believe Walker is better than discussed.

Rondo is not that good. He is a borderline All-Star caliber player, but he is too inconsistent.

Also, I thougt Rondo's defense in the playoffs was abysmal. He didn't lock people up like a second team All-NBA guy should. Very disappointed in Rondo's Magic series.

When Rondo is good, the team is great. But as I said in a post yesterday -- Any bigger boom or bust player in the NBA than Rondo? When he is good he dominates the game. When he isn't dominating he is terrible.

Consistency is where he needs to improve. I got to know which Rondo is going to show up.

Solid article Elrod, loved it.

jbs wrote:Excellent article.

Injuries (Perkins, Powe, KG) and old age (Pierce, Ray, KG) are the biggest worries now.

And the bench...I'd still take our starting 5 over anyone else's, but get to the bench and it gets pretty dire pretty fast...