GreenDreamer wrote:Hi, new here. Anyways, I was going through basketball-reference.com's database looking at who ranked in the top 10 for defensive rating at point guard. I only went back to the 1980 season, but that's a fair sample size.
Rondo is well on his way to ranking in the top ten again for defensive rating. That is interesting because only three other point guards have done that more than once since the 1980 season: Stockton, Kidd and Gregg Anthony. The list of of those who did it once is about as long (Interestingly, Doc rivers was one of them). No one, other than Kidd, has done it in this decade.
It is very rare for a point guard to crack the top 10 in this stat. The bigs and, to a lesser extent, the super athletic wings are the ones who dominate it. in fact, the only two shooting guards who cracked it more than once were Michael Jordan and Manu Ginobili.
Defense really underappreaciated, IMO. That Dennis Johnson isn't in the HOF is proof of this. Rondo's offense is rapidly improving, but he is already the best defensive point guard in the game. He doesn't just get steals, he also rebounds like a wing, shuts down the point of attack, is an excellent help defender, intereferes with passing in the halfcourt like a shut down corner, and can be a one man full court press when he wants to be. The way i see it, defense is half of the game, and what wins Titles, and the kid is the best there is at his spot and is a pretty good offensive player too.
Even Celtic fans take his D for granted, IMO. our opponents routinely stop having their PG bring the ball up with Rondo out ther. They hardly ever attack him on a switch, as non point guards are too afraid to dribble the ball with him on them. In the Blazer game they took their point guard out because Rondo was destroying both of them, and put Rudy Fernandez in his spot. He never dribbled the ball once and passed the ball like it was a hot potato. This is the norm, not the exception.
More than those things, though, it is the fact that rondo plays, effectively, without any help on the defensive end. Sure, K.G. and Perk are there for him to steer hios man to, and that is a great thing, but Rondo is expected to stop his man straight up no matter who it is. This allows the other Celtic defenders to stay hom on their men, and is a huge part of what makes the Celtics the best defensive team in the league. He prevents penetration into the paint, which saves our bigs from getting into the foul trouble, and usually disrupts our opponents from running anything like an efficient offense. When help is given it is usally Rondo doing the helping.
Is he an All-Star this season? With the way that talent is judged, proably not. Is he a more valuable player than a few of those who will be on that team? I think so.
GReat first post. I agree. I think people lose site of a lot of what you said becase Rondo is guilty of making an occasional embarrisingly bad gamble, in particular the let the pitpocket move he uses when he lets a PG go by him.
