Don Ford wrote:Akiho wrote:^^ u kidding me? rondo? hed have suitors all the way from SA, portland, minnesota, houston to atlanta, new york and indiana
take off those P&G glasses and read what the rules he's following are
Rondo is a good defender and a pretty good distributor (not that it's all that difficult to get assists when your passing to KG, Pierce, & Allen) but he cannot consistently hit a wide open fifteen footer. SA would have no interest in him because they have Parker who is much better than Rondo. Portland could use him now but Bayless will be better than Rondo in another year or so. Minnesota, and Indiana, who cares? Atlanta could possibly use him but Bibby isn't that bad so I doubt they would give up much. Rondo would actually be a pretty good fit in NY with their uptempo game because that's pretty much the only way that he can score.
But the point is that saying that Rondo has more trade value than guys like Amare Stoudemire, Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge, Caron Butler, and OJ Mayo is ridiculous. I don't care what the salary situation is, those guys are all far, far better players than Rondo and are also still young. If the Celtics were to offer Rondo for any one of those guys al they would get back is a dial tone.
Rondo is a glorified role player and will continue to be one unless he manages to learn how to shoot. That doesn't mean he's a bad player or that he's not valuable to the Celtics, Rick Fox and Robert Horry were role players that were very valuable to the Lakers in the Shaq-Kobe years but nobody ever tried to compare their trade value to young AS caliber players comparable to the ones that Simmons has Rondo ranked ahead of.
Do you think he would have Rondo's trade value ranked that high if Rondo played for the Lakers?
How did the glorified role player do on Sunday. Don't say "Well, it was only the Suns", because you'll look a tad foolish by the end of this week. With the way that the Celtic offense is structured, Rajon has been getting by on about 8.5 shots per game. He isn't a knockdown shooter, but he is a good scorer when allowed to spread his wings... and it isn't because of Garnett, Pierce and Allen. When K.G. wnet down last season, in 30 mpg (because of blowouts), Rondo averaged 16ppg shooting around 55% fom the field, while getting 6 assists and 7 rebounds a game. In THIRTY minutes. Almost all of that, just as was the case against the Suns, was off of the dribble. All the kid needs are some shooters out there to spread the floor, and they don't have to be HOF guys either.
He's better now than he used to be, and he's been damn good for a while. Now you'll get to see what the kid does with 14-16 shots to consistently work with instead of 8. He'll still get his assists, and he'll get even more rebounds with Kevin out. His minutes will necessarily be around 40 per game in the closer affairs (Doc likes to keep them down when he can). I'm figuring that, all of those things considered, you can expect Rondo to put up between 18-20 ppg, 10 assists, 6-7 rebounds, and 2 steals until K.G. comes back. He will do that very efficiently too, and will continue to dog opponents with his defense. Pierce and Ray will also see their numbers go up as they take more of the load.
When K.G. comes back, and they have to spread it around more, they will all see their numbers drop again... and then you can go back to talking nonsense about guys like Bayless being better than him in a year.
P.S. Rondo is second on the Celts in PER, third in efficiency (a hair behind Pierce), and 11th in the league in Win Shares. There aren't any "role players" on that list.
