Rondo needs to step up!

[BillessuR6]

I am sick and tired of watching RR bring it every third game. After a good game against UTA he was horrible yesterday against the hawks! He made the first aggressive move with 4:30 left in the 4th quarter! He was guarded by Mike Bibby the whole game but didn`t put any pressure on him...

I really don`t understand anymore why this guy is even playing. On offense it really is 4 on 5. He walks the ball up the court every time and that is worth 11 million per year? He needs to push the ball, be aggressive on offense going to the rim but we aren`t seeing anything from him...

His inconsistency can not be tolerated anymore! Two season ago on our way to the championship I was OK with him only playing well at home because he was still inexperienced but the excuses need to stop!

I am not blaming Rondo for the lost against the hawks, the whole team played poorly but his play in the first 10 games has been more than worrying. The other teams have completely stopped defending him because he refuses to shoot the ball or go to the rim. Being unselfish is nice but this is a whole new territory. Shooting 30% from the free throw line doesn`t help either.

The thing is we need the aggressive Rondo to win another championship. If he plays like he has so far we don`t have any chance in the playoffs. I don`t know what the reason is for his unwillingness to score points and be proactive on the court but there is something wrong...whether it is just Rondo`s mental state or some internal problems in the team, I have no idea. The big three is aging and with exception of Pierce they can`t carry us on offense anymore consistently. I have always been critical of Rondo but I am aware that he is the key to winning another ring. Rajon must step up, play with confidence, play with a chip on his shoulder and make this team his team!

[return2glory]

Rondo didn't show up tonight. His FT shooting and outside shot is worst than last year. Rondo got off to a slow start last year too. I'm not worried about Rondo, his game will come around. It's House that is killing us. When House's shot isn't falling, he is useless.

[bceltic55]

Rondo did have a bad game in that he was not in the offense at all. He should have been driving to the hole, but did not. Not to worry, every player has bad games.

[beantownski]

i know rondo is horrible freethrow shooter, but he needs to attack and get to the line WAY more. at least 5 times a game. his penetration is what opens up our offense. when he dribbles the ball up slow and passes then goes and hides in the corner, it bogs down the celtics offense. the celtics need him to push the ball every chance they get and get rondo in the paint somehow.

[ParticleMan]

it's all Doc's fault. if we just gave him the ball and told KG, Paul, and Ray to stand behind halfcourt and let him go 1-on-5, he'd score 40 a game. nobody can stop him except for Doc's stupid offense that's designed to get shots for hall of famers. rondo's so good that after he retires they're going to burn down the one in Springfield and build a new one just for him.

[MVP16]

I agree. I've been frustrated by Rondo's play so far. His aggressiveness, or lack thereof, has been tough to watch. Most of the time he just stands at the 3 point line and looks to pass to Ray coming off a screen or passes it to someone else and then walks away. He is not getting to the paint at all. He took just 4 shots last night, and 2 of them were either a halfcourt shot or when the shot clock was running out. With him being defended by Bibby, that's just inexcusable. He could have gotten 20/10 last night if he wanted to, but he was content with going through the motions. Rondo, along with Perk, should be the guys who bring energy to the starting unit. Instead, Rondo is playing like he is in his mid 30s and pacing himself for the playoffs.

[cisco]

My theory is that Rondo is not producing offense because he's embarrassed that he can't shoot. All he's been doing is passing and not making himself a threat to score, where other teams can totally ignore him and focus on the Big 3.

Remember when Antoine got so bad at the line that he was avoiding contact so that he wouldn't have to go the the line and embarrass himself with his abysmal free throw shooting? That's what I think is happening to Rondo. He is under pressure to prove he's worth his contract and is avoiding creating offense for himself so he won't have to shoot or go to the line. 30% from the line? That's pretty terrible.

Rondo has taken a huge step backwards offensively from last year. When he was making himself a threat to score, the Celtics were nearly unstoppable. When he's not, they are very beatable.

Rondo needs to get his act together or it's going to be a very disappointing year.

Maybe extending his contract now has had the opposite effect that most of us thought it would?

It's still early. I have faith in Rondo.

[captain green]

Yep when a weaker guard like bibby is in the game rondo needs to ball his ass.
your other rondo junk I figure you'll keep on with it so I don't care to argue.
this was the worst game I seen rondo play so far.. NEED MORE POINTS AND THAT MEANS BLOWING BY THE BIBBY'S OF THE LEAGUE.

[Tricky Ricky]

RONDO SUCKS! HE IS THE REASON THE CELTICS WERE OUTREBOUNDED AND IS THE REASON SHEED MISSES THREES!

CALM DOWN had we won last night this post wouldnt have ever happened

[GreenDreamer]

The circus must be in town today, because I hear the patter of floppy shoes.

Rondo needs picks. PERIOD. Said it my "It's the Offense Stupid" OP, and last night's game was a great display of it. Does Doc give him those picks? Why, no, he doesn't. The Hawks were definitely very wary of the kid, too, which makes what happened last night all the more disgusting.

Near the end of the third quarter Doc FINALLY started to go through the kid a bit. Now did that translate into shots for him? Actually, no. It did translate into shots for his teammates though, like the Pierce backdoor layin, and the Perk alley oop. That last one was hilarious, by the way. I am learning that most of you have zero clue as what is actually transpiring on the court, so I'll break that one down for you:

Rondo takes the ball up the court. Perk steps out to set him a pick. Rondo uses the pick, going from right to left. His man and Perk's man go with him, leaving Perk free to roll to the basket. What made it hilarious, though, was that Josh Smith, who was lurking on the baseline, actually stepped up as well to cut off Rondo if he darted around Perk's man. That meant that you had THREE Hawk defenders all close enough to hold hands, while Perk was WIDE OPEN underneath the basket. No one anywhere close to him. I'm sure that Woodson loved that sequence.... and Doc immediately pulled Rondo after that. Typical.

When they actually set picks for him, the Hawks were usually forced to switch, which meant that Bibby was stuck guarding KG and Paul (Rondo's main pick setters when he ACTUALLY got them). Rondo then promptly got them the ball. When they didn't switch he was usually able to get into the paint and create from there.

I knew that he could have a field day off of the pick and roll when on his first one, in the first quarter, the Hawks jumped out at him when he was obviously looking to take a jumper. They were showing their intention to challenge his shot in his range. Bingo, the store is open for business. Doc didn't feel that way. Why should he, though, considering that he thinks that Rondo is the ball valet.

Time to awaken from your fantasy world, guys. The offense works best when it goes through Rondo, and Rondo NEEDS those picks to be at his very best. This offense gets stagnant when it goes away from him. The fact that he doesn't get into the paint every time he gets one is the NORM in basketball. It seems to me that you guys are unaware that in most pick and rolls the guy taking the shot off of it isn't actually the pick setter or the ball handler, but is one of the other three guys on the court. Those two fraw the defense into them, and that opens up opportunities for the other three. The Suns recently did a clinic on doing just that. In this moronic offense that Doc runs, though, he evidently thinks that those two guys are the ones who are supposed to be taking the vast majority of the shots off of it.

I thought that a good example of how a pick and roll can work came in the first half when Paul set one for Rondo and Bibby was forced to switch. Paul got the feed pass from Rajon, the defense collapsed on him, and he found a wide open Garnett for an easy jumper. Another one developed into a give and go play between Garnett and Rondo, which resulted in a Perk layup.

Pick and roll basketball is all about reads. Going with the flow and attacking a defense's weaknesses on THAT POSSESSION. The defense will usually not make teh same mistake two times in a row, but you can usually count on them making a DIFFERENT mistake the next time. If you have an intelligent playmaker (which we do), and good passers and shot makers on your team (which we do), you can carve up a defense very efficiently through this approach.

Doc doesn't LIKE playing that way, though. It is kind of annoying to hear people whine about Rondo not being "aggressive", when he is doing a good job with the picks that he gets, and the team is getting good looks out of them, but is usually stripped of the ball on most possessions and it never finds its way back to him.

Want to know why he only has 10 free throw attempts this season? The very thing I just talked about. He doesn't have the ball enough, and he isn't getting enough picks when he does. That weaving layin he got in the fourth quarter came off of a KG pick. Simple as that. The Hawks DIDN"T switch, and that was result.

Regarding his jumpshooting, there is very little emphasis inthis offense to get him any jumpers. Paul is way to reluctant to pass him the ball, even when he absolutely should, and forget about Ray, who blows off Rondo constantly. The only one of the Big Three who actively looks for the kid is Kevin, which isn't a surprise because he is the only one who is actually a top notch passer.

I think that a root cause behind this is Doc's manic desire to control the game from the bench, instead of letting his point guard do it on the floor. Most of our plays have limited options. The "Ray Allen 8 second play", where Rondo feeds the ball to Ray after the other three set a series of screens is the best exaple of this. I would be ecstatsic if we NEVER ran that play again. Send everyone to that doctor in Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and wipe their emories clean of it. Why? Well, it COULD be a good play if, after setting the screens, the other players did something of their own, to make the defense account for them. Have Perk set a screen for Paul, or vice versa. A backdoor lob to Kevin. Have somebody come out and set a pick for Rondo. SOMETHING else besides ram it into Ray every single time.

Its like Doc's BS claims that the reason we don't run a lot is that he wants to cut down on turnovers. Uptempo REDUCES turnovers, if anything. Look at the league leaders in turnover percentage (2. Toronto, 3. Atlanta, 5. Denver, 7. Dallas). Those are straight up run and gun teams. Doc is micromanaging the offense from the bench, using a system which usually predetermines who is going to shoot the ball on each possession. A system, mind you, that has been in place here since he first showed up. Pick and roll basketball and uptempo basketball leaves that up to the players on the floor. He doesn't like that. Yet he sells it as if we have to play this way. We do not. Just as he is selling the idea that we have to run Ray Allen into the ground, yet again. 40 minutes last night. Get used to that. Don't be surprised to see him do that yet again tonight, if the Pacers are a problem (which they usually ARE). Back to back 40 minute games for a 35 year old with a history of ankle and fatigue related issues. Yep. That's our coach.

Bottom line, we win dependent upon our DEFENSE which is run by TOM THIBODEAU, not Doc. Doc is the guy who when asked a few years ago when we practiced defense "Well, we practice defense when we practice offense." Meaning that the time our guys spent playing the opposing 5 during practice constituted the main defensive preparation they received. They must have been really good defending their own team. This is, by the way, why Danny brought Tom in here and gave him the title "Associate Head Coach", because the defense is HIS. Our fortunes, like in our Title season, rest almost entirely on this defense, because if we had to rely on this monstrosity of an offense, we probably wouldn't even get out of the first round.

[Wolves2011]

Most of the time he just stands at the 3 point line and looks to pass to Ray coming off a screen or passes it to someone else and then walks away.

What you describe is doc's offense. Rondo is running it. You want Rondo to change Doc's offense on his own.

So he can be called: Stubborn or selfish and "no one on his team likes playing with him" by Doc.

If Doc's game plan says go to the hoop, Rondo will go to the hoop.

Till Doc changes his offensive game plan, we'll see lots of jumpers, which is Doc's offense.

[underneathtoDJ]

Last night was Rondo's worst game of the season, if you ask me. He didn't attack Bibby at all, when he should have been doing it all night. It looked like he was sleep walking through most of the game. I was pretty disappointed, being a Rondo supporter.


However, my biggest concern with this team right now is rebounding. We got worked last night on the boards. 16 offensive rebounds given up and out-rebounded by 18 overall. Utah out-rebounded us by 6, with 5 more offensive boards than us in a game we blew them out. For the season, we're being out-rebounded by our opponents and our 37.6 rebounds per game is the lowest in the league. We can't keep giving up 2/3 scoring chances every time down the floor because we can't rebound.

[celticfan42487]

It's really hard to find faults with the Celtics offense. If Rondo isn't scoring and we're averaging 100 ppg on 50% shooting....

Guys it's not the offense.

[GuyClinch]

it's all Doc's fault. if we just gave him the ball and told KG, Paul, and Ray to stand behind halfcourt and let him go 1-on-5, he'd score 40 a game. nobody can stop him except for Doc's stupid offense that's designed to get shots for hall of famers. rondo's so good that after he retires they're going to burn down the one in Springfield and build a new one just for him.

You need to stretch this out to ten paragraphs for a proper fan post imitation..

Rondo didn't get "up" for the Atlanta game because he wasn't going against a star, IMHO. Even then its expecting too much for him to be a consistent big time scorer at the NBA level (as we both know.).. He is what he is - a modern Brevin Knight with some better D.

[Wolves2011]

Rondo is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing in Doc's offense. He gives the ball to the big 3 and perkins. Then he goes and stands on the 3 point line with everyone else.

Thats Docs offense.

For those of you who want Rondo to attack the rim and score more, thats NOT DOC's OFFENSE.

You want Rondo to "go Rogue", for which he has repeatedly been criticized by Doc, Ainge and "quietly" by teammates. Doc has told Rondo on numerous occasions his teammates don't like playing with because he does his own thing and is too stubborn to listen to Doc and the "big 3".

So now he has his contract. He listens to what Doc and the Big 3 want him to do. Feed the ball to the Big 3 and stand at the 3 point line.

If they want him to attack the rim more and develop plays to do that, I'm sure he will.

Don't criticize Rondo for Doc's decisions about the offense.

[celticfan42487]

Don't credit Rondo for your assumptions of his greatness being held back by passing to some of the most talented teammates in the NBA.

[Wolves2011]

Don't credit Rondo for your assumptions of his greatness being held back by passing to some of the most talented teammates in the NBA.

This whole string is criticizing Rondo for Doc's offensive plays and game plan.

Rondo is doing what Doc has asked him to do on offense. Rondo is being criticized for not Defying Doc, taking matters into his own hands and playing entirely differently than the "set offense".

These same people have also, in many cases, criticized Rondo for not being coachable, not listening to his more experienced teammates, etc.

You can't have it both ways.

If Doc and the Celtics want Rondo to attack the rim, design some plays for him to do that. ...

Nash has plays designed for him, as does virtually every point guard in the NBA. Design some for Rondo and make them part of the teams arsenal.

Until then criticizing Rondo for not running, non-existent plays is perverse.

[captain green]

61-119 the truth .513 well 11 more made shots than rondo leading fga where it should be

57-118 jesus shuttleworth .483 7 more made shots than rondo 2nd leading fga needs to be a bit better

60-120 the big ticket .500 10 more made than rondo 3rd fga where it needs to be

50-84 rondo .595 10 fga less than sheed needs to be 4th in that dept but the % is stellar.

38-94 the sheed .404 Needs to be 6th and a lot better

41-71 the beast .577 Needs to be 5th can't complain about % either.

23-57 the house .404 Needs to be alot better

23-45 the predator(dainels) .511 can't complain here more fga would be nice just not alot left.

18-34 the landlord .529 garbage put backs and such a+ so far better with the hands than you thought.

The rebounding and not Rondo stats are the problem. he however needs to take more shots but not much more he needs to be 4th in fga on our team.

[Red2]

good point about the picks. we were lazy last night and we rushed everything. no one wanted to do the dirty work that it takes to win. The hawks on the other hand set multiple picks and our guys were constantly fighting over picks. To be honest we were also lazy as hell last night. I do think Rondo played poorly especially on the defensive end where he let bibby do whatever he wanted. On O Rondo never got us going so he deserves a good part of the blame but there was plenty to go around

[Wolves2011]

61-119 the truth .513 well 11 more made shots than rondo leading fga where it should be

57-118 jesus shuttleworth .483 7 more made shots than rondo 2nd leading fga needs to be a bit better

60-120 the big ticket .500 10 more made than rondo 3rd fga where it needs to be

50-84 rondo .595 10 fga less than sheed needs to be 4th in that dept but the % is stellar.

38-94 the sheed .404 Needs to be 6th and a lot better

41-71 the beast .577 Needs to be 5th can't complain about % either.

23-57 the house .404 Needs to be alot better

23-45 the predator(dainels) .511 can't complain here more fga would be nice just not alot left.

18-34 the landlord .529 garbage put backs and such a+ so far better with the hands than you thought.

The rebounding and not Rondo stats are the problem. he however needs to take more shots but not much more he needs to be 4th in fga on our team.

if you study economics you learn about marginal products. For shots taken you want the over all team shooting percentage to be as a high as possible.

So you have guys with the highest shooting percentages, shoot more until those percentages drop to the teams level. That implies more shots for Rondo and Perkins.

Also more handles by Rondo could be more good shots for others. He creates shots for others.

Finally, as for the overall theme of this thread, Rondo can't run non-existent plays for himself.

There are no "Rondo plays".

When Rondo gives the ball to Ray, or KG or Pierce and then goes to stand on the 3 point line, he is doing what the play calls for him to do. To do otherwise is to Defy Doc's offense. Rondo has already been told many many times he needs to listen to Doc. Thats what he's doing.