Post#872 » by ryaningf » Mon Dec 22, 2014 8:54 pm
Only 2 games post-Rondo, so impressions are still forming, but here's my takeaway:
1. Better synergy. Synergy is hard to define, but let's just say that it's chemistry that creates energy. I feel like the Cs have had good chemistry all season, but still went on weird energy lulls from time to time. Not going to point the finger at Rajon for that, but just say that sometimes the team came out flat as a group and/or couldn't maintain high energy 48 minutes. Not saying they've turned that corner (they haven't) but what I've seen suggests they're going to be a little more consistent in that regard. Nothing earth-shattering, but an uptick nonetheless.
2. Why better synergy? Rondo is a star and he's a vet and he's knows what he wants when he wants it and when you're playing with a bunch of undistinguished players (mostly young guys but a few vets too) I think the effect sometimes was getting his guys to play scared, to think too much, and to generally remove them from the moment. In crunch time this manifested as guys standing around watching Rondo and Rondo watching them back and trying to find shots for guys who had quit moving and obviously that won't work. Vets are going to cause young guys to lose confidence because that's the nature of the beast but when it's Kobe or MJ or some other isolation alpha dog scorer than you can get by "watching" them (because they are literally playing with themselves) and sometimes that tough love brings out something in the young guy, inspires them to buckle down and get better. But with Rondo, who could take over games in every respect except isolation scoring, "watching" him was death because he was trying to play "with you", so watching him kills everything, not only for player confidence and development, but for the winning the game. Rondo needed guys on his level playing with him and too often this team's collection of youth and vets just weren't on the same level.
3. The upshot of that is that Rondo did not inspire his teammate, outside of Zeller and Bradley. Now, Rondo's the purest PG in the game and people took his inability to inspire his teammates as some kind of blight on his leadership, but this isn't necessarily all Rondo's fault, it was more the make up of his team and where everyone is in their development. Rondo's going to have no trouble inspiring his older more accomplished vet teammates in Dallas. What frightened his teammates in Boston will excite his teammates in Dallas--same guy, same personality, different results.
4. The guys remaining are all on the same level and that kind of evenness means each guy has the opportunity to inspire his teammates thru hard work, toughness, and desire. Nobody will feel out of their element or fall into "watching" instead of "playing".
5. A high school analogy: everyone has a clique and in their clique they feel the most comfortable, feel able to be who they are to the fullest....but put them in some other clique, maybe some school trip or something, and they will retreat into their shell and/or be someone else. And so, on this team, Rondo was the cool senior guy and he was hanging with a bunch of freshman nerds and even though everyone was nice and friendly and tried their hardest the freshman just couldn't be themselves until Rondo left the room.
6. So Rondo's left the room and I expect several guys to be more comfortable, to really stretch out their legs and grow. At the same time, I think we'll still suck but suck in a way that's fosters more development and inner confidence.
7. All that said, if Danny doesn't make this trade and we're looking at adding Josh Smith for nothing and playing him at center and going space and pace on steroids, I think we're a lot closer (in a linear sense) to #18 than we are now. We've chosen the long road and lotto balls and as we found out 2005-2007 that can be rewarding in its own way, but only if Danny makes the right moves with all the assets he's collected. Moving Rondo created more flexibility, created a vacuum for assets to grow, created more at bats and chances to find transcendent players, but ultimately Danny has got to hit 3 more homeruns when before he only needed 2.
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