What Rondo Needs to Do

[newdusk]

I have not written off Rajon as an impact player for this series. The success of the Celtics hinges one whether or no Rajon is playing well on the defensive end and calling out plays. He is not a jump shooter and that is not going to change this series. I love what Eddie house is doing and I would argue Sam I am was playing out of his mind last night.

Problems
Rajon tries to be too fancy
-Crisp textbook passes
-L.A players have tendency to gamble on passes to try and trigger a fast break so make sure to give them a couple ball fakes
-RUN! As Tommy would say.. The Celtics are capable of running a fast break and Rondo is his most dangerous on the open court

Rajon cannot shoot
-There is no hiding this fact.. Rajon will not transform himself into a jump shooter
-Get the ball to Rondo when he is open and get it to him early 14 sec's or less
-Drive to the Basket: Be sure that Garnett is on the block Rondo should draw a defender. Tony Allen was being treated just like Rondo last night he was not afraid to put the ball to the floor and go to the basket
-Take the 3-5 foot bank shot.. They are giving Rondo tons of day light "daring" him to dribble in.. He should get even closer to the basket to take the shot.. Rajon shoots a little better off of the dribble and I think he is pretty good at using the glass.

Defense and Rebounds
If things are not working on one end for Rajon then he should be flying around the other end of the court trying to get turnovers preventing layups and just being a general pest. He should also crash the boards on the defensive end and again once he gets the ball he should be off to the races..

[Who]

Stop playing like an idiot for a start. That would help. What was he thinking out there? Oh my I'm in 15 feet of space with nobody near me so I'm just going to stand out here 21 feet from the rim and take a longer shot for no reason whatsoever. What the heck is that? There's nobody on the Lakers team forcing him to take that shot, absolutely nobody. He could have taken an 18 footer, a 15 footer, a 12 footer, or he could have taken a chance and cut to the basket for a layup or he could have caught the ball and driven to the layup. Instead he takes a 21 footer because why exactly?

Shooting is an issue for him, why is beating himself? That's all he's doing. Beating himself over and over by standing stagnantly in the wrong spots on the floor whenever Kobe doubles off of him.

Get your head in the game Rondo

[DirtyLarry]

That's all well and good, but it sounds like, for whatever reason, you're so desperate to keep Rondo on the floor that you're willing to play into the Lakers hands. Actually, I think they want him on the floor more than you. This is not the time to be worried about the poor kid's fragile ego. The fact is we simply cannot afford to expend a guard position on a player that the other team simply doesn't cover. It reminds me of a high school game where one team is yelling, "Don't cover the fat kid! He can't shoot!"  Pierce beats his guy, spins into the lane, and BAM! There's Kobe just sitting there.  It's not just Rondo's lack of scoring, he hurts everybody else, too. Besides have you seen the expression on his face while he's on the bench?  He looks like Ollie in "Hoosiers" It doesn't exactly look like he's chomping at the bit to get back in.

[crownsy]

hopefully the home crowd, as his playoff splits indicate, will pick him up. to qoute top gun

"young man, you have a confidance problem"

its one thing to brick jumpers, its anotehr to not want to finsh at the rim at all, which he clearly doesn't. Even when he gets thier, he tries a carzy pass out to another player. during the season, he would try to finsh at the rim off a drive, now he automaticaly looks to pass.

Here's hoping the crowd gives him some confidance liek it did in games 1 and 2, because we wont win without him. We need him in teh game playing good defense, and to do that he has to make himself a threat on the offensive end.

as you two pointed out, it doesnt even have to be the jumper, go to the basket young man, you have miles of space to get moving.

[newdusk]

That's all well and good, but it sounds like, for whatever reason, you're so desperate to keep Rondo on the floor that you're willing to play into the Lakers hands. Actually, I think they want him on the floor more than you. This is not the time to be worried about the poor kid's fragile ego. The fact is we simply cannot afford to expend a guard position on a player that the other team simply doesn't cover. It reminds me of a high school game where one team is yelling, "Don't cover the fat kid! He can't shoot!"  Pierce beats his guy, spins into the lane, and BAM! There's Kobe just sitting there.  It's not just Rondo's lack of scoring, he hurts everybody else, too. Besides have you seen the expression on his face while he's on the bench?  He looks like Ollie in "Hoosiers" It doesn't exactly look like he's chomping at the bit to get back in.

You make a fair point. Rondo has not been that big of a liability in the past playoff series though. If Rondo does what he does best then he is playing into no teams hands.

[celticfan10]

I think the league has figured out how to play Rondo on the offensive side, but he could also make adjustments and look to score more.  Our offense at this point in the season takes the ball out of Rondo's hands (and into Paul or Ray's) so that is one of the problems, he can't make plays without the ball.

However, I will say this, there has been a lot of negativity towards Rondo and his lack of a jumpshot here and I think we need to look at him as a young player that is still learning the game.  Look at Tony Parker and Chauncey Billups, neither of them could shoot either...Chauncey didn't shoot the ball over 40% until his 5th year in the league...I think with a summer's worth of baseline jumpers and top of the key jumpers Rondo will improve and this will not be an issue during next year's championship run.

[td450]

Rondo has never had that finely honed instinct some point guards have when breaking down the defense. Almost every game there are one or two plays where he seems to have made up his mind way too early, and he misses an obvious opportunity . In the last game just before he was pulled, he went down the lane and had a wide open, uncontested layup, but inexplicably turned around and threw a dangerous pass out for a three pointer. He then followed it up with a stupid defensive play and he was gone for the game. He looked rattled.

He needs to regain his composure. I know Doc got some decent performances out of other guys, but we need this guy and I don't see how benching him now makes sense, because it adds to his loss of confidence.

He doesn't need to be a better shooter, although that would obviously help. He's a well above average NBA point guard with exceptional speed, and if he gets the ball without a defender in front of him he should be able to drive it down the throat of the defense and either make high percentage shots in close, or get the ball to someone for an easy shot. What he can't do is stand around or be tentative.

Doc can help He can negate a lot of what Kobe is doing by keeping the ball in Rondo's hands more and having him attack Kobe. He can prepare the kid for where to drive when he gets the ball, and who to key off of.

[hpantazo]

what he and sam and eddie need to do is to stop throwing those stupid high arching passes to the post which is like throwing the ball up in the air for grabs

[Redz]

what he and sam and eddie need to do is to stop throwing those stupid high arching passes to the post which is like throwing the ball up in the air for grabs

Goodpoint.  When did that become common practice?  Hate to sound like Tommy, but there are plenty of times when a good ol' bounce would work just fine.

[DirtyLarry]

He doesn't need to be a better shooter, although that would obviously help.



Really?  They're daring him to take 16 foot jump shots (which he won't) and you're not concerned?  Look, I don't want to give up on him and trade him, I know he'll be good some day. But come on, he's a starting point guard on an NBA finals team, Dude.  The inability to shoot routine open shots is not shared by his peers and it is not acceptable at this point in time.
p.s. what about the half dozen free layups he's passed up in this series in order to try some crazy backwards pass?  How many of those will you forgive?

[celticinorlando]

rondo is a different player at home...i expect him to play very well tuesday night.....

[Chief]

He needs to ask Doc if he can come off the bench for game 6.

[Barnabas]

DirtyLarry:"The inability to shoot routine open shots is not shared by his peers and it is not acceptable at this point in time."

That was a mistake by Doc to keep him the game too long.  The offense just seems to go smoother when any other guy besides him is on the floor.  Maybe Rondo should not play in Game 6.  I understand that could hurt his confidence, but folks, this is for the Championship.  There's no guarantee that this team will make it this far next year. 

Rondo is not ready for this moment.  We criticize the Laker bench for lacking experience and not being ready for this moment.  But really, Rondo is not doing any better even though he's been PG for two years.  He probably has more cumulative playing time than some of those guys on the Laker bench. 

[Triboy16]

Stop playing like an idiot for a start. That would help. What was he thinking out there? Oh my I'm in 15 feet of space with nobody near me so I'm just going to stand out here 21 feet from the rim and take a longer shot for no reason whatsoever. What the heck is that? There's nobody on the Lakers team forcing him to take that shot, absolutely nobody. He could have taken an 18 footer, a 15 footer, a 12 footer, or he could have taken a chance and cut to the basket for a layup or he could have caught the ball and driven to the layup. Instead he takes a 21 footer because why exactly?

Shooting is an issue for him, why is beating himself? That's all he's doing. Beating himself over and over by standing stagnantly in the wrong spots on the floor whenever Kobe doubles off of him.

Get your head in the game Rondo

Rondo is a set shooter not a guy who can dribbler in a little and then be set to shoot.
If you think about it not many players in the league can quickly dribble up and nail the jumper in like one motion. maybe ray allen, maybe kobe

u know for me i still really hate the way rondo shoots. Way too many things going on before the ball is actually released usually = bad shots

Rondo i think has tried his recent shooting style this year, it doesn't look bad but its not a shot for him in my eyes. Guys like barbosa , even pj brown have uguly shots but they have a nice chance of going in cuz the shot motion is forward. Rondo has to change his form to shoot finishing forward then fading away .

Somebody has to teach him this simple technique, doc is a moron what can you say

[Jon]

Rondo might be the fastest/quickest player in the league and is certainly the fastest/quickest in this series.  Even when Kobe gives him space, he must look to drive on him.  If he looked to penetrate more, he'd wear Kobe out, get him in foul trouble, and force the Lakers to come off that Kobe roaming bit.