Rajon Rondo = BJ Armstrong.

[Edgar]

I thought we won in spite of him.

You should watch some games sometime if this is what you think.

i will agree with the answer

[dark_lord]

with the level of play he demonstrated last year, isnt it possible he is simply in a slump?!  if not in a slump, he may be injured.  the guy has been taking a beating early on this season.

im sure he will bounce back.

[arctic 3.0]

i trust rondo, he earned that last year.

[Scribbles]

Was at the game last night and paid attention to Rondo. Was out about an hour before the game shooting with Clifford Ray.  He misses alot with the half hearted arm in the face by Ray.  Another I never realized is that he's really, really tiny.  Listed at 6-1 is a bunch of BS.  I thought he they gave him an inch and he was still 6 feet, but he's more around 5'10.  That makes it difficult to get a shot off in this league.  During lay up lines and such he looks like it doesn't matter, as if there are other things on his mind other than basketball, personal issues perhaps we don't know of?  He missed a few lay ups and it didnt seem to phase him.  Leon Powe missed a lay up, and then grabbed the ball after he missed and laid it back in.  That's what Rondo should be doing when he misses. 

During the game his defense looks far worse than last season.  I don't think its an injury either because he looks just as quick moving as he does on tv.  When he was guarding Ridnour he was late several times on his close outs giving Ridnour open looks.  He did a decent job on Sessions but even he scored on him a few times. He also had some stupid fouls in the first half that were just because he wasn't moving his feet.  He had a play near the end of the game when he had a reverse lay up and kicked it out to Scal.  He should have shot the lay up. 

Like I've stated before I never thought he'd be an all star but he's a starting point guard that gets the job done.  This year he hasn't shown me much to back that up now.  Slump or not I was disappointed by his attitude and how he carried himself.  We don't know the whole story so I'm going to hope its just a slump, but I'm not sure if there's another issue he's dealing with or he's letting the slump get to him. 

[rondilla]

Rondo needs picks set for him. When he gets them he gets into the paint. When he doesn't, it makes it much more difficult. I don't know how much more I can take of Donny and Tommy commenting on how effective Rondo is when he gets into the paint, while completely ignoring how him getting into the paint is almost always preceded by a pick being set for him. When the kid drives without the aid of a pick, not only is it harder for him to score, but his teammates have the unfortunate habit of making like statues which makes creating for them pretty hard. The act of setting him the pick gets everyone on the same page.

In addition to that he actually needs the ball in his hands a lot more. He is our best ball handler and passer, and we are team plagued by turnovers. That should be a no brainer, but evidently this has slipped past Doc. I consider it a minor miracle that the kid is averaging as many assists as he is. No one anywhere near him on the league leader list has the ball taken away from him by his own coach as much as Rondo does.

Doc whines about "execution". Call me crazy, but when you have three Hall of Famers on the court, who all average over 20 ppg for their careers, and you still aren't scoring points efficiently, then maybe the offensive scheme is the problem.

Regarding his lack of aggression, I was watching Eric Snow on NBA.TV after our victory against the Pistons. He commented, in depth, about how the Pistons were using A.I. in a passive manner on the offensive end, and how that was translating into passive basketball from A.I. This was Allen "Bubba Chuck" Iverson he was talking about, the league's most notorious gunner and a long time vet. I find it interesting that people here are wondering at our 22 year old point guard's aggression level when on the vast majority of possessions he is handing the ball off and being excluded from what is happening on the court. He's either on the weakside (not being passed to) or on the baseline (not being passed to). Meanwhile his teammates are turning the ball over and generating bad shots.

Having Paul and Ray run the offense isn't working, and it never really worked that well anyways. It was inconsistent last season, and horrific this season. Let those guys concentrate on doing what they do best, which is score the rock. Let the kid, who is a much better passer and ball handler than them anyways, run the offense and do the table setting. I'm fine with working the ball into Ray and Paul so that they can take advantage of a mismatch, or when they are hot. I'm not OK with them running the offense, especially in the case of Ray. Ray is a solid passer and handler at the 2, but when he tried to run the offense he ends up dribbling the air out of the ball.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I thought we won in spite of him.

You should watch some games sometime if this is what you think.

i will agree with the answer

Oh I'm pretty sure I've watched all the games. And Rondo was during the playoffs by far the weakest link. Scratch that, it probably was Sam, but Rondo wasn't far behind.

[Edgar]

I thought we won in spite of him.

You should watch some games sometime if this is what you think.

i will agree with the answer

Oh I'm pretty sure I've watched all the games. And Rondo was during the playoffs by far the weakest link. Scratch that, it probably was Sam, but Rondo wasn't far behind.

okis u know i am not going after the u dont see a game
i am just saying
last year rondo is NOT this year rondo

[cordobes]

If now Rondo needs picks to break down his man, we may as well start playing Sam. Rondo is turning over the ball more than Ray.

He also had some stupid fouls in the first half that were just because he wasn't moving his feet.

Yeps, that's what is making me more worried. He's playing lackadaisical individual defense, reaching and gambling at every chance. 

[OriginalODb]

I remember reading Bill Simmons saying that the only players that could reach Rondo were Ray and Sam. Maybe there was more truth to that than we thought. Maybe they are having a tougher time reaching him now that hes got a ring. I think Rondo's pretty stuborn, remember Pierce talking about how he almost got in a fight with Rondo at the end of last season.

Maybe he just needs to mature a bit more, he probably should have a kid seeing how it worked for the rest of the team last year.

Hopefully he just has a nagging injury. admittedly I have missed some of the games this year but it seems like the big three are pretty much freezing him out on a lot of plays after he gives up the ball

[Scribbles]

I remember reading Bill Simmons saying that the only players that could reach Rondo were Ray and Sam. Maybe there was more truth to that than we thought. Maybe they are having a tougher time reaching him now that hes got a ring. I think Rondo's pretty stuborn, remember Pierce talking about how he almost got in a fight with Rondo at the end of last season.

Maybe he just needs to mature a bit more, he probably should have a kid seeing how it worked for the rest of the team last year.

Hopefully he just has a nagging injury. admittedly I have missed some of the games this year but it seems like the big three are pretty much freezing him out on a lot of plays after he gives up the ball

This is very true he rubs me off as a stubborn player.  Maybe he has become content with winning a ring and now its just about collecting the pay check?  I hope not. I just saw a video on youtube where he was getting interviewed and the reporter asks, why did you take number nine?  He responded, I wanted four but Gomes had it last year.  The reporter then joked not because of Tony Parker, and Rondo responds, hell no, hell no. The look on his face looked as though he was insulted at that.  Umm last time I checked Rondo, Tony's way better than you by a land slide.  That really rubbed me the wrong way how he handled that. *note the interview was last year when they were in the finals.*

[BudweiserCeltic]

I thought we won in spite of him.

You should watch some games sometime if this is what you think.

i will agree with the answer

Oh I'm pretty sure I've watched all the games. And Rondo was during the playoffs by far the weakest link. Scratch that, it probably was Sam, but Rondo wasn't far behind.

okis u know i am not going after the u dont see a game
i am just saying
last year rondo is NOT this year rondo

I was responding to the post you were quoting, but since I couldn't find it, you were the next best thing.

And I'm with you, last year's Rondo is NOT this year's Rondo. So far, this year's Rondo has been worse. Thing is, that Rondo was pretty good during the season last year, he simply crapped out in the playoffs. Which is understandable, but it is what it is. This year he's been quite bad during the season.

If now Rondo needs picks to break down his man, we may as well start playing Sam. Rondo is turning over the ball more than Ray.

He also had some stupid fouls in the first half that were just because he wasn't moving his feet.

Yeps, that's what is making me more worried. He's playing lackadaisical individual defense, reaching and gambling at every chance. 

I said this last year quite a few times, but I think his main defensive problem is his defensive posture rather than effort (though I think he hasn't been putting much of an effort through stretches this year). If you see, he's almost always guarding standing up, instead of bending his knees and sliding. He's always running behind his man, instead of keeping himself in front of him, with knees bent and legs spread apart.

He's always reaching pretty much out of need, because he frequently gets beat. I don't have a problem with him gambling. The only problem with his gambling is that he usually gets good results, which gives the perception that he's a great defender when he isn't. As long as he gambles and then puts in the effort to recover, he should be fine. He has the quickness to make it so.

[CoachBo]

Well, it goes without saying that his game has not made the progress I would have hoped after a championship. His offense, if anything, has regressed and as Cordobes points out, that seems to be wearing on the parts of his game one thought they could count on.

Not unusual for a young player to "get satisfied" after a championship. Could well be that a wakeup call is necessary.

[Bankshot]

Well, it goes without saying that his game has not made the progress I would have hoped after a championship. His offense, if anything, has regressed and as Cordobes points out, that seems to be wearing on the parts of his game one thought they could count on.

Not unusual for a young player to "get satisfied" after a championship. Could well be that a wakeup call is necessary.

What would that wakeup call be?  Benching?  Give some of his minutes to Pruitt if he continues this play?  Not sure how Doc would handle it, but something needs to be done.

Is it possible that he is hurt?

[ForexPirate]

there are no excuses for his play - he is half a point guard that will need to find an offensive game to open the court for his running mates.

until he does, doc should bring in Pruitt but he won't because he is afraid of the point guard controversy that would cause.

doc is just not a good judge of talent which is why he was always surprised by players like Powe and Gomes who were forced into service and tore it up.  I am sure that Pruitt will tear it up as well.

Playing Pruitt will require us to shift everyone on the seond team up.  House become SG, Tony becomes SF, then maybe we go small ball and play Paul at the PF and Powe at center (if Pierce needs to be on the floor with the second unit).  Of course McDyess would be a nice fit here.   

[rondilla]

If now Rondo needs picks to break down his man, we may as well start playing Sam. Rondo is turning over the ball more than Ray.

He also had some stupid fouls in the first half that were just because he wasn't moving his feet.

Yeps, that's what is making me more worried. He's playing lackadaisical individual defense, reaching and gambling at every chance. 

I find it interesting that Rondo is being accused of turning the ball over a lot when he has the fewest turnovers of any starter. Here are the assist, turnover and assist to turnover ratios for the starters.

Pierce 3.9 apg, 3.0 topg, 1.3 a:to

Allen 2.5 apg, 2.4 topg, 1.08 a:to

Garnett 2.0 apg, 2.6 topg, 0.76 a:to

Perkins 1.2 apg, 2.4 topg, .5 a:to

and of course...

Rondo 6.6 apg, 2.2 topg, 3.04 a:to

Hmmm... So Rondo is turning the ball over too much? How about the assist to turnover ratio's of the guys on our bench?

House 1.43

T. Allen 0.64

Powe 0.59

Scal 1.0

Davis 1.50

A correct assessment would be that almost EVERYONE on this team is a turnover machine EXCEPT Rondo. Doc is taking the ball out of his hands and putting it into the hands of guys who can't hold onto it, or make consistent unintercepted passes from what I can see.

When Glen Davis is second on the team in assist to turnover ratio, something is seriously wrong. When guys like Garnett and Allen are coughing the ball up the way that they are, something is seriously wrong. This isn't just happening when Rondo isn't on the court "not spacing the offense". It is turnover city when Eddie is out there. Why? Well Rondo isn't out there actually taking care of the ball 20% of the time, so what you have is one more guy to cough it up instead.

I actually find that this thread being begun after the Denver game to quite interesting. Was it just me, or did anyone else notice that the Nuggs were doubling off of Eddie? Why? They knew that if you attacked our wings (the guys who actually run this offense) out on the perimeter that Eddie probably wouldn't even get the ball. The Nuggs were right. Eddie spent a lot opf his time waving his arms on the weakside while our "playmakers" were getting their butts handed to them.

The kid needs the ball to be effective anyways, and isn't like anyone else is showing me ANYTHING regarding their suitability in this area. Set him picks. Let him be who he is. That is actually a good thing.