Rondo's guard defense is shameful at the moment.

[jdz101]

I will start with a disclaimer: I like rondo and he is one of the better players in the league. He can also play excellent defense.

That said, right now Rondo's guard defense sucks something horrible. There is no other way to say it.

• He stands up straight, not even getting into a proper defensive position half the time.
• He gets a pretty feeble semi-screen set on him and instead of working to get over the screen he will immediately switch, putting the defense in a mismatch situation.
• Due to his poor stance, he doesn't cover penetration very well, either giving up an open layup or forcing the bigs/wings to help on the opposition point guard, opening up easy dunks or 3s for the opposition. (this was seen pretty clearly with ridnour and barea today.)
• He will let his guard breeze by him with the hope of slapping the ball away from behind, usually giving up further easy offense.

Ill elaborate to explain how important this is.

Opposition Point Guard Totals Against Rondo

Mario Chalmers - 8 Points   (Above his average) [LOSS]
Brandon Jennings - 21 Points    (Above his average) [LOSS]
AJ Price - 8 points (His average) [WIN]
AJ Price - 15 points (Double his average) [WIN]
Jrue Holiday - 21 points (Above his average) [LOSS]
Brandon Jennings - 4 points (Well below his average) [WIN]
Nate Robinson - 11 points (His average) [WIN]
Mo Williams - 14 points (His average) [WIN]
Jose Calderon - 10 points (His average) [WIN]
Brandon Knight - 6 points (Below his average) [LOSS]
Tony Parker - 26 points (Above his average) [LOSS]
Russell Westbrook - 26 points (Above his average) [WIN]
Jameer Nelson - 20 points (Above his average) [WIN]
Luke Ridnour - 11 points (His average) [WIN]

14 games rondo has played (not counting the brooklyn fight)

11 of these games the opposition point guards have scored their average points total or above.

Of the 5 losses in this sample, 4 times the opposition point guard have scored over their average.

To sum up, basically, Rondo needs to play better defense. When he plays lazy defense on his opposite number, it correlates pretty strongly to the celtics losing the basketball game. We are playing Jrue Holiday twice in the next two games. For the celtics to take these next two, rondo has to switch on.

[bfrombleacher]

Correlation does not imply causation.

But yes, I wish he'd play better D because he totally can.

It's a vicious cycle though. Rondo saves energy on D to play 40 a game but the bad D he plays leads to him needing to play more minutes.

Hopefully Bradley's return inspires Rondo in addition to reducing the minutes Rondo needs to play.

[blink]

I agree.  Rondo was bad on D tonight, and has been pretty average all year on D in my eyes.  He lost his man on 2 or 3 straight possessions that was all just court awareness tonight. 

I wish he would abandon the matador defensive approach for a more straight forward stay in between your man and the basket approach.  Less penetration means fewer switches and better defense overall.

I think the reason we all harp on Rondo when he isn't playing stellar D is that we have seen him be so outstanding at times.  More flip switching I guess.  And I am in the 'Rondo is a top 2 point guard in the league' club.

[ScottHow]

We know the drill with Rondo by now. He will give 100% effort on both sides in the playoffs. If that means he has to coast on D during the season, I'll take the trade.

[jdz101]

We know the drill with Rondo by now. He will give 100% effort on both sides in the playoffs. If that means he has to coast on D during the season, I'll take the trade.

That's not going to be good enough if we end up the 7th or 8th seed.

He needs to improve.

[Kane3387]

The guy expends so much energy on offense for this team now that it only makes sense that it would show up on the defensive end.

[Fafnir]

Rondo's been bad about going through screens from what I've seen. I don't really have a problem with his overall defense though.

As for your correlation, I don't think you've shown it exists. Mostly because the data you work with isn't really indicative of how well Rondo's been playing on defense. Quick example I remember Jameer going off on Barbosa and not Rondo, so I went and looked at the play by play.

Jameer scored 11 points on 4-5 shooting while Barbosa was in, his one miss was blocked by Lee. While Rondo was in he scored 9 points on 4-12 shooting with 1-1 fta (a foul he drew on Rondo)

That's just one example, I'm sure other games the majority of the points are scored when Rondo is on the opposing PG. My point is that just looking at the point totals of opposing point guards is a poor way to determine things.

http://www.82games.com/1213/1213BOS5.HTM

Opposing PGs don't pop out as what's killing us. Instead its basically been opposing PFs along with shaking production at SG.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Rondo's been bad about going through screens from what I've seen. I don't really have a problem with his overall defense though.

As for your correlation, I don't think you've shown it exists. Mostly because the data you work with isn't really indicative of how well Rondo's been playing on defense. Quick example I remember Jameer going off on Barbosa and not Rondo, so I went and looked at the play by play.

Jameer scored 11 points on 4-5 shooting while Barbosa was in, his one miss was blocked by Lee. While Rondo was in he scored 9 points on 4-12 shooting with 1-1 fta (a foul he drew on Rondo)

That's just one example, I'm sure other games the majority of the points are scored when Rondo is on the opposing PG. My point is that just looking at the point totals of opposing point guards is a poor way to determine things.

http://www.82games.com/1213/1213BOS5.HTM

Opposing PGs don't pop out as what's killing us. Instead its basically been opposing PFs along with shaking production at SG.

Part of the problem with Rondo and PG's is not the production of the PGs per se, but that it forces our bigs to over-help to stop penetration or a layup.

[D.o.s.]

Rondo's been bad about going through screens from what I've seen. I don't really have a problem with his overall defense though.

As for your correlation, I don't think you've shown it exists. Mostly because the data you work with isn't really indicative of how well Rondo's been playing on defense. Quick example I remember Jameer going off on Barbosa and not Rondo, so I went and looked at the play by play.

Jameer scored 11 points on 4-5 shooting while Barbosa was in, his one miss was blocked by Lee. While Rondo was in he scored 9 points on 4-12 shooting with 1-1 fta (a foul he drew on Rondo)

That's just one example, I'm sure other games the majority of the points are scored when Rondo is on the opposing PG. My point is that just looking at the point totals of opposing point guards is a poor way to determine things.

http://www.82games.com/1213/1213BOS5.HTM

Opposing PGs don't pop out as what's killing us. Instead its basically been opposing PFs along with shaking production at SG.

Part of the problem with Rondo and PG's is not the production of the PGs per se, but that it forces our bigs to over-help to stop penetration or a layup.

Agreed. And that's particularly problematic when A) KG isn't on the floor, and B) you've got guys like Bass who aren't great help defenders.

[Yogi]

I prescribe a dose of "watch any other point guard play defense."  Rondo does get tired and get beat occasionally, but you only remember the times when he gets beat and not the many many more times he doesn't.  He's a fantastic defender.

[action781]

I wish he would abandon the matador defensive approach for a more straight forward stay in between your man and the basket approach.  Less penetration means fewer switches and better defense overall.

This has been the defensive approach he has been guilty of on many cases not just this season, but throughout his career.  It's very annoying to me b/c he can't get away with that against a lot of the top PGs in the game like Rose and Westbrook who seem to torch him.  Granted, I understand that nobody can just shut these players down, but its inexcusable for a "first team NBA defender" (as many people claim) to routinely allow these players to score above their average.

He certainly has the ability and has shown that against the likes of Chris Paul and Deron Williams in recent matchups.  He just needs to bring it consistently. 

[action781]

Rondo's been bad about going through screens from what I've seen. I don't really have a problem with his overall defense though.

As for your correlation, I don't think you've shown it exists. Mostly because the data you work with isn't really indicative of how well Rondo's been playing on defense. Quick example I remember Jameer going off on Barbosa and not Rondo, so I went and looked at the play by play.

Jameer scored 11 points on 4-5 shooting while Barbosa was in, his one miss was blocked by Lee. While Rondo was in he scored 9 points on 4-12 shooting with 1-1 fta (a foul he drew on Rondo)

That's just one example, I'm sure other games the majority of the points are scored when Rondo is on the opposing PG. My point is that just looking at the point totals of opposing point guards is a poor way to determine things.

http://www.82games.com/1213/1213BOS5.HTM

Opposing PGs don't pop out as what's killing us. Instead its basically been opposing PFs along with shaking production at SG.

What's really concerning is noticing that opposing centers put up a higher PER than ours.  I guess KG only playing 29mpg has something to do with that.  But still concerning that all the positives that KG bring are basically undone when KG comes out.

[jdz101]

I prescribe a dose of "watch any other point guard play defense."  Rondo does get tired and get beat occasionally, but you only remember the times when he gets beat and not the many many more times he doesn't.  He's a fantastic defender.

He hasnt been fantastic this year. I've watched every single game he's played and many other games other point guards have and they dont give away anywhere near as much penetration on D as rondo does.

As for your correlation, I don't think you've shown it exists.
Jameer scored 11 points on 4-5 shooting while Barbosa was in, his one miss was blocked by Lee. While Rondo was in he scored 9 points on 4-12 shooting with 1-1 fta (a foul he drew on Rondo)

That's just one example, I'm sure other games the majority of the points are scored when Rondo is on the opposing PG. My point is that just looking at the point totals of opposing point guards is a poor way to determine things.

http://www.82games.com/1213/1213BOS5.HTM

Opposing PGs don't pop out as what's killing us. Instead its basically been opposing PFs along with shaking production at SG.

A good point. I didnt want to spend hours and hours on analysis.

To address your point though, you dig deeper into jrue holiday's stats in the game against philly and not only does he have 21 points but he also has 14 assists....Both he and rondo spent most of the time on the court, 41 minutes each.

[xmuscularghandix]

We know the drill with Rondo by now. He will give 100% effort on both sides in the playoffs. If that means he has to coast on D during the season, I'll take the trade.

That's not going to be good enough if we end up the 7th or 8th seed.

He needs to improve.

Exactly, he's the first line of defense. His coasting is costing the team wins because of the ripple effect. His teammates are being forced to pickup fouls that shouldn't happen.

[scaryjerry]

this is why Bradley is such a good fit with rondo. I'm bored with rondos defense sucks threads.