Up to the point where Rondo got injured, he was not having his best year.
It happens.
It doesn't mean it is a trend.
Actually, I think statistically he WAS having his best year, wasn't he?
He shot better.
But his assist to TO ratio was worse.
He was foul rate was up. And other teams PGs were having better luck this season.
Yeah, overall though his improved shooting probably made up for the first two aspects.
The drop off in his defense was more problematic.
Opposing PG production hard to disentangle that from Terry being in the starting line up. Terry would go on the weakest offensive threat the other team had (if they had a Bogans type), or the PG if none really fit the bill.
Not true. For example, Terry was the player guarding Monta Ellis.
We usually didn't do any cross matching, Terry stayed with SGs and Rondo with PGs, when logic should've dictated the should've switched assignments most of the time.
I remember Rondo generally playing the tougher assignment when he was in with Terry. Switching assignments was fairly typical earlier this year (and late this year with Bradley playing).
When he was on the floor with Rondo, very rarely did they put Terry on the PG assignment. I really can't recall an instance in which Rondo's assignment was not the PG. I do recall though screaming for Doc to constantly change the assignments as Terry was simply overmatched by SGs, and Doc refused to put Rondo on them.
Of course, a play here and there, a pick is set and they switched in those instances, but I can't recall a game in which Doc assigned Terry to the PG while Rondo was on the floor.
In fact, I give credit to the improvement to Terry's defense specifically to finally him guarding PGs rather than SGs.
Edit: But the Bogans point above is completely true, but nothing to do with Rondo though. That one has more to do with Pierce on Joe Johnson than anything.
Off the top of my head I know Rondo spent much of the opening game guarding Wade. He also spent a lot of time guarding Harden when we were in Houston, he spent much of at least one of the Bucks games on Ellis, he spent much of at least 1 game on Hamilton, he guarded Stuckey a lot instead of Knight.
I'm pretty sure Wade played plenty of PG minutes in that game, and I think Wade was guarding Rondo in turn.
Houston was one of the few games I didn't manage to watch.
Don't see the point of mentioning Stuckey and Knight, Knight is a better offensive player at the moment, and starting ahead of Stuckey, and having a more succesful season so far. Plus, Stuckey plays PG too.
Hamilton I don't recall the circumstances exactly. He was destroying everyone in the post if I recall correctly, so it could've been just a matter of trying something different.
In any case, the point in all of this is that there was never a plan to put Rondo on the toughest match-up, on the best offensive player. Did he occasionally end up doing so? Sure, but that's true for just about everyone in the league and the team.
It's not like when you put Bradley in there who pretty much automatically either goes to the biggest threat, or goes to the PG to disrupt the offense. That wasn't the dynamic being played when Rondo and Terry were together.