Rondo is too much of a liability without the basketball to adapt to the Freedom Offense. He's not a legit threat to knock down open shots... we couldn't play this way with Rondo.
Everyone clearly has a different point of view on this but I agree 100% with LarBrd33. Although you tend to see stretches where Rondo just works the ball more but it seems to always revert back to the norm of Rondo dribbling and waiting for a pass that can result in an assist.
One thing I notice that the coach could fix is after a defensive rebound, if Rondo is on the court, they always give him the ball and he dribbles it the rest of the way, always. Without Rondo, they just seem to let whoever advance the ball and tend to pass more. It seems like they have been told to get Rondo the ball.
Rondo is dangerous as a passer in this situation but I would prefer to see them just taking what is there and let Rondo end up with the ball only when that is a more natural result (vs. always forcing the ball to him).
The defenses though sag off Rondo once you get in a play set situation. Rondo then seems to fall into the trap of not wanting to shoot and not being pressured so he just dribbles and looks. It is a self sustaining cycle that is the result of Rondo not being a shooting threat that the other team is worried about.
If Rondo passes the ball, his man just goes off and doubles. I guess when Rondo is on the floor, we are probably better off with the ball in his hands and his man sagging vs. Rondo not having the ball and his man doubling whoever does have the ball. Thus the the cycle continues of Rondo holding the ball, dribbling, waiting......