Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics
Three years, $35.9 million
Celtics presient Danny Ainge was able to lock up Rondo on a long deal at a good rate, but the abstract value of his contract isn’t quite as spectacular as some would have you believe. Even if we overlook the justifiable concern over how the 27-year-old point guard might recover from an ACL tear (and the portion of this deal eaten up by his rehabilitation), Rondo is an incredibly particular talent who requires specific conditions to be successful. That doesn’t make him any less of a star, or any less valuable if we weigh talent directly against payout. But when you take into account Rondo’s complete unwillingness to score, his deliberate pass-hunting, his slumping defense, his difficult personality and his lack of three-point range, this contract begins to look considerably more fair.
Good players with so many caveats to their games are often best served by slimmer deals, as they allow a team to build around them with the appropriate kinds of pieces. Still, those considerations can’t come close to offsetting what Rondo provides as a playmaker or his potential to dominate a game with his penetration, defense (when disciplined) and rebounding.
Congratulations to the author for an honest, accurate appraisal above.
Haha, I was thinking how sad it was that he was just throwing together nonsense he'd read on the internet about Rondo without giving a second's thought to whether it was accurate or not. "Rondo is an incredibly particular talent who requires specific conditions to be successful" sounds like an accurate appraisal if you can't spot any differences in offensive ability or style of play between Ray and Bradley or between Bass and Shaq and Perk. Otherwise it's obviously nonsense.
Rondo hasn't been equally successful with all of these players. Unless, of course, you measure success in individual stats.
Not identically successful with all of those players, but he's been successful with all of them. Pick the specific players out of those groups that he needs to play with in order to be successful, I'll show you that he's been successful playing with other types of players. It's total nonsense.
All the talk about Rondo needing 3 HOFers to be successful was nonsense. All the talk about him needing great shooters like Ray to be successful was nonsense. All the talk about his needing bigs who were good outside shooters to space the floor? Hogwash. People come up with reasons why Rondo's play is a fluke that sound great in their heads but are completely unrelated to reality. Other people think the explanations sound good and repeat them, and sooner or later they're seen as fact. Kind of like "Tony Allen will never get much playing time in Memphis" or "a team that finishes a season 27-27 has zero chance of making any noise in the playoffs".
Topic: Best bargain contracts in the NBA according to SI (KG and RR make the list) (Read 2327 times)