To my eye, Rondo moved just fine, exploded just fine, but when he got to the rim, it was more crowded with defenders who were keying more on him than other players on the court.
So I guess we all hear what we want to hear (it is called confirmation bias).
Well, at least you are willing to admit what you think you saw is nothing more than your own confirmation bias.
I was actually referring to Ainge and Rondo himself who said he was 100% healthy vs. the "experts" who were saying it takes longer to heal.
I don't think Rondo looked gimpy or hampered at all when he played.
Did Rondo ever say anything such as "my knee did not feel quite right last season but I expect it to be better this season"?
I think Rondo will be different but it is more about adjusting to being on a bad team. He will look to score more but will probably be less efficient. Teams are going to focus on stopping Rondo like they did last year.
I hope I am wrong. I would love to see Rondo come back and be able to shoot well enough that teams actually are worried about him shooting vs. just sagging off him. I think he will continue to have more difficulty scoring at the rim (if he doesn't establish his shot) because teams will be looking to stop that. He is going to need to establish his outside shot like a pitcher needs to establish his off-speed pitches to keep the hitters from sitting on fast-balls. Defenses last year were "sitting on" Rondo driving to the hoop. They weren't worried about him shooting and they weren't worried about anyone else. It is a really easy defensive scheme to stop the Celtics best player.