I have heard a rather large number of absurd Rondo arguments and statements this week so I thought I should address them all and deal with them in one place. Feel free to add your own
Rondo was never that good a player: No actually he was. He was a 4 time all star and a 4 time all defensive player. His rivalry with Derrick Rose was epic at one point. He was absolutely a great player. There are only two other players in NBA history to have 29,18, and 13 in a playoff game….Wilt and Oscar Robertson.
Rondo was a good player but isn’t any more/We are a better team without him: Please explain how a bad point guard leads the league in assists and all pgs in rebounds and (I’m just guessing) trip dubs? Magic? Many players have come back from injuries and Rondo is one of them. Now we have a situation where we'll win less rebounding battles and when players get open they won't get the ball.
Rondo’s shooting is a horrific problem: Rondo’s shooting is unfortunate right now, but this is nothing new and somewhat understandable when a whole defense is aimed at stopping you when you are the best player on your team. Rondo is well aware of his bad shooting, which is why he is PASS FIRST! And just in case he misses his shot he REBOUNDS IT, which is something we all wish Jeff Green and KO would do a little more of. This is a recent example of how good a passer Rondo is in making up for his lack of great shooting. In the 2012-13 season Rondo ended the year in late January due to his ACL injury. He played 38 games that year. Here are the guys that he STILL had more assists than…..Ricky Rubio, Darren Collison, Jameer Nelson, John Wall, Ray Felton, Paul Pierce, Nate Robinson, George Hill, D Wade, Kyrie Irving, Steve Nash, Isaiah Thomas, Kirk Heinrich, Luke Ridnour, Brandon Knight, Mario Chalmers, Jason Kidd, Eric Bledsoe….when you see the stats you see lots of these guys playing like 28 minutes a game for like 75 games or something and they couldn’t do what Rondo did in 38, in some of the later cases missing him by over a 100 assists. Rondo does with assists what guys like Russell or Wilt did with rebounding or blocking.
Rondo is a diva: Good. So was MJ and Bird and KG and lots of the best players. And there are some coach divas. The only people this is a problem for is the media, but for some reason when Bill Belichik does it they swoon over him. When Kobe or Bron do it they swoon over them. When Bird did it and MJ did it they swooned over them. But for some reason Rondo gets the hate. Secondly he still has a good relationship with Doc, which strongly implies his coaches at least find things to like about him. Perhaps his competitiveness or the way he has high standards.
Rondo is such a diva he was a bad leader, especially for such a young team: Really? Was he a bad leader when he was playing with a partially torn ACL? Was he such a bad leader when he was playing with a dislocated elbow and he got 11 assists and 4 points in the 4th quarter in the playoffs?
Was he such a bad leader when he became the first Celtic since Bird in 1986 to get two triple doubles in a playoff series? Or the first NBA player with three triple doubles in a series since J Kidd in 2002?
Rondo was definitely leaving in free agency so we just haaaaadddd to get sooommmeeethhhinnngg for him: So many problems with this one. One is that it was unclear if he was leaving. He wanted to go through free agency. That’s how you get the biggest offer. It’s also how you find out what people think about you and if I were Rondo I would definitely want to know what people thought of me. When Rondo went to free agency the first time did he leave? Did he make huge demands? No. He signed a team friendly long term deal. We had the most to offer him. We could show him the love the most. Doc Rivers was recently quoted as saying Rondo didn’t know what he wanted. Does that sound like a guy that wants to leave so bad? This is what Bird rights are for. It’s so you have the leverage, which we did. Use it. Say to the player “Fine. Go find a team you want to play for that wants you and will pay you what you want. We’ll have the biggest offer for you right here where the fans love you”. You say to other teams “We’re gonna offer him more money than anyone and we like him a lot so if you want him you gotta pay for him”. Didn’t anyone see Chris Moneymaker stare down Sammy Farha? Come on. If you have some nice relic like a civil war rifle and you’re a bit down on your luck and your neighbor offers you $50 for it and you know it’s worth a grand you keep it. Or you put it on a ebay and if the offers aren’t good you keep it. Keeping is a legit thing to do. Selling lower than Death Valley isn’t. If he was so terrible than we could keep him for not a lot of money. If he was so good we should have gotten more for him.
Brandon Wright will be a good player. We need a shot blocker: He’s a free agent at the end of the year just like Rondo and he’s Brandon Wright. This isn’t Dikembe Mutumbo we’re talking about here.
Marcus Smart is obviously going to be a great point guard: This is far from clear. He is also not such a great shooter. And he’s not as good a passer or rebounder. He had the whole off season to improve his shot and it didn’t happen. He is a fine prospect but he is far from a sure thing. He isn’t showing even 30% of what Victor Oladipo or MCW did last year. Or Trey Burke.
That pick from the Mavs could help us: What if the Mavs win the championship next year? You just traded Rondo for JR Giddens. Good trade? Oh. Maybe the pick will be in 20s? Hello Juwan Johnson or Fab Melo. We could have gotten a pick at any point we traded him and we have like a trillion picks right now. We need elite players, not picks.
But we got a trade exception!
Great. Maybe we can trade for someone leading the league in assists and rebounds at their position known for superior toughness…oh ….wait.
Other GMs weren't offering anything for Rondo because they know he isn't very good: No. They didn't offer anything for him because they were cowardly and because they knew he would be a free agent at the end of the year and could walk. So finally a GM with guts stared Ainge down into giving him up for nothing. They all fell into the same trap as Ainge. The "Ooohhh nooooo! He coouuuldd walk away! And then I'd have nothing!" trap. Either you try to get and keep the best players or you become some terrible team like Philly or the 90s Clippers. Shoulda tried to keep a great player and let the money come off the books if he left. Possibly still coulda done a sign and trade and gotten something if he left.
Point is….Rondo was and is an elite player at his position who puts up elite statistics, who might have signed here and that we could have gotten more for in a trade. Ainge got hosed. Cuban is his daddy.
Topic: Addressing all the Rondo revisionism (Read 16018 times)