Rajon Rondo Discussion: He's A Cleveland Cavalier

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hard to evaluate his game last night. big assists jump out of the box. some timely plays down the stretch. but he had a big part in making the game a lot closer than it should have been with some seriously horrific defense (gentry was just isolating scrubs on him...disrespectful and effective) and terrible shooting.

 

I just don't understand why we resort to Lebron iso ball down the stretch when Rondo was doing really well just probing the paint and moving the ball.

We squander leads because we can't get a good shot off going through Lebron or Ingram.

Stick to the game plan and go with what's working.

 

Welcome "back" Rondo.

I still think the mentorship to Zo was worth the signing..but goddamn we need you to stay healthy enough till Zo gets ankle...uh, back.

Speaking of which, ditch the BBBs and get into some Kobe Protros already.

 

he had a good gm when it comes to "asst hunting" but good god is he an absolute matador on D....he's the pg ver. of KCP, every other play his guy just gets to the rim with ease or gets to rim and creates an easy look for someone else cause one of our guys has to come help of their man to stop Rondo guys penetration.

 

With reports of a stiff back, coming off the bench is the worst thing for him and for us.

Looked better offensively. Assists and paint probing was a boost. Defense... well, at least he can read the court and get a couple steals. He knows what to do, just can't currently or anymore. KCP is utterly clueless, so I don't think he's that bad.

 

While Rondo is not playing good defense, I think is one is partly on the coaching staff. Lots of good teams have average to bad defensive PGs - like Curry, for example. No point guard with the current ruleset is going to consistently stop dribble penetration, especially out of a PnR situation. It's up to the other guys to be on the same page so they can help and rotate effectively.

Against good teams with good spacing, even that may result in giving up an open 3. But you can mess around with rotations to ensure that the lowest % shooter is the one who's open, and force them to hit those to win the game.

 

he wasn't just getting beat by dribble penetration, did you see how many times the guy he was guarding would cut to the basket w/o the ball for easy layups?

 

I'd play Caruso over this matador defender.

 

He took 12 (and made 4) threes... the most for either team.

 

guess he's not stayin

 

I take back this ignorant statement I made earlier. Rondo's defense is horrible. And our defensive coaching sucks too. Combine both and you have our current defensive rating since Lonzo's injury, which I believe is last.

 

Agree?

 

Much ado about nothing...

Its going to be a crawl till the summer. Can't come soon enough, so we can right this ship.

 

It's a big deal because the media is trying to force this "Laker catastrophe" narrative down our throats.

We get it, we suck. We're not stupid.

As far as Rondo goes, he's been on and off this season. When he's fully engaged, his ability to lead the offense masks a lot of his defensive woes, and gets the offense going. But most times we've watched him be forced into jumpers and play matador defense. I'd still take him on a room exception or minimum deal, but that's it.

 

@lakerfan2 Thats exactly my point and I'm relieved some folks still see it that way.

The negativity around this team is ridiculous. Many of us have tuned out cause it is painful to watch. But the following day has a new headline and loaded image where the vets just don't give a F anymore. If you don't do the due diligence and research it, you buy into the hate mongering.

I'll say this much...if the mercenary vets are looking out only for themselves, then why not seek a buyout, double-dip on another team and go ring-chase where your potential to increase your bag this summer improves with more playoff exposure? Yet none of them pushed to do that before the March 1st deadline.

If they were too hard headed and thought they could reach the playoffs here, then they would have made more of a stink via the media about Luke not giving them more minutes to make that push.

We heard that part of the element to the Zu deal was because McGee wanted more minutes.

Before trade deadline: McGee 21.6mins per vs Zu's 15.6 mins per
After: McGee is at 18.7mins per

Clearly the Zu trade was not to get a moping McGee more mins. Yet the media wants to make it where our vets (led by Bron) are casting out the youth.