Rajon Rondo Discussion: He's A Cleveland Cavalier

I think we are stuck with Rondo. Sigh

 

He showed up BIG

 

Playoff Rondo says “thank you“.

 

Played his former team, so he had extra motivation

 

If only he could always play against Boston or CP3.

Great game (+15) in a wire to wire game. He was dialed in and fully engaged on both sides. Really active hands defensively. Made every single right read when he had the ball on offense. Not only lazy half assed pass and no forced shot. He should've had 10 assists, but the shooters got some unfriendly rolls on those corner 3s.

If he can duplicate this in the post season...

And this was pure gold.

 

My view on it is if Rondo has an entire focus on you for a seven game series, he will find out how to play against you eventually. Regular season is just a one-off situation since it's just one game and Lakers will usually win regardless of what Rondo does. I think he knows he can get away with playing bad and not trying 100%. Rondo doesn't seem to be trying out there at times defensively. He probably doesn't want to risk getting injured honestly.

 

big game from Rondo - at this piont, he's going to be on our team and I'm choosing to root for him instead of against him.

 

I'm going to stop rooting against Rondo - and start cheering him as much as I can.

Because if he's going to be Playoff Rondo...then all of this was worth it.

 

It looks like he can approach or be "Playoff Rondo" as long as he is healthy. Like everyone else that means playing extremely hard and balls out to be your best, while playing smartly with every possession. No stupid lazy passes, etc. Rajon has shown he still has enough speed, athleticism and certainly skills to be that guy .... in extended flashes such as entire games. So it all hinges on health for the Lakers, same as every other team. And eff the Pelinka and failed coaching search haters if Bron or AD comes up with some "random" injury and they blame it all on either one of them playing too much during the regular season. BS. Of course we will find rest for them once our 1st seed is locked up. And having Morris now SHOULD jump start the process even earlier.

 

Rajon Rondo playing like sh!t is 6th in the league producing assists per 36 minutes.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2020_per_minute.html (Click on the assists column)

He is 6th out of 279 and we are paying him 2 million.

He is right below Trae and Doncic with a far superior assist/turnover ratio

I've said this before but most of you severely underrate Rondo.

I agree with you all that he is lazy and sloppy at times... but this is him playing poorly.

He's better at passing than Simmons, Lonzo, Dame, CP3, Ja Morant, Russ... and you treat him like garbage.

 

You're actually proving our point. We have an overreliance on Rondo to do things that he can't. The APM/Assist to T/O ratio you are quoting is nice but it doesn't tell the entire picture. Rondo holds on to the ball too much/too long. It's tough to turn the ball over when you're not moving it. What happens is he slows the game down and the rest of our roster just stands and watches. LeBron CAN do that because he can also score via a jumper or attacking the basket when the shotclock runs down. Rondo can't do that. What you'll notice is Rondo will hold onto the ball and take an ill-advised three or pass it to another player when the shotclock is running dry leading to a low efficiency shot. Defensively, Rondo has been a liability this season. He's just not fighting past screens or staying in front of his man.

I noticed that you mentioned that he is a better passer than Simmons, Lonzo, Dame, CP3 (haha, no he isn't), etc., Right now, Magic Johnson would still be one of the best passers in the NBA. But that has very little to do with the overall game of basketball. Simmons can attack the paint, defend, and rebound. The verdict is still out on Lonzo so I don't know what can be said about these comparisons. Dame? CP3? Ja Morant? Russ? Like, seriously, what are you trying to prove here? I think we all know Dame, CP3, Ja Morant, and Russ instead of Rondo makes us the INSTANT title favorites by a wide margin. So what do you hope to gain by saying he's a better passer than them?

 

he has a nice left jab

that's all you need to know. Swag.

 

Of course these other players are better than him, but Rondo is providing elite assists while playing relatively poorly and doing so at 2 million a year.

Is he the solution, maybe not... but he's not as terrible as everyone makes him out to be

If he has another gear for the playoffs and history shows that he does... he should help us when the time comes

 

Rondo gonna have one good game every six games - just need to make sure it happens against the good teams because we can't afford bad games from him anymore against elite teams.

 

So yesterday was a perfect example as to why Rondo's assist stats are just not indicative of his impact. He had 2 assists and 0 turnovers with a +/- of 17 in just 12 minutes. That's awful. But his APG-to-TO ratio increased and by your metric, he's actually pretty good. The opportunity cost in all of this is Rondo played 12 minutes and sucked. In his 12 minutes, he was -17. If we had another PG, sure, they might not have the same APG-to-TO ratio as Rondo but they may do other things that Rondo can't that surely wouldn't have led to a putrid -17. It was awful to watch Rondo. No defense, terrible offense to get others going, and held onto the ball for much too long.

 

If Caruso is willing to shoot... there's no question that I want him to have Rondo's minutes. I think it's a matter of time before he develops that confidence which would make him no longer an offensive liability.

All I said is that his passing is elite. If what he did was easy, you'd see all sorts of journeyman with his assist/turnover ratio and there are very few... especially at 2 million per year.

 

If it was elite, why does our offense suck so bad when he's on the court then? I already stated why his AST-to-TO ratio is high... it's because he holds onto the ball and passes it when the shotclock is going down. That's good for his stats but bad for team play.