Why hasn’t Rajon Rondo’s double-digit assists streak boosted Boston’s anemic offense?
The scenario will face the Celtics at some point in the future, whether it comes after this season or in another year or two. Rajon Rondo will ride solo one day, or, even if Danny Ainge makes a high-profile free agent signing or two, Boston’s creative point guard will ride without three surefire Hall of Famers by his side.
Despite Rondo’s best efforts to quiet any doubts — he leads the NBA in assists and hasn’t notched fewer than 10 assists in a game for more than a month — haters will point out how much tougher his job will become once Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce move on. Mike D’Antoni contributed one of the more snarky quotes about Rondo’s future, wondering directly how Rondo would do in Minnesota, or indirectly, how he would perform surrounded by a bunch of scrubs. (Keep in mind: When D’Antoni chimed in with his two cents, Ricky Rubio still played basketball in Spain and Kevin Love had not yet morphed into Moses Malone’s white grandson with three-point range.) Pushing aside any “D’ANTONI’S A REAL DICK. HOW THE HELL COULD HE SAY THAT ABOUT MY FAVORITE POINT GUARD?!?!?” sentiment, the former Knick coach’s message is one that sensibly holds some weight: Rondo’s life will change when his passes are no longer intended for three of the greatest basketball players born in the 1970s.
Sunday night marked the first time Rondo played a game without any of the Big Three since April 14, 2010. Granted, the competition wasn’t championship caliber — the Bobcats’ putrid stench, after all, sparked questions about whether they could defeat the Kentucky Wildcats — but Rondo played 43 minutes and finished with a line of 20 points, 16 assists and six rebounds on 8 of 17 shooting. Rondo’s performance echoed so many other this season: He found open teammates in rhythm, occasionally threw confounding turnovers, attacked the rim when A) he saw an opening and B) he felt his team needed him to explore that opening, and chased down a few rebounds with quick bursts of frenetic energy.
If you were stuck on wondering how Rondo will look when the Big Three depart, you missed that the Celtics have unearthed a formula to maximize Rondo’s potential during the past month or more. It’s not an accident that Rondo’s assists streak started after Chris Wilcox and Jermaine O’Neal went down for the season. By starting two big men who space the floor (and bringing another big man with range, Greg Stiemsma, off the bench) the Celtics have “inverted” the floor, using their big men as shooters, effectively giving Rondo and his fellow jumper-opposed running mate Avery Bradley more freedom to enter the paint. The results were especially glaring during an April 1 meeting with the Miami Heat, when Rondo found his way into the paint whenever he pleased, Boston’s bigs made several open jump shots and Bradley converted approximately 3,527 successful off-ball dashes to the hoop. The spacing made Rondo and Bradley’s maneuvering easier, and their talents (Rondo’s speed, ball-handling and ability to penetrate; Bradley’s intelligent cuts) helped kill Miami.
Paradoxically, the way to maximize Rondo’s ability might actually hinder Boston’s offensive efficiency. By surrounding Rondo with centers who mostly stay on the perimeter and a shooting guard (recent surge notwithstanding) not known for his perimeter shot, the Celtics struggle to earn free throws (28th in the league at free throw attempts), don’t hit many three-pointers (23rd in the league in makes, even with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce) and hardly ever grab an offensive rebound (the Celtics are last in the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage and offensive rebounds per game). The result is an offense tied for 25th in offensive efficiency, or in other words, better only than Cleveland, Detroit, Washington and Charlotte. This Celtics team wins with defense, not offense.
We obviously can’t blame Rondo for the notion that his teammates don’t draw many fouls, crash the glass or drill many three-pointers. We can’t blame him for Boston’s offensive ineptitude — hell, the Celtics are eight points worse per 100 possessions when Rondo is not in the game. He makes them better. We know that. But it’s still slightly concerning that Rondo’s obscene string of double-digit assist games has not boosted Boston’s offensive efficiency numbers even a little.
This team is now built for Rondo to succeed. That’s not necessarily a good thing, even if we know he can also adapt to situations that aren’t ideal for his game.
Related posts:
Celtics Blog | Jay King | April 16, 2012
Just wait until the team is healthy and all playing again. During this great RR assist-run the Cs have had MP out, RA out and those are two of the core offensive players; now both coming off the bench, which is the weakest part of the Cs offense. Once we’re healthy I believe the bench will start scoring better (remember too we took BB off the bench and he’s killing it as a starter) and the Cs offense will improve dramatically. Championships are won with defense, but the Cs have the offense too to make a substantial run, if not Finals winning run with this group. Go Cs…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Our offense is more consistent and powerful now, and our defense is more powerful. Thankfully, the group thinkers in the media are smoking perceptions our of our minds with bogus stats and talking points. Yes, breathe in deeply the statistical chimeras, forget what you percieve… Rondo is bad for our offense, Rondo is bad for our offense, Rondo is bad for our offense…
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
This is offense is made for Rondo, that’s true. But he is not bad for our offense.. Notice when he plays good, everyone around plays good. Rondo is the best pointguard in the league, everyone thinks D.Rose or CP3 but what is a pointguard supposed to do? Assist his teammates, control the tempo, and steal the ball. Not score. Paul, without Rondo in our offense, we wouldn’t be 23-10 after the all-star break. Rondo is made to succeed, which makes his team succeed.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
D’Antoni’s comment has some truth to it, but you could say that about any great point guard. Would Magic Johnson have won championships without Kareem and James Worthy, Byron Scott, etc? Would Stockton have those numbers without Malone? Of course not. Rondo is a great point guard who needs to improve his jumper and free throws and he’ll be on the same level as Rose. It’s up to the C’s to get the right players around him.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Rondo is better than Rose. If his shooting improves, he’ll be possibly the best player in the league.
As you point out, it’s an utterly trivial and banal point that single players don’t win championships. Even Chamberlain couldn’t do it
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
And not that I wish anyone to get hurt, but JO going out of the lineup has made the C’s better. the Steamer is totally fitting into this new Celtic look, along with Bradley. That last game against the Heat, Steimsma played with confidence and made a contribution to that win. Younger legs on the court are good for Rondo, as we see Bradley and Steimsma cutting to the hoop for easy feeds, something that wasn’t happening with JO.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
James, in regards to your other post, I hope you are right in that Pietrus will start cutting to the hoop for more baskets as well. The C’s are much better when going for paint scoring rather than gunning from downtown. And yes, can we see Moore instead of Dooling, please!!! And more Sasha; he actually rebounds and plays great D.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Question: The C’s lack of offensive rebounding. Is this b/c of Doc wanting them to get back on D to prevent giving up fast breaks? I notice the C’s generally start trotting back on D when the shot goes up, rather than crash the boards. Since they are a small team, that actually makes sense, since Defense is the key to their game, i.e. not allowing points is more important than gambling to score. Anyone?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Yes. Watch any game. The Celtics typically make no effort to hit the offensive glass. Lately they have been trying a little to do so and it has been helping.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Final comment: If you want to watch games on the net, Google: first row sports. Their link keeps changing due to the Feds shutting them down; however, if you Google it, you will get the most recent link. Aside from a million pop up ads, it works pretty well.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
This article shows painful regression to blathering idiocy. The writer claims to explain to us that when a team rebuilds, it’s likely to be present challenges to its leading player. Yes, Jay. We can all agree on that. You could have made your stunningly banal point on one sentence.
This team has become offensively more powerful since Rondo began his streak. The fact that it wins with defense is not something new. This has always been the case.
As for the notion that the team has now been built around Rondo, that’s a big joke, right? The team we have is a permutation of the team we have had for five years now. It is all about shooting Js. All Js all the time. When prodded, Pierce will occasionally attack the basket. Rondo would probably do it more, except that the officials are absolutely murdering him. You’ve missed that, I know. One isn’t supposed to comment on the officials being a freaking mafia, out to make a point to Rondo that he needs to remember who is boss. This team is a permutation of a team that was never designed to maximize Rondo’s strengths, quite the opposite. The fact that Danny has finally brought in a few people who can run with Rondo doesn’t change that.
I don’t know what a perfect Rondo team would look like. He probably doesn’t know, since he seems to make it a principle to work with the players he has. We know that when Shaq was playing well, the Celtics were a juggernaut. Rondo playing with a healthy Shaq would have been something out of this world. You can’t expect Rondo to turn a pedestrian offense into haute cuisine. Our best shooters are not players who can make their own shots. Our best guy at attacking the offense struggles with Js and is being murdered by the officials. Our second best, Pierce, gets annoyed when our first best, Rondo, acts like our first best.
If you want a bottom line, it’s that this team really could be amazing on offense if they attacked the basket more. But for that to happen, Rondo would have to get fair treatment from the refs, and Pierce would have to have a personality change.
So what we need to do is win with defense, while relying on Rondo to guide an offense that is more consistent and more powerful, but not a steamroller.
But really, it’s fantastic how you people continue to find ways to denigrate the great player we are lucky to have. Without Rondo, would we be thinking about a possible championship run? No. Would Stiemsma, Brass, Bradley and Pietrus look like anything but a hopeless joke as a future core? No.
Rondo makes the players around him better. He’s making the Big Three look better longer in their careers. He’s effing magic and you still don’t see it.
Unfricking believable.
Oh, and apologies to you for talking about Rondo, Mr Ass…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
i agree about the refs completely,i just dont see the conflict between pierce and rondo.we could recreate the shaq days if we petition eddie lecerte to put stiemsama on a anabolic steroid regimen.it seems to be working for lebron.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@James
The reason Bradley has continued to stay on the floor is BECAUSE of his defense. And no, I’m not trying to disrespect Moore’s potential in ANY way. Once he improves his defense and his ball handling skills, he’ll be a great backup PG/SG. But in the few televised games I’ve seen him in, his defense isn’t as good as KD’s. EM never communicated on defense, something that is an absolute staple on our team. Listen, look at what Bradley was able to do between his rookie and sophomore years. This expands into the whole “stay in college for at least 2 years” debate that I support, but Moore does have talent. Absolutely. Unfortunately we have had too many guards that got in Moore’s way this year. We’ll see him next year and who knows, maybe Moore will be utilized somewhere in the playoffs against a team (like Chicago) who have a TON of guards as well.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Greg, you make some valid points; however, one could argue that Bradley only got his chance this year when Rondo went out early in the season, followed by Ray going down at other times. if not for other’s injuries, he would likely be rotting on the bench with zero confidence. brandon bass just yesterday said that bradley was lacking confidence early in the season. Players need time on the court to develop, something Doc doesn’t practice enough. In recent blowouts, EM and JJ should’ve been given more minutes. Also in games against weaker teams, i.e. the last 3 games in which others needed rest.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0