Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo named to NBA All-Defensive Second Team
I thought Garnett had a legitimate case at the First Team, but really, I could care less. The Celtics have bigger fish to fry than individual honors.
Also, I’m completely fine with Avery Bradley being left off both teams. He barely played at the beginning of the season. That being said, as long as he can find some masking tape (or a qualified doctor) to get those shoulders back into place, he might make one of the All-Defensive teams every year for the next decade or so.
Knock on wood.
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Celtics Blog | celtics123 | May 23, 2012
Rondo is a great defender and belongs on this team.
Having said that, I dearly hope Jrue Holiday doesn’t humiliate him tonight…
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Here’s the thing. We all know that Avery Bradley has, in less than half a season of significant playing time, established himself as a premier NBA perimeter on-ball defender, an amazing accomplishment in itself. It’s not too much to say that Avery saved our season when Rondo went down, and sustained a central role in our successes since then. He also rivals Rondo in sheer toughness. Those two guys look very much like potentially our backcourt of the future.
And we all know that Rondo picks and chooses his spots in every aspect of the game, particularly in the area of man defense. Earlier this season, he was picking and choosing so much that his poor defensive performance was a lot of the reason we were losing. That said, let’s understand that Rondo was clearly working on trying to figure out how to carry more of the offensive load, as the team clearly needed him to do, and how to do it without enraging Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. It was touch and go between the Divo and the Divas there for a while.
But when Rondo came back from his injury, he took on board the lesson Avery Bradley had to teach him, and he played much tougher defense, even going full court at times. This had a lot to do with our rise to the playoffs.
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When Rondo thinks it’s important enough to clamp down his on-the-ball defense, he can shut down any player anywhere near his size. But, in addition to that, Rondo’s defensive game has an aspect to it that no other perimeter player seems to have, including Avery: his gambling, free-safety approach. Rondo’s haters don’t seem to like to admit it, but Rondo wreaks absolute havoc that way. Yes, there is a price that is paid for the gambling. Doc waved at that when he made the comment that if Rondo were an NFL coach, he’d blitz on every down. But the bottom line is that Rondo isn’t just playing his player. He’s playing the game itself.
And then there is the fact that Rondo seems to be increasingly taking on the role of defensive quarterback, telling his teammates what’s coming and where they need to be.
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