Early in his career, Rajon Rondo was known as one of the better defenders at the point guard position. He was even tasked with guarding a much younger, explosive LeBron James during the Boston Celtics 2008 championship run. However, as injuries took their toll, he looked to have lost some intensity on the defensive end of the floor the last few seasons.
Rondo is now playing for the Dallas Mavericks, in a Western conference loaded with many of the best point guards in the game right now. Strong defense is a must if the Mavericks want to have any post-season success and Rondo knows this. He recently spoke to MassLive.com about his defensve impact for Dallas:
“I haven’t played defense in a couple of years. I’ve been able to hide it a lot with Avery Bradley on the ball. He’s helped me out, the young guy. But here they expect me to play defense. And in the West, if you don’t play defense you’ll get embarrassed every night at the point guard position. I took it as a challenge (for) myself. It’s not just me. It’s my teammates. Our communication is getting a lot better and our coverages are getting better. So it’s the whole team concept, it’s not just me. Obviously people are going to look at the stats and say, ‘Since Rondo’s came there, they’re down seven or eight points or whatever defensively.’ But we still have a lot of room to improve and I believe we’ll still get better defensively.”
Rondo is right, while there are a few exceptional guards in the East, the Western conference point guards come at you in waves night after night. From Steph Curry to Damian Lillard. Chris Paul to Tony Parker, etc. While defense is ultimately a team concept, it’s going to be important for both Rondo and teammate Monta Ellis to do their best to lock down their man on a nightly basis.