The Rajon Rondo and Boston Celtics relationship has been a roller coaster ride for years now. The Celtics are no strangers to having their best players involved in trade rumors and Rondo is no exception. The overall question was not “Will he go?” but “Where will he go?”. Rondo has been tossed about in multiple trade scenarios through the media and sports world while Danny Ainge scoffed at the notion he was planning to ship out his All-Star point guard. The rumors, they keep-a-churning as it’s been the Knicks one second and the Lakers the next along with half a dozen other teams. Still, Rondo is a Celtic, at least for now. Rajon Rondo will be playing the 2014-15 season on the final year of his contract at $13 million and looking to re-up next summer at some sort of max deal. Rondo will be eligible to sign a four year $64 million contract with another team or resign with his Bird rights for five years $100 million. We reported earlier that Rondo has reportedly requested the Celtics for a trade and the Celtics would have to either oblige or risk losing him for nothing next summer.
The Celtics today are a team full of young players that have been acquired along the way from multiple trades and draft picks. The Celtics are not a championship contender, at best they could sneak into the playoffs and be tossed out in round one. That’s pretty much what is set in stone for this squad. It’s something all great franchises must cycle through at times, just see the Lakers. The Celtics are in a precarious position that teams have been finding themselves in lately more and more. They can hold onto Rondo, who appears to not want to play there anymore if the rumors are true, and most likely lose him in the summer of 2015 or they can put him on the block and get back a Kings Ransom. It used to be a given that the player will not lose out on an extra guaranteed year of a contract along with more money to change teams. I mean, who would forego money? Today it’s a fear every team has and so they are stuck in this tug-of-war of feelings. So what does a team in the market for Rondo do at the latest news that he wants out? My feelings on Rajon Rondo can be summed up by what Doc Rivers told Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe last June,
“I will say you don’t know which Rajon Rondo you’re going to get from day to day.”
-Doc Rivers
That’s the crutch of it. You really do not know which Rondo shows up for you oract if he’ll show up at all. In the last four years Rajon Rondo has played an average of 47 games. That’s with a steady downhill drop of 68, 53, 38, and 30 games respectively. Can you trust that Rondo will be able to stay on the court? Yes, he was there for the Celtics during their run but once an issue flares up it becomes something to worry about.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Rajon Rondo, he’s a good player and fun to watch passing that ball, yet I would be hesitant to trade the farm for him especially with the price tag that comes in resigning him. While he is a great player, his flaws are just too glaring to make him worth castrating your team for years to come. Rondo can pass, we all know that, and has led the league in assists two of the last four years and came in second to Steve Nash one year by fractions. Last year he would have come in second but only played 30 games and wasn’t eligible. We can chalk some of last years absence to the Celtics just not feeling the need to trot out Rondo and hurt their draft stock along with his injury. It really comes down to the fact that Rondo is not a good shooter and that is a problem. As a point guard if you have no shot then your opponents can play off of you and let you shoot your stinky jumper all day long knowing that the odds are in their favor. Rondo is quick and can get to the basket in a hurry but if his opponent is playing off of him it’s much more difficult a feat to accomplish. It pretty much allows the guy covering Rondo a break from a tough assignment.
Let’s look at another glaring hole that I just don’t understand coming from a point guard, free throw shooting. Let’s put it in context of a guy that has been overly criticized about his free throw shooting woes. Dwight Howard, the guy that everyone says can’t shoot free throws to save his life, is a 57% free throw shooter. Not very good but it’s something that can sometime be expected from centers. Shaquille O’ Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell were notoriously bad free throw shooters. Rajon Rondo is a career 62% free throw shooter. In my opinion it seems absurd that the point guard of your basketball team can be so bad at shooting in general. This is a problem for any team with Rondo running their offense. A point guard has the ball in his hands the majority of the game and when your point guard pretty much has only two weapons, his quickness and passing, it makes it much easier to defend. Chris Paul is a multi layered threat. Paul shoots 36% from three, 86% from the free throw line, scores 19 points per game, and dishes 10 assists per game. That is a threat on every level. Let’s take a look at another point guard, one that many don’t even mention among the great point guards of the NBA, Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is a 30% three point shooter (Althought if you ask him I’m sure he thinks he’s closer to about 90%), shoots 81% from the free throw line, scores 20 points per game, and dishes out 7 assists per game. These guys are top of the line threats on multiple levels that can impact the game many different ways. Rajon Rondo? A 25% three point shooter, 62% free throw shooter, 8 assists per game career average, and scores 11 points per game. That’s right, 11 points.
Do you see the problem? Even if we took into account just the recent last four seasons where his assist numbers were higher his average would be 12 points with 11 assists per game. Rondo is just not a threat on the offensive end to put the ball in the basket only when he is passing the ball and even that may be a little bit of a lie. Whereas the average point guard shoots about 14 to 16 shots a game Rondo only gets about 10 shots up. That means that instead of the extra shots he’s passing and padding assist numbers. Why? Easy, Rondo has no jumper and has to pass to a better scoring option. It’s the smart basketball play if you are Rondo, you’re getting your team the higher percentage shot, but that is because Rondo is such a terrible shooter.
Yes, it would be unfair not to tell you that there is one place that dispels some of these foils. In the playoffs Rondo averages 14 points and 9 assists. Slightly better but still shooting a mediocre 28% from three and 65% from the free throw line. Rondo, when engaged like he is in the playoffs can drop 44 points and 10 assist like he did against Miami in game 2 of the 2012 Playoffs. He is capable of torching a team especially if you put the right teammates around him. I think Rondo is a great point guard, even if you think I have been bashing him all column long. I just find players like Rondo to be a huge gamble. Where Chris Paul can be plopped into any team and make everyone better, Rondo needs to have the right team around him. Sure, Rondo can find that zone but can he bring that consistently and is he worth a max contract on top of all the assets it would take just to get him on your team? To the Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, and any other team looking to get into the Rajon Rondo sweepstakes, they have to go back to the words of Doc Rivers and be leery, “Which Rajon Rondo?”
