Nites

I'm really hoping for a Spurs vs Boston Finals.

finstock

I had the Celts winning the East until they traded Perk. They seem discombobulated since doing so. Of course, Boston is more of a playoff squad, and they proved doubters wrong last year by bullying the Cavs and Magic. However, this year, Krstic isn't intimidating anyone, especially the Bulls front court. Bulls over Celts in conference finals.

Out west, the Lakers still reign. I think they'll ultimately defeat the Thunder in the conference finals.

Ball Don't Lie

Seriously? Hes been bad for a good part of the 2nd half of the season. Hes getting into the sets way too late causing too many late clock situations, hes not attacking and kicking it out like he did earlier in the year with the same productvity, and hes no where near as efficient as compared to his first half. Hes just not as potent and his energy has been lower.

Who would you take him over in this group: DWill, DRose, CP3, Nash, Westbrook?If any of those guys was the PG on the celtircs instead of Rondo theyd be a shoe in for the title.

Ball Don't Lie

If theres 1 first round matchup I wanna see its POR LAL. The Lakers can never beat POR in the Rose Garden, and Portland I believe swept them this year. Portland is one of the only teams that can match the Lakers length and strength combination. They just have a really really good 8-9 man rotation.

Nites

Indeed, Blazers are a very deep team.

Aldridge
Roy
Wallace
Miller
Matthews
Batum
Camby
Fernandez
Mills

All solid players.

Bill Haverchuck

If they don't play in the first round, they might still meet up in the 2nd.

TORaptor4Ever

Honestly Thrills... where are you getting this stuff from?

Rondo has ALREADY quarterbacked the Celtics to a title. And he's put up some ridiculous numbers for a PG in past playoff series.

More than a little knee-jerking going on here IMO. Yes, he doesn't shoot the ball as well as any of those other guys but he's equal to or superior to them in every other aspect of the game.

'trane

as an example, torap, what do you think would happen if rondo and cp switched teams?

Dark Knight

Congrats to Jarrett Jack for finally making the playoffs.

DonMughal

Portland has pretty much beaten every contending team this year.

Lakers, Mavs, Celtics, OKC, Spurs. I think they beat the Bulls and the Magic too.

What a job by their GM to get a mix of these players. If everyone was healthy I see them easily becoming a contender. They would have the deepest roster possibly in the NBA.

Ball Don't Lie

I was about to say this as well. I really believe that Rondo won't be as effective once he becomes the clear cut #1 guy like a CP3/DWill/Rose etc. Him not being able to knock down shots in the halfcourt is going to really hamper him come time when he's running pick and rolls with another player besides KG consistantly, and not having 2 hall of famers waiting on the wings.

I guess we wont really know until the big 3 get old/seperated in a year or two.

The main thing that concerns me with Rondo is how he hasnt made any improvement on his FT shooting and his overall jump shooting. He's hit his jumpers a bit more frequently this year, but you can see that he's still extremely hesitant in taking them and he really only takes them late in the shot clock when he has to or when no one is within 5-10 feet of him.

When I see Rose improve his shooting year to year by such a large margin it makes me wonder why Rondo hasnt.

Ball Don't Lie

We need LAL to drop to the 3 seed so they play POR. That or NOH catch up to POR for the 6 seed so POR takes 7 and LAL 2. This matchup needs to happen. I dont want to watch Paul and co get slaughtered by the Lakers.

TORaptor4Ever

Who really knows?

I certainly don't buy into the theory that the Celts would be 10 games better or "a lock for a title" if that was the case though.

And Rondo absolutely TORTURED the Bulls in that playoff series (last year? year before?) where he avgd a triple-double. They KNEW that he was going to score the ball and they STILL couldn't stop him.

DonMughal

Wouldn't you guys take Rondo for the future on the Raps? Just curious. I probably would, I don't think any PG is better in this year's draft.

Bill Haverchuck

That was an entertaining series. One of the best I've watched in the past 10 years. I wouldn't use it in this discussion, though. When you're talking about young players who are developing each year, referring to a 2 year old series isn't the best way to make a point.

1 - The Bulls did stop Rondo from scoring the ball during the final 2, and most important, games of the series. Del Negro and the Bulls were slow to implement an effective plan.

Game 6 - Rondo shot 4/17 and 0/2 from the FT line.
Those misses were huge since this game went to double overtime.

Game 7 - Rondo shot 2/8

And the poor shooting continued in the Orlando series. Van Gundy did a better job of forcing Rondo to shoot from the outside. Orlando went on to eliminate Boston.

2 - Rose was a 20 year old rookie. The Bulls were a #7 seed. That was a different Rose and Bulls team.

3 - Rondo didn't exactly do a good job of containing Rose - 20/6/6 for the series. Also, Rose set a record for most points scored by a rookie in their first playoff game when he dropped 36 in game 1.

Anyways, for the most part, both guys played well during that series. But, as Thriller aptly pointed out, Rose has improved since then, while Rondo has done little to address his worst shortcoming. Overall, Rondo is a heck of playoff performer, but he has some dudes who can really help mask the holes in his game.

DonMughal

Didn't Ben Gordon have a dominant series?

Nites

That was when he was in his prime.

TORaptor4Ever

<shrug> Rondo and Rose are both very different PGs.

One is a scoring PG... who is counted upon to carry his team's offense.

The other is a more traditional "floor general" who's job is to run the offense and ensure that everyone remains involved.

It seems as though Rondo never seems to get the respect that other PGs do simply because he plays with 3 other (aging) stars. However.... the Celtics themselves have come out and said that HE is the key to their team this season... and you can tell as much by how "off" they look when he doesn't play well.

I have nothing against Rose and I don't recall saying anything bad about him. For my money he's been the top PG in the NBA this season. But let's be real here... this year Rondo is avging 11 pts, 4 rebs, 11 assts and 2 stls per. His asst/to ratio is about 3 to 1. Those are outstanding numbers for ANY PG.

I certainly don't mind if others prefer other PGs... provided they give Rondo his due. He's already proven himself at the very highest level.

Bill Haverchuck

"respect" is subjective, since it can come in degrees. I actually think Rondo might be top 5, but I certainly understand why some people hesitate to include him in that category. There are legitimate criticisms of Rondo's game.

Debatable. In fact, as I pointed out months ago, there was a stretch of tough games in which Boston went 6-2 when they had the big 3 but were missing Rondo. It's tough to say how important he is right now (by degree), since the Celts are also very thin in the frontcourt. The Celts have other issues.

I've also heard the Celts say KG is the key. They are a supportive bunch. Lots of love for each other.

Maybe not explicitly. But you tried to make a point about Rondo's ability, in a discussion about top point guards, by highliting events from a series in which Rondo played Rose.


At this point, it would be pretty foolish to say otherwise. He's probably the MVP.

DonMughal

He's 28.