Rajon Rondo: How Good Is He?
We'll take a temporary break from the Domino Effect segment to add a bit of suspense to the reveal of where LeBron will most likely land. So let's focus a bit on Rajon Rondo.
Rondo is experiencing what I like to call the "Jameer Nelson Effect". The Cavs are so focused on shutting down Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen that Rondo has more spacing available to him. If he didn't have those guys playing alongside him, his effectiveness would go down tremendously. Outside of the one huge rebounding game in his most recent playoff series - which I admit was very very impressive - I don't see how Rondo is really shutting opponents down.
Why do you think it is that Rondo's numbers go way up in the playoffs compared to the regular season? It's because star players tend to play harder in the playoffs. And the other three guys are much bigger offensive threats than him. If teams really focus on Rondo and let at least one of the other three get more scoring opportunities, Rondo's production goes down and the "Big Three's" production goes up. This is exactly what happened in Game 5 of this recent series.
It's not that Rondo is a bad player. It's that he's so overrated because of his numbers that, in large part, are a result of the advantages he has by playing with star players. I think at this point you can argue that he may be more important to the Celtics now than Ray Allen since Ray has been reduced quite a bit to mainly a glorified spot-up shooter. But his shooting touch is still more of a threat offensively than anything Rondo does. You put Jameer Nelson in Rondo's position and I'm sure he'd do nearly as well.
