Is Boston Celtics Rajon Rondo a over hyped or elite point guard? NBA Feature
Boston Celtics young point guard Rajon Rondo is among the few skilful guards that National Basketball Association has these days. Often Rondo is rated as a player of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook’s
calibre.
However, there is a lot of conflict among the basketball followers that whether the 25 year old has made it to the elite panel or it’s just an exaggeration. Therefore, today we will determine whether Rondo belongs to that top group
of the point guards or still needs to do some catching.
Being picked up as 21st overall from the 2006 draft, Rondo was immediately traded to the C’s. Rondo made his debut as a rookie with the Celtics since then he had worked really hard on his game. In his first season with
the Celtics Rondo’s scoring average were 6.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.
This effort didn’t impress the C’s much and they thought they should start looking for a better option at point guard position. However, in the 2007-08 season Rondo tweaked his game and happily surprised the C’s with his numbers
at the end of the period. In that season Rajon scored with an average of 10.6 points along with 4.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
His second season performance didn’t just raise his own confidence but also the C’s started considering him that perhaps he can do well at this position. However, Rondo got real attention with his third season, where he averaged
11.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game. The 6 ft. 1 was also able to develop a good chemistry with the Three-Bigs of the Celtics (Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Pierce), as he played alongside them.
Rondo performed exceptionally well during the 2009 playoffs that helped the C’s in securing the championship rings for the first time in 20 seasons. In that run Rondo was almost touching a triple-double average and the Celtics
finally believed that Rajon is the one whom they will persist with in the future.
However, afterwards Rondo failed to improve his play from the foul line, as his jump shot was awful and also started giving away too many turn overs, more than three per game. Therefore Rondo came under fire once again when critics
started saying that it’s the Big-Three of the Celtics that made his figures look good, but one cannot just discard Rajon’s effort just by saying this.
In comparison to him during the same season Rose was averaging 25.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game. While Williams made 18.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, 10.5 assist and 1.0 steals per game. Chris had 21.1 points,
4.0 rebounds, 11.6 assists and 2.7 steals in each game and Westbrook chipped in with 21.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game.
These stats clear prove that Rondo does not belong to that elite panel and needs to work hard in order to cover his deficiencies and stand among these top point guards of the league.
Rondo’s team-mate Paul Pierce defends him by saying that, "He's doing a great job facilitating the offense and being the quarterback. He understands that he doesn't have to score."
While Boston’s head coach Doc Rivers said about Rondo that, "I'm fine with his maturity. It takes time, but he's far more mature for his age. I would love to get a video camera on all of you [reporters] at 23 or 24 years old and
see some of the things you've done that we never know about."
So it’s a mistake to put Rondo in the elite board so early, as he still requires more time development.
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