Free throws depend very much on a player's state of mind as on his shooting mechanics. The guy looked pretty relaxed and in full control of himself during these past games... I am confident he is aware of that weakness of his and I foresee him working on it in practice. His jump shot seems more solid than usual too.Something within me knew that the Dallas Rondo would not be the Rondo the Kings got. I'm glad to know that I was right.
The way he is playing, his contract is an absolute steal. The only thing that worries me is if the Kings make the playoffs, teams are going to hack him like crazy to shoot free throws.
With that said, I will take problems in the playoffs because that means we would actually be in the playoffs lol.
Way to go, Warhawk.Well, I for one fully admit to having been a sceptic of this signing. I thought that the injury would have slowed him down and prevented him from returning to something at least resembling his old form. And his time in Dallas wasn't reassuring.
Haven't been so glad to be wrong in a long time. Keep it up, Rondo. Keep it up.
Well, I for one fully admit to having been a sceptic of this signing. I thought that the injury would have slowed him down and prevented him from returning to something at least resembling his old form. And his time in Dallas wasn't reassuring.
Haven't been so glad to be wrong in a long time. Keep it up, Rondo. Keep it up.
What I'm wondering is - if it works out, are you going to come here and admit you were absurdly pre-judgmental in your snap judgment and cynical determination to believe a 29-year old 4-time All-Star had no game left?
What I want to know is:
*) When are Larry David, Amit149 and the others going to man up and publicly admit they were wrong about Rondo?
They were quite certain he was going to be a failure, bust, etc:
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/rajon-rondo-split.62183/#post-1195787
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/kings-free-agency-part-3.61483/page-21#post-1188806
I'll quote myself from that one:
*) Where is hrdboild, and why isn't he crowing from the rooftops how right he was?
Really, pretty much ALL of KF's (except for me and KingsFanGER) were against Rondo coming here.
It's rather interesting to see the opinions of Rondo from just April: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/lets-talk-about-rajon-rondo.60719/
P.S. props to Warhawk and gunks for manning up and admitting they misjudged Rondo.
What I want to know is:
*) When are Larry David, Amit149 and the others going to man up and publicly admit they were wrong about Rondo?
They were quite certain he was going to be a failure, bust, etc:
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/rajon-rondo-split.62183/#post-1195787
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/kings-free-agency-part-3.61483/page-21#post-1188806
I'll quote myself from that one:
*) Where is hrdboild, and why isn't he crowing from the rooftops how right he was?
Really, pretty much ALL of KF's (except for me and KingsFanGER) were against Rondo coming here.
It's rather interesting to see the opinions of Rondo from just April: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/lets-talk-about-rajon-rondo.60719/
P.S. props to Warhawk and gunks for manning up and admitting they misjudged Rondo.
For someone who speak against snap judgement, you sure are quick to the "I-told-you-so"
Here's the thing, Rondo has played better than I expected- no doubt about it, and I would love for it to continue... But most of my doubts about him still stands:
His shooting is still very bad, which can create a lot of problems- especially when DMC won't shot 3's with the same % as KD and Curry.
His FT shooting is still miserable- 35% for a PG is extremley bad, and it limits his game.
His defense, which was a major point of contention (with some calling a "lock-down" defender), has been pretty bad thus far with his opponents shooting 6.4% better on him than on average.
And he is still very ball dominant (not necessarily a problem, but something there was disagreement on), with him leading the entire league in touches.
Those flaws can hurt us if teams will plan ahead to use it.
It's also important to note that for all the talk about him he still holds a slightly below league average PER at 14.8.
And a lot of the noise about him came from his "triple-doubles" which is an extremely over-rated achivement imo since they get much more attention than stat-lines like Cousins had last night which are clearly far more affective.
So he has been playing much better than my expectation, but I'll still like to reserve judgement at this point.
What I want to know is:
*) When are Larry David, Amit149 and the others going to man up and publicly admit they were wrong about Rondo?
They were quite certain he was going to be a failure, bust, etc:
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/rajon-rondo-split.62183/#post-1195787
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/kings-free-agency-part-3.61483/page-21#post-1188806
I'll quote myself from that one:
*) Where is hrdboild, and why isn't he crowing from the rooftops how right he was?
Really, pretty much ALL of KF's (except for me and KingsFanGER) were against Rondo coming here.
It's rather interesting to see the opinions of Rondo from just April: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/lets-talk-about-rajon-rondo.60719/
P.S. props to Warhawk and gunks for manning up and admitting they misjudged Rondo.
King Baller for President!Amit149, you spend a lot of time writing about what Rondo cannot do. Mostly the things you mention are numbers. When i watch Rondo play I see a winner. I see him constantly talking to his teammates about what is going on at BOTH ends of the floor. Rondo may be one of the best Floor Generals of all time. I can't think of a player who makes his teammates better to a higher degree than Rondo.
If the Kings stay healthy and IF Coach Karl uses Small Ball sparingly the Kings are going to be a much improved team.
What I want to know is:
*) When are Larry David, Amit149 and the others going to man up and publicly admit they were wrong about Rondo?
They were quite certain he was going to be a failure, bust, etc:
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/rajon-rondo-split.62183/#post-1195787
http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/kings-free-agency-part-3.61483/page-21#post-1188806
I'll quote myself from that one:
*) Where is hrdboild, and why isn't he crowing from the rooftops how right he was?
Really, pretty much ALL of KF's (except for me and KingsFanGER) were against Rondo coming here.
It's rather interesting to see the opinions of Rondo from just April: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/lets-talk-about-rajon-rondo.60719/
P.S. props to Warhawk and gunks for manning up and admitting they misjudged Rondo.
Yeah, pretty much everyone was (in April).All of KF was against Rondo? huh.
Eh, I don't like quoting myself but will for the purpose of this conversation.Yeah, pretty much everyone was (in April).
Go read: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/lets-talk-about-rajon-rondo.60719/
A few more trickled in their support in the later threads (June-ish) but it was pretty lonely for us in the "I'd like the Kings to try out Rondo and see what he could do for us" camp only 6 months ago.
Lots of dismissive posts, prejudging and reaching conclusions based off single-minded stats and hearsay (hey, where have we seen that phenomenon before on KF's?).
Eh, I don't like quoting myself but will for the purpose of this conversation.
I don't think he'd be as bad a fit here as some are making it out to be. Nor do I think what happened in Dallas is a true representation of what he'll be next year. If you commit to a guy like Rondo you must commit to letting him run the offense. Karl allows his PGs to do that. Carlisle had him walk it up the court at a slow tempo and called out almost every play. Can't do that with a Rondo type.
A problem is our roster doesn't appear to fit Rondo all that well. Rudy isn't a good spot up shooter, Ben/Nik still have a lot of growth they need to exhibit and we don't have a 4 who can hit jumpers. I have no idea where our spacing would come from. If we could get Rondo/Cuz into P&Rs and space the floor with yet to be acquired shooters, there is some upside to that idea.
That said, he is friends with Cuz and Rudy. Karl is a creative coach. If Rondo wanted to come here and checked his attitude, I'd be hopeful. I do have quite an issue with him quitting on his team though. If it was a situation of offering Rondo 10M/Y or taking on Lawson and his atrocious contract, I might have to side with Rondo. I wouldn't be all that happy with either though and in general, with all the good PGs in the league today I find our PG situation to be depressing. And I know some want more a role playing PG and to upgrade at the 2. I understand that argument but my preference would be to upgrade at PG as that position generally has a severe impact on a team's ceiling unless you're putting a ball dominant Kobe/Wade/Harden out there at the 2. With the modern day lack of elite SGs, that's a tougher blueprint to follow.
And I think that was pretty fair. The quitting on Dal rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. You have to question that. I also however thought Dal/Carlisle was a terrible fit for him and actually, what Carlisle did with Rondo is one of the biggest negatives of his coaching career. I'd say concerns about his fit with our roster were fair. This was pre-Marco, pre-DeMarcuvic Cousitzki, pre-Omri boosting his 3pt % by 12%.
All that being said, we're witnessing Boston Rondo. There wasn't a single team in the league who thought that's what we'd see this year. Vlade obviously had confidence in him but it was a risk any way you slice it and us being Sac, well slim pickings. Rondo's been a stud thus far though so I'm happily surprised.
I'm not going to speak for others though and their thoughts, or those who thought he was washed up. Carlisle just made an egregious error in his use of him. Rondo still had some game to offer, but 70 assists in his last 5 and three triple doubles in a week level game? No one saw that.
BTW, as to the end of my post above, Rondo is no role player. He's our #2 option and ball dominant. I said, and a number disagreed with me last year, for this team to have a higher ceiling in the modern NBA, our #2 option simply has to be a PG, unless you get a rare ball dominant SG. And Rondo's turned into that for us. Good for Rondo, good for us.
In reading thru that thread there's obviously a few who were completely anti everything to do with Rondo and completely changed their tone. But does it matter so much at this point? We've got our best PG/floor general since Team Dime.
There was a vocal contingent on both fronts and a lot of us who were pretty much wait and see. People like me who really liked Rondo but weren't going to proclaim him a savior I suspect were a silent majority.Yeah, pretty much everyone was (in April).