Isn’t Boston’s Rajon Rondo rapidly becoming one of the NBA’s premier point guards?
He was the first point guard chosen in the 2006 draft by Phoenix. He was the 21st overall pick. He passed up his final two years at Kentucky.
And, fortunately for the Celtics, Phoenix promptly traded him to Boston with Brian Grant for a future first-round pick.
He spent the first season battling Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair for playing time and was chosen to the NBA All-Rookie second team.
The next year, he evolved into the starting point guard and helped the Celtics win the NBA title by averaging 10.2 points, 6.6 assists and 4.1 assists per game during the playoffs.
He keeps getting better and is one of the major reasons the Celtics have the second-best record in the NBA.
Rondo is only 6-foot-1 and weighs just 171 pounds but he compensates nicely with his dynamic quickness, court vision and fearlessness. In the playoffs last year, he nearly averaged a triple-double: 9.7 rebounds to go with his 16.9 points and 9.8 assists.
The Celtics were smart to sign him to a five-year contract extension worth $55 million.
An NBA team must have a quality point guard to be a championship contender.
It is their responsibility to run the offense and find the open man. They must also protect the basketball.
Rondo’s quickness makes him virtually impossible to cover one-on-one and when the defender gets help, that leaves somebody open and Rondo usually finds the open shooter.
He has also been chosen to the NBA’s All-Defensive team.
So far this season, he is averaging 12 points, 9.7 assists, 4 rebounds and 2.65 steals. In addition, he is turning the ball over just 2.58 times per game, which is a noteworthy accomplishment when you consider how much he handles the ball.
He has 13 double-doubles in 26 games including six over the last nine games.
He is worth the price of admission and he’s only 23 years old.
— Larry Mahoney
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Red Sox still need to make more moves
All right, so we don’t have inactivity as a reason to rip the Red Sox this week.
Just as I was complaining about a general malaise and lack of any significant deals at the winter meetings, the Sox went out and signed the best free-agent pitcher on the market John Lackey, and added a veteran, Gold Glove outfielder with some offensive punch, Mike Cameron.
If no other moves of note are made, the Boston front office plan seems to have changed from adding offensive punch to winning with pitching and defense — something that shifted on the fly as it became apparent that Jason Bay was intent on a free-agent payoff the Sox are unwilling to pay.
The concept seems plausible enough with three potential frontline starters arguably giving Boston the best 1-2-3 front-end rotation in baseball. And with sure-handed fielders like Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Marco Scutaro, Jacoby Ellsbury, Cameron and J.D. Drew, unearned runs should be minimized and the Sox should be difficult to score runs against.
Still, there’s plenty of reason for nervousness and unease in Red Sox Nation.
The lineup has more holes and the opportunity is greater for opposing pitchers to pitch around Boston’s more dangerous hitters.
If David Ortiz continues to regress at the plate and suffer greater power loss, the Sox will have to win a lot of 3-2 and 2-1 games in order to make another playoff run, and no matter how good your defense and pitching are, that’s not something you can count on with consistency.
Throw in the ever-present specter of injuries — especially to the starting pitching rotation, as deep as it is — and Boston’s new blueprint for success has a lot of red marks on it.
So what’s the answer? The Sox need at least one more bat, and — yes, at the risk of pressing the “repeat” button too often — it should be a player who brings both a bat and a glove, someone like San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez won’t come cheap and as much as I’d have to swallow hard before letting both Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz go along with a prospect or two in a trade, it seems the need for Gonzalez in Boston is even greater after the latest team moves.
Hopefully, Boston’s hot stove season hasn’t been put on the back burner just yet.
— Andrew Neff