Any basketball coach from pee wee leagues to the NBA will tell you that for a team to truly mesh and work together it takes chemistry, time, and leadership. You could have all of those things or, apparently, you just need Rajon Rondo. Rondo has a team with several new pieces including Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa looking like they've played together for years. A fair amount of credit is due to the front office assembling a savvy veteran lineup to surround their superstar point guard, but ultimately the team lives and dies on Rondo's back. Rajon has yet to finish a game this year without double digit assists and is riding a 37 game streak of such games, only nine shy of Magic Johnson's record of 46. As stellar as Rondo's numbers are, it is his teammates' numbers that tell the real story. Tonight he was able to lead his team to 6 double digit scorers while recording 16 assists and his standard one or two dozen hockey assists, the presently unrecorded stat of facilitating without a direct pass to the scorer. Despite the geriatric Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, Rondo has his team surviving with an 8-6 record, good for seventh in the East. So far this year, Rondo has been the embodiment of the MVP award. If it were called the "Best Player Award", we could just sign the next 10 away to LeBron James, but the Maurice Podoloff trophy goes to the player who adds the most value to his team, and that very well may be Rajon Rondo. Voters should pick Rondo because of exactly what they saw in 2005 and 2006, his team has nothing without him.
Any basketball coach from pee wee leagues to the NBA will tell you that for a team to truly mesh and work together it takes chemistry, time, and leadership. You could have all of those things or, apparently, you just need Rajon Rondo. Rondo has a team with several new pieces including Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa looking like they've played together for years. A fair amount of credit is due to the front office assembling a savvy veteran lineup to surround their superstar point guard, but ultimately the team lives and dies on Rondo's back. Rajon has yet to finish a game this year without double digit assists and is riding a 37 game streak of such games, only nine shy of Magic Johnson's record of 46. As stellar as Rondo's numbers are, it is his teammates' numbers that tell the real story. Tonight he was able to lead his team to 6 double digit scorers while recording 16 assists and his standard one or two dozen hockey assists, the presently unrecorded stat of facilitating without a direct pass to the scorer. Despite the geriatric Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, Rondo has his team surviving with an 8-6 record, good for seventh in the East. So far this year, Rondo has been the embodiment of the MVP award. If it were called the "Best Player Award", we could just sign the next 10 away to LeBron James, but the Maurice Podoloff trophy goes to the player who adds the most value to his team, and that very well may be Rajon Rondo. Voters should pick Rondo because of exactly what they saw in 2005 and 2006, his team has nothing without him.
0 comments:
Post a Comment