Celtic-era Rondo needed the ball to have offensive value, and on a team with Bird (and Russell, a great passer) his lack of shooting is going to get exposed pretty quickly (remember---he was a 27% 3pt shooter as a Celtic and that's what you're getting here, not the later guy who can actually shoot ok). Not the end of the world, but pretty confident the Ainge team would be better.
My Celtics fantasy team is down by one with eleven seconds left. Marcus brings up the ball against aggressive press.
And Bird flies in for the put-back dunk (left-handed, of course), as the clock hits 0.01
I agree that's a problem, but I still think the team needs a legit ballhandler, and don't think Bird, Ainge, Reggie, or (cringe) Jaylen are up to it. Maybe swap out Brown, Lewis, and Rondo for Allen, Ainge, and Sharman, but that would be a more offensive team.
This works on small ball teams, what about someone with a legitimate center?
That team had 3 points (2 point guards and a point forward) in its starting lineup, though.
Nobody would ever say he's better than Bird, but lets be clear on who peak Rondo was - a top 20 player, top 10 in MVP voting, 3rd team all-NBA, 1st team all defense, league leader in assists, nightly triple double threat, and had a well deserved reputation as a guy who played his best in the biggest moments. Even with his total lack of 3 point shooting, he's an absolute steal at $1. There's a pretty big drop off in quality after the $4 and $5 guys, so finding value at $1 is big.
I agree, Rondo is often underrated.
Rondo is largely overrated and has no business being among even the $1 options here. He was a very good defender for a very short amount of time (first four years in the league). He was surrounded by great talent and played for a long time, which means a lot of people think he was unsung. Was he great in big moments? Ask Derek Fisher.
Well I mean you’re not just adding KG and JT to that team. You’re swapping them in for Bird and McHale. Kind of an important detail.
That's tough mostly because Centers are a bit overpriced on this list, imo. You need size/rim protectoin and a couple quick guys to surround Bird and tatum.
My first lineup was Bird, Russell, Jaylen, DJ, Ainge. But if we want to see what happens if you put Tatum in there, downgrading from Russell to Garnett is not bad.
Russell was a good passer. He was not a great passer. His key contribution in this regard was cleaning the boards and wheeling and firing the ball to a breaking wing to start what hopefully would end in a lay-uo. Russell was the key to transition basketball. His teamates were pretty damn sure he was going to get the board and broke out. In that he excelled.But he was not a low post magician, but he was ok passing out of the post, generally passing to teammates running high weaves .
