Keyon Dooling said some genuinely important things during his CSNNE.com interview this week, and if you haven’t read about his discussion of him being abused you should do that first. It matters more than basketball.
But Dooling talked basketball, too, and let’s just say he’s higher on Rajon Rondo than you are. Really, he’s higher on Rondo than anyone not named Rondo.
No doubt Rondo is an elite point guard. But Dooling is Rondo’s friend, he bonded with the young Celtics point guard, and as I think that may cloud his judgment. Actually, I don’t think that, I know it. Here is what Dooling told Jessica Camerato of CSNNE.com.“He’s come from nothing, he’s come from nothing. He’s the second-best player in the league. He didn’t make the USA Team, sometimes he’s a replacement for the All-Star Game. He’s the epitome of an unselfish player. He rebounds the basketball, he affects the game in five statistical categories. He shoots a higher percentage than all the point guards and they always talk about how he can’t shoot.”
Dooling continued, “Not only do I think he’s the second-best player in the NBA behind Kevin Durant, but I think he is an amazing leader. I think he doesn’t get a fair shake in the media and I wish they knew my friend the way I did.”
Second best player in the league behind Durant? I feel like we’re forgetting someone in that conversation…
Just for the record, Rondo shot 44.8 percent overall, 23.8 percent from three, and if you make it a points-per-shots and included free throws and threes in the mix (called true shooting percentage) it is a below average 48.3 percent. So 44.8/23.8/48.3 for Rondo, compared to Chris Paul’s 47.7/37.1/58.1 or Steve Nash’s 53.2/39/62.5. I have seen Rondo knock down key jumpers, but the reason people say he doesn’t have a good jump shot is he has only shown us an inconsistent jump shot.
I don’t like these kinds of conversations because it demeans Rondo, whose playmaking skills are elite, who is one of the better point guards in the game and is the guy who may be the best player on the Celtics roster right now. He brings it at both ends and is fun to watch with the ball. But Rondo is not the second best player in the NBA, obviously. I’m not sure where he would rank numerically because I find that entire kind of exercise silly. I’m a guy who likes to put players on tiers, and Rondo is on one way up the mountain, but a step back from CP3 and Deron Williams right now just as pure point guards, and if Derrick Rose is healthy he may not be a pure point but he’s ahead of Rondo, too.
By the way, Dooling love Kevin Garnett, too, and makes a case for this friend.