Boston Celtics Rajon Rondo Needs To Shoot More To Become a Better Scorer
The Boston Celtics' Rajon Rondo is one of the most elite point guards in the league, but the biggest complaint people have against him is that he does not score enough.
Most people believe he can't lead a team by himself because he is not a big-time scorer and lacks a solid jump shot. Rondo has averaged 10.7 PPG for his career and compared to other point guards, like Derrick Rose's 20.9 PPG average, it is just not good enough.
Although it is true that Rondo does not have a strong jump shot right now, the solution to his lack of scoring is simply to shoot more. He has averaged a fairly strong 48.6 percent shooting from the field, but he only takes an average of 9.1 FG per game (making 4.4 of them). Most people overlook the fact that this is actually a stronger shooting percentage than last year's MVP, Rose.
Rose shoots 46.8 percent from the field, but he boosts his PPG by shooting almost twice as many shots as Rondo with 17.4 attempts (making 8.2 of them). If Rondo were to take 17.4 attempts per game at the same shooting percentage, he would actually make 8.5 of them, boosting his scoring to 18.6 PPG (including the 1.7 FT he makes per game).
The major difference that can still be seen between the two players' points per game is the fact that Rose takes many more free throws while making a higher percentage and makes more three-point shots per game.
Not only would Rondo score more points if he took more attempts, he would also get to the free-throw line more often. Although he is not the strongest free-throw shooter currently, getting more free throws would help to boost his PPG stat and may help to improve his effectiveness from the line by putting him there more often.
A few games a season Rondo breaks out offensively and shows what he can do in scoring, while keeping his assists at a very competitive level.
In the playoff series against the New York Knicks, Rondo scored 30 points on 13-of-23 attempts, while still providing the team with seven assists, four rebounds and two steals. He shot 56.5 percent from the field, while providing extremely solid defense by stopping any of the guards from scoring a lot of points.
Rondo shot more than 12 attempts per game in only 22 games last season, but during these games he had better stats than his season average. He put up 15.3 points per game at 49 percent (6.9-14), 12.8 assists per game and 5.4 rebounds per game during the games that he took more than 12 shots from the field. These stats show that when the Rondo takes more attempts per game he scores more, actually increases his assist total and brings up his rebounds on average.
Rondo will never be the best shooting point guard in the game, but he needs to find a comfortable rhythm to his scoring. In games, he constantly overlooks open shots or lanes to pass the ball to one of his three future Hall of Fame teammates.
Some of his turnovers may end up being avoided by trusting himself to make the shot, rather than trying to force a much harder pass to some of the other players on the court.
Having three of the best players in the league has probably put Rondo into a pattern of handing the ball off to them instead of trusting in his own ability. Although he may never be as good of a scorer as Derrick Rose or Chris Paul, it would be worth Rondo's time to take more shots and boost the points per game he brings to the court.
When the Big Three walk away from the court and he takes over the Boston Celtics, Rondo should take control of the offense and become one of the top scorers on the team.
