5 Things Doc Rivers Can Still Teach Rajon Rondo as an NBA Point Guard

The relationships between players and coaches can vary at the professional level. 

Some players look to the coach for nothing more than drawing up the X's and O's of the game. Those players feel their own maturity has reached a point where the act of playing basketball is like a job. They show up, learn their assignments and get to work. 

Some less-mature players may look at their coaches and see primarily a disciplinarian who can impact playing time, their role on the team and their ability to maximize their potential. 

Then there are those players who will look toward their coach in an almost fatherly manner. Mining the depths of the coach's knowledge in an effort to glean more insight into their own style of play.

Rajon Rondo is a young, athletic point guard playing alongside some the NBA's premier scorers. At the age of 25 he is approaching the peak of his physical skills. Rondo won't get much faster, quicker or jump much higher than he already does.

His improvement at playing one of the NBA's most cerebral positions—the point guard—hinge on his ability to hone and refine his understanding of what is unfolding before his eyes on the court as well as what will happen two or three possessions down the road.

Luckily for Rondo, his head coach is a former NBA point guard who played 13 seasons for four different teams.

Doc Rivers played most of his career alongside one of the league's premier scorers in the 1980s. Dominique Wilkins was second only to Michael Jordan on the list of spectacular scorers and dunkers of the 1980s.

Rivers also played alongside a Hall of Fame-caliber center in the later parts of his career as a point guard on the Pat Riley-coached and Patrick Ewing-led New York Knicks.

What can Rondo learn from all of this?  

Assists Are Great, but Don't Turn the Ball over

Rajon Rondo's career is on a decidedly upward trajectory. Nearly every statistical category is headed in the right direction. 

His turnover numbers are a bit disturbing, though. Rondo was second in the league in assists per game (11.2)  last season but he also had the fifth-highest number of turnovers per game (3.4). He was fourth among all point guards. 

Point guards will always have higher turnover numbers due in large part to the fact that they generally handle the ball more than any other player on the court. That doesn't mean that Rondo can't take better care of the ball. 

The good news, of course, is that turnovers are usually the product of mental errors. As Rondo gains experience, these errors should decrease.

Then again, the viable scoring options that Rondo has available stand to decrease in the coming seasons, as players such as Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett retire or leave Boston. 

Rondo will need to be careful about forcing passes to players who lack the gifts of Ray Allen or Kevin Garnett, both of whom have very good hands. 

At the age of 24, Doc Rivers had his highest turnover-per-game season, at 2.7. From that point on, Rivers became a very steady and very dependable ball-handler.

Rondo is already 25, and his turnovers per game have increased every season since he entered the league. Rivers needs to find a way to change the direction of those numbers. It's not just critical for Rondo, but critical for the Boston Celtics as well.  

Point Guards Need To Hit Their Free Throws.

This may seem like beating a dead horse, but if you are the player who has the ball in their hands more than anyone else on your team, then you're likely to find yourself on the free throw line a fair amount of the time. 

It would be unfair to place lofty Ray Allen or Larry Bird-like expectations on an individual player. If you hover around the 90 percent mark on free-throw shooting over a lengthy career, that's quite impressive. 

It's not unfair to expect your point guard to shoot around the league average. Rondo isn't even close, and as he becomes an increasingly important part of the Celtics' offense, his free-throw efficiency is decreasing, not increasing. 

The league average for free-throw shooting last year was 76.3 percent. Rajon Rondo shot 56.8 percent, the lowest of his career. Sitting on the bench wearing a suit is his coach, Glenn "Doc" Rivers. He was a career 78.4 percent free-throw shooter.

Free throws are in many cases dependent on one's ability to find a routine which establishes a consistency to make the shot. Rondo isn't a great shooter from the get-go, but to become a truly great point guard he needs to be a player whom defenses can't neutralize by sending to the charity stripe.

Rondo's overall athleticism means he has a higher ceiling as a player than Rivers had. Rivers was a good athlete, but Rondo is a great athlete. That does Rondo no good if the can't hit his free throws.

If Rondo gets by his defender on a path to the basket then he can be fouled, and as of now the odds are that a foul will save his opponent a point.

Rivers and Rondo need to get together at some point and figure out a routine for him to practice every day to improve his free throws. Even if Rondo peaked at or around 70 percent, that would make him one of the toughest point guards to defend in the entire league.

Rivers can't make Rondo quicker, he can't make him jump higher and he can't handle the ball for him on the court. If he can get him to buckle down and work hard to improve his free-throw shooting, that will be a huge assist from one point guard to another.  

If You Can't Shoot the Ball, Your Career Is Going to Be Shorter

While there is no question that Rajon Rondo needs to improve his free-throw shooting to become a great point guard, his three point shooting is something that would be nice to see improve, but isn't the end-all-be-all of his on-court ability. 

Rondo is just not a good three-point shooter.

He knocked down a not-even-close-to-respectable 23.3 percent last season. Luckily, he only attempted 0.6 three-point shots per game.

What's so impressive about Rondo is that he is an elite point guard who can't shoot free throws and can't shoot three-pointers.

Both those qualities tend to exist among most of the top point guards in the league. To be weak in both areas and still rank among the top in many of the other categories is a testament to the level of elite athleticism that Rondo possesses. 

There's just one problem, though. Rondo will get slower and will lose a bit of that spectacular quick leaping ability. He'll lose a step. When that happens, the players who are able to remain in the league do so by becoming less spectacular but still steady players. 

It's very difficult to do that if you can't shoot the ball. How can Rivers help? 

Rivers needs to remind Rondo of the fact that he will get older. He will get slower. All Rivers needs to do is show him footage of his current teammate Kevin Garnett from the mid-to late-1990s.

That Kevin Garnett was an explosive player. He was a lanky, streamlined athlete who could seemingly jump out of the gym. He played with an explosive flair five minutes into the game as well as with just five seconds left on the clock. 

Not anymore. Now Kevin Garnett is a bit slow and a bit achy. His on-court demeanor is more deliberate. That's not because Garnett doesn't care or doesn't practice or hasn't stayed in shape. He's just getting old.

It's going to happen to Rondo, too, but if he can't shoot, it could be the springboard for a quick decline to his career. 

Your Role Is Going to Get Bigger and so Will the Pressure

If and when the NBA owners and players decide to get their priorities in order and actually have a 2011-2012 NBA season, then it may end up being the final one for "The Big Three." 

Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett will be free agents following the season. Maybe they'll retire? Maybe they'll sign with other teams?

Maybe they'll resign for smaller contracts with the Celtics. 

The odds are they both won't be back, and even if they, are the odds are their roles will become even more limited. Yes, the era of "The Big Three" is coming to an end. 

Unless Rajon Rondo is traded to free-up space for the Celtics to sign another high-profile free agent such as Chris Paul or Deron Williams, Rondo stands to become even more of a focal point of the Celtics' offense in the next few seasons. 

With that focus will come an added amount of pressure.

He will get more credit for the C's wins and will have to endure more criticism for their losses. As a player, Rivers never dealt with that type of a roll. He was never the focal point of his teams. Even at his peak he was overshadowed by Wilkins. 

As a coach, though, he has experienced this. Coaching the Boston Celtics comes with its fair share of expectations.

When they were playing terrible basketball the pressure was to improve, and when they acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett the pressure was to win. When they did in fact win an NBA Championship the pressure shifted to winning another one.

Accomplish one goal and you get your credit, but then it's on to the next one. 

Rivers has for the most part handled this pretty well. The Celtics have not repeated as champions since the 2007-2008 season. They've been highly competitive in nearly every season, though.

They also extended a very talented Lakers team to a hard-fought Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals. Losing a tough Game 7 on the road was heartbreaking, but the loss was not one of which the team or its fans should feel ashamed. 

As the pressure mounts on Rondo to lead his team on and off the floor, Rivers must help. As coach he can always deflect attention from his players onto himself. Rivers can also help to shepherd Rondo into a leadership role.

Rondo can learn from Rivers, who tends to have a fairly measured demeanor with the media. Rondo will play an increasingly critical role in the success or failure of the Celtics, and that's not disputable.  

As Long as Paul Pierce Is Still a Good Scorer, Keep Giving Him the Ball.

While it's true that Paul Pierce's per-game scoring output of 18.9 points last year was among the lowest of his career, it's also true that his scoring in general dropped-off once Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett arrived on the scene.

Consider that in the season before their arrival Pierce averaged 25 points per game. In the ensuing four seasons he's been at 19.6, 20.5, 18.3 and 18.9.

Last season Pierce registered the highest field goal percentage (49.7) and highest free throw percentage (86.0) of his entire career. What does all of that mean? It means that Pierce is still an elite scorer who has gained a veteran's understanding of his on-court strengths and weaknesses.

He takes better shots, hits more of his free throws and takes advantage of the comparably inexperienced players who are often taxed with the burden of defending him. 

What does that mean for Rondo? Get Pierce the ball, that's what.

Pierce is going to find ways to get open. It might be off a screen or it might be by exploiting a size or strength advantage over a defender. He will find openings, though, and when he gets the ball he's still able to take advantage of them. 

Rondo has been doing a great job of this. It's just important for him to remember to continue to do it.

Doc Rivers and Dominique Wilkins were a deadly duo for years. There's little evidence to suggest that Rondo and Pierce can't be together and effective for a few more, too. 

Pierce may be 34 years old, but his game is tailored quite well to handle the aging process.

Pierce has always been a player who has used his physique, which features long arms and legs, broad shoulders, deceptive strength and exceptional balance to clear up enough space on the court to get off good shots.

He doesn't need to be explosive to do this (though it helps, of course). Pierce could be a very solid and productive player for several more years, and that could make both Rivers' and Rondo's jobs much easier.