Mens Basketball Wire

Most of the talk about the Celtics revolves around their trio of veteran All-Stars, but the little engine that is making the green machine go this year, was the biggest question mark before the season got started.  Rajon Rondo, the second year point guard out of Kentucky, saw plenty of playing time as a rookie last year and performed well, albeit on a terrible team where his mistakes could blend in with the mistakes being made by the rest of the young players on that team.  Having traded youth for experience in the offseason by bringing in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, the learning curve this year has been much steeper.

Rondo seems to be dealing with the task of distributing the ball evenly to three of the game’s better scorers well, according to this article by Ian Thompson on SI.com.

Comparing his statistics from last year to this year, the difference is obvious.  Last year, Rondo played about 23 minutes per game and averaged 6.4 points, 3.8 assists, and had a FG% of 41%.  This year, he’s averaging 32 minutes per game, and has increased his scoring to 8.8, 5.2 APG, and is shooting just under 55%.  One important stat is that, even though he is playing almost 10 minutes per game, Rondo’s turnovers per game are exactly the same, 1.8.  Another big difference is that Rondo has not attempted a three-pointer this year, which has raised his percentage.

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