Artest is TIRED

portlandpete — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:19:38 -0000

There has been some talk about how Roy needs to get rest during the game from guarding Ron Artest so he can have enough energy to perform on offense. This is usually brought up in regards to him defending Ron Artest who is extremely strong and physical on offense and defense. However, I think a large point that is being missed is that Artest is usually (with some brief spells of Battier) the one guarding Roy and I think it is severely affecting his offensive game.

Roy stepped his physical game last year and this year. He invites the contact and has gotten strong enough to get the finish plus the hope of the +1. Even on his jab step jumpers, he'll occassionally body his defender to create a little more space before he back steps and jumpshoots. Combine that with the number of picks that Roy runs his defender through, picks that usually include someone like, Oden, Pryzbilla or Aldridge, and you have an extremely physically punishing assignment outside of just having to chase around a guy who's averaged 21 shots per game this series and is usually the offensive focus of the team (outside of when the team feeds Aldridge).

Artest was the second leading scorer for this team this season. Some stats:

Regular Season

35.5min 17.1ppg .401avg

This Series

36.4min 13.4ppg .377avg

Obviously we're dealing with a far smaller sample size here. Let's include some regular season matchups in which he's guarding other allstar type players, including Roy.

Players - Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Roy (9 regular season games total)

38.2min 14.9ppg .350avg

So now we have 14 total games to look at. Still not a great sample size, but a significant enough one to make my point. Of course, part of the reason may be that he being guarded by some exceptional defenders when this happens, though I can't say for sure without having seen all these games.

Artest is obviously ridiculously strong, but guarding the preeminent offensive players in the league (and the world) has got to be taxing. To have done it for 5 straight games now, against someone who accepts the contact, who even initiates that contact has got to be tiring. Maybe a lot of it is Ron being Ron and his shot selection, but I think it has a lot to do with guarding Roy. And so Roy is not only being a beast on the offensive end, as a direct result he's helping to nullify the second biggest offensive threat.

Basically, Roy is awesomeness all over. But we knew that already.

Opponent Profile - Rajon Rondo

portlandpete — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:53:22 -0000

We're going to focus on a slightly lesser known commodity of the Boston Celtics, but still essential to their success as a team. He's not part of the oft-referenced Big Three, but his contributions help make the Big Green Machine go.

We'll start off with some general stats for this year, his third in the NBA.

Season	Team	G	GS	MPG	FG%	3p%	FT%	OFF	DEF	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	PF	PPG
08-09	BOS	20	20	31.2	0.513	0.273	0.629	0.9	3.8	4.7	7.7	2.2	0.1	2.10	2.70	10.2

Rondo is not a good shooter. He's terrible behind the arc and bad at the free throw line. A quick look at his Hot Spots page (you'll have to put in who you want to see) and you'll see that everything for him is under the basket (really, take a look, it's silly how disproportionate the shot chart is for a guard). So he has no midrange game as well.

You'd think he'd be easy to defend.

Unfortunately, he's very good at getting to the basket as his first step as well as his overall speed are exceptional even by NBA standards.

He obviously benefits from the attention his teammates garner, but this is exactly the type of player that the Blazers have had trouble handling because of his quickness and ability to get to the rim. Despite the good overall defensive abilities of both Pryzbilla and Oden, slashing guards seem to have their way with them. The Blazers perimeter defense is similar to the Maginot Line in that it sucks (which is not a reference to Batum who is a better than average defender so far).

That driving ability has also been the catalyst for an uptick in assists for him at 7.7 a game, up from the 5.1 he averaged last year. What also helps is that Ray Allen, the Celtics spot-up shooter (though he's capable of far more than that) is shooting much better than he did last year (the .494 he's shooting the best of his career)

He takes care of the ball as well, with his assists/turnover ratio at 3.67 leaving him 6th best in the NBA.

Defensively, that quickness and agility help him manage 2.2 steals per game (good for 4th in the league). I'll let Dave's interview with CelticsBlog speak to the rest of his defensive ability, but suffice it to say he's pretty damn good at it.

So where does that leave the Blazers? Basically if the team focuses on stopping the Big Three, Rondo has no problem taking some of that slack and getting the win for his team (coming off a triple double in the Celtics win vs. the Pacers on 12/3). You can't worry too much about Pierce, Allen and Garnett, because the second you take your eyes off Rondo, he's past his defender and at the rim either laying it up or dishing it off to the open man. Rotations are going to have to be quick and closeouts are going to have to be flawless to be able to stop the Celtics offense.

All in all, Rondo is a less heralded but certainly not a less important piece of the puzzle for the Celtics. Without his steady (and fast) handle of the ball and his ability to penetrate and finish or penetrate and dish the Celtics would be a slow offense relying too much on jumpers (sound familiar?). The Celtics media is already pushing him for All Star consideration. This depth in the starting lineup is why this Celtics team is so fantastic, dominant and frankly, frightening.

SB Nation User Blog: portlandpete

Artest is TIRED

Opponent Profile - Rajon Rondo