If ever there were a professional athelete that was severely overrated by the media and fans it is point guard Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics. Now don't get me wrong, he's an amazing talent. If he didn't have talent he wouldn't be in the NBA. What he lacks is an ability to shoot a 15 foot jump shot. He has no jumper in his arsenal that could put him and his team over the top. If one or two of the Big Three are having a bad game, Rondo's jump shot ability could still allow them to win.
Instead you have incidents like last years playoff series against the Miami Heat where the Heat clogged the lane which prevented Paul Pierce from scoring his easy jump shots therefore forcing Rondo, the ever dependable facilitator, to shoot the ball. His defenders actually stood several feet back from him and DARED him to shoot, and when he did he missed. Horribly.
All the other elite point guards in the NBA, Darron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Steve Nash, Derrick Rose, etc., all can shoot the ball. They have all around games to where if they had to put their teams on their backs, and many of them do, they can still win the game. They make their teammates better, they make their team better. They are what you call difference makers.
Rondo gets a triple double and now people are quick to call him elite, a difference maker. Some will even go as far to say that he is a franchise player. I beg to differ for the reasons I've already outlined above. His assists stats get padded because of scoop passes to one of the Big Three. He has no choice but to pass because he can't shoot the ball. I could provide a myriad of other examples of why Rondo is not an elite point guard, but I feel the previously stated points suffice. Many fans are prisoners of the moment. They see Rondo have a great game here and there and they call him one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. At some point we have to take the blinders off, and as true fans of basketball be honest about the strengths and weaknesses of our favorite and least favorite players. There was nothing impressive about Rondo's triple double against the Knicks on Sunday March 4. Until he develops a jump shot in addition to scoop passing the ball to one of the Big Three, he will never be elite.
