Rondo Rounded Out

Posted by Brendan Jackson on Oct 6, 2009 34830 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2009%2F10%2F06%2Frondo-rounded-out%2FRondo+Rounded+Out2009-10-06+16%3A53%3A53Brendan+Jacksonhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D3483

Rajon Rondo putting on 15 pounds of muscle this offseason is perhaps the most interesting tidbit fans found out during media day. Since I don’t have a social life, yesterday I compiled a list of all point guards of similar size (6’3″ or under) and compared Rondo’s weight from last season and this seaon to see how he stacked up. By doing this I did find out some interesting things:

1) Juan Dixon is tiny (6’3″, 164 lbs.)
2) Size doesn’t necesarilly equal wins as the Kings don’t have a player under 6″3′
3) There are a lot of players in the NBA 6’3″ and under.

I didn’t really focus on position because in a league where we predominantly think size does matter, it surprisingly doesn’t for shooting guards- or even combo guards. The following guys, while some may try to call them point guards, for all intents and purposes, are shooting guards- and they are short: Juan “Scrawny” Dixon, Mo Williams, Eddie House, Daniel Gibson, Jason Terry, Ben Gordon, Stephan Curry, Luther Head, Jack McClinton, Sean Singletary, and Quincy Douby.

Then there are the combo guards: Ronald Murray, Delonte West, Monta Ellis, Allen Iverson, Keyon Dooling, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, and Jerryd Bayless.

And finally the guards who are neither, they’re just guards, sort of: Charlie Bell, Kevin Ollie, and Willie Green.

The rest of this list is comprised of 64 players that I deem true point guards. I have thusly broken down this list into two over-simplified categories: quick and bulkie. Those that fall in the “bulkie group” follow in the Gary Payton model of posting up the smaller players and are really suited for half court offenses. The point guards in the “quick group,” as you might imagine, try to beat their man off the dribble and are perfect for the dribble drive offense made popular by  John Calipari and your favorite NBA team. This leads us into the discussion of why Rondo would want to add bulk if the offense is more suited for dribble drive. My thoughts after the jump:

1) Don’t let the hi-def fool you, Rondo was tiny last season. Weighing in at 171 pounds, Rondo was the forth lightest point guard in the league last year, only behind Allen Iverson, Mike Taylor, and Bobby Brown. It’s no surprise that these are very quick players. Now weighing in somewhere between 184-186, Rondo is closer to Willie Green, Chris Duhon size. These guys are definitely more imposing than Rondo was last year.

2) Luckily, size doesn’t necessarily kill quick quickness. I know the first thing you think of when you hear NBA players putting on weight are names like Eddy Curry, Michael Sweetney, Antoine Walker, and Vin Baker- and of course those last two names are scary to Celtics fans. Rest assured, this type of bulk up, doesn’t kill quickness. For example, Anthony Johson, clearly not the quickest guy on the floor, has the same specs as Leandro Barbosa (6’3″, 190 and 6’3″, 188 respectively).

3) Bulk can equal durability. We’ve seen Rondo round out to a tough son of a gun these past few seasons. He drives hard into the lane, absorbs contact, and makes a play at the basket. He also flys in for rebounds with reckless abandon that sometimes result in him ending up on the floor. This added bulk will only aid in him absorbing the contact and not feeling it during the game. Whether he feels it the next day is a different story. I mean, that’s why the NFL has mondays off (save for MNF of course).

4) Bring on Kirk Hinrich. Now that Rondo has gained around 15 pounds of muscle he is pound for pound the same size as Kirk Hinrich- both are 2.53 pounds per inch. For Rondo, that’s 0.19 increase from last year!
…
To be honest, I don’t really know how to calculate pound for pound or how to really compare two people of different size- I’ll leave that up to them fightin’ blogs.

So in conclusion, as long as the weight gain doesn’t affect his quickness the Celtics should only reap the benefits. After watching the Celtics training camp (or lack there of as Zach pointed out) on NBATV, Rondo’s upper body definitely seemed bigger and broader. Here’s hoping he paid some attention to those legs of his too. He’s already explosive as we’ve seen here and here, so just imagine what little “plyos” would do for Rondo.

Notes:
All height and weight information was taken from the HoopsHype.com rosters and only included players I thought had a reasonable chance of playing this year.
The average weight for all guards 6’3″ and under was 186.06 pounds.
The average weight for all gaurds 6’1 (Rondo’s height) was 183.6 pounds.
Kirk Hinrich sucks. Brad Miller too.

Oh and let me know if you want to see how any other shorter guard stacked up, as I have an extensive list that is now effectively collecting dust.