Do The C’s Miss Eddie House Right Now?
Posted by Brian Robb on May 7, 2010
AP
It’s a question that popped into my head, while analyzing the C’s chances over the rest of this postseason. I couldn’t help but notice how all of the C’s main contributors in the playoffs had been well immersed with the C’s system for the past three seasons.
Those players were comprised of the starting five, Tony Allen, and Glen Davis. Those were the only guys Doc Rivers could count on to give us something through those first seven games. They knew the system, knew their roles.
The newer additions, have been well, less than consistent to put it nicely. Sheed of course has shown up for one game, but it remains to be seen if hell will continue to freeze over for the rest of this postseason.
Michael Finley may step up to the plate at one point this postseason, but that time hasn’t come yet (33% FG, 28% 3pt) in just under 8 minutes per game.
With these realities in place, it made me consider the question. Did the C’s make a mistake in dealing Eddie House and company for Nate Robinson? Or perhaps more importantly, could they use Eddie right now, in these playoffs?
On first glance, the answer appears rather obvious: Of course they could! Eddie House had his flaws, but knew the C’s system, played to his strengths and never would back down from the big shot. Meanwhile, Nate Robinson hasn’t been able to crack the rotation since the end of the regular season. Seems like a pretty open and shut case right? Not so fast.You see, I would argue that the C’s have become a better overall team, due to dealing Eddie House out of town. How is that possible? It’s quite simple, really. By dealing Eddie, the C’s have been forced to become more reliant on Rajon Rondo and that’s a very good thing. Allow me to explain.
Say the C’s had decided to hold pat at the deadline and kept House. Eddie is one trick pony, a trick he performs very well, by shooting the deep ball. His flaws though, the lack of size, ballhandling skills and defensive quickness are quite glaring when he’s out there.
Despite those flaws, I would have bet the house and the farm, Eddie would still be a rotation player right now for the C’s in the playoffs, barring injury or a huge decline in his shooting numbers in Green. He knew the system, he busted his ass out there, and Doc trusted him. He would have eaten up minutes either at the point guard spot, or as an undersized 2, hurting the C’s on the defensive end as he chased around bigger, quicker guards.
Instead of sticking with the status quo though, Danny Ainge went for the bigger risk/reward scenario by dealing Eddie for Nate Robinson. Nate clearly has bigger upside than Eddie at this point in his career, but with that upside came learning a new complicated system on both sides of the ball.
Robinson was given more of his fair share of opportunties after his arrival, but his passive play on the offensive end combined with a plethora of constant mental mistakes on defense led to Doc Rivers pulling the plug on Nate’s playing time in the regular rotation at the end of the regular season.
With Nate and Marquis Daniels playing themselves out of the second team, it left just one player on the team who could handle the backup point guard duties; Tony Allen. I also use the word handle very loosely. TA has come out strong this season and continues to be a valuable role player and defender off the bench.
His point guard skills however, leave a lot to be desired. Doc treating TA playing point guard, is kind of like teaching a youngster to ride a bike for the first time. You want to give them a chance to get their balance, but you also don’t want to give them too much space, knowing the chances of them wiping out are fairly high.
This brings me to the whole point of this article. With Doc out of options he could trust at point, it has forced him to rely on Rajon Rondo more than ever. And guess what? That’s the best possible scenario for this team, since the more Rondo is on the floor, the better chance it has to succeed.
Consider this. During these playoffs thus far, Rondo is leading all players in minutes per game, averaging 42.4 each contest. He has played between 42-45 minutes for every game except for the game 2 blowout at home against Miami. As Wayne Winston noted, in this Cavs series, the C’s are +19 when Rondo has been out there and an incredible -9 during his nine minutes of rest.
So make no mistake about this post, it’s not intended to be a shot at Eddie House. It’s just that I wouldn’t want him on this team right now. Not because of what he does or doesn’t do, but more because of what Rondo can do. With House here, it would have given Doc another way to rest Rondo, or perhaps put House and Rondo out there together instead of TA and Rondo. For the playoffs, I’ll take the latter combo everyday of the week.
I love Eddie House and all that he has done for this team while he was here, his absence has been a positive for this team during the playoffs thus far. You may not fully agree with me on that, but it’s an argument I think carries some merit.
Zach Lowe summed it up perfectly, as we traded emails about the idea noting, “It’s an interesting theory. So Nate is contributing value by being so bad that Rondo is playing more? I’m not sure that alone makes the trade a success, but it’s one argument to make.”
Argument made.
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