With Jason Kidd, Steve Nash and Andre Miller entering their twilight of their careers, the game is on the verge losing a trio of players that excel at the simplest notion; getting the ball to their teammates where they can be their best. It is not so much passing as it is the idea of distribution. Perhaps due to a changing game, it is an idea fewer and fewer in today’s game seem less capable of embracing.
To be an elite distributor one has to possess a certain amount of guile and moxie, traits that combine to produce a clever variety of ways to deliver the basketball into the hands of open teammates. Distributors, in a sense, find “angles of deployment”. Whether contorting their bodies, dribbling to new space or using crazy amounts of spin and pace, they find windows that allow for the ball to be delivered at exactly the right time.
At just 26 years old, Rajon Rondo already finds himself as a lonely master of this particular craft. Last night, he showcased just how devastating a black-belt in the art of distribution can be, especially when your teammates make long 2s at the same rate Dwight Howard converts dunks. Thanks in part to that torrid jump-shooting by his teammates, Rondo tallied 15 assists against a Heat defense that spent most of the contest overwhelmed and bewildered.
Quite of few of his dimes came due to Rondo working hard to find great angles of deployment. Part of what helps him do that so well is his tendency in transition to change sides of the floor with the dribble. This concept, which a mentor of mine termed, “changing boxes” (picture a court split into four equal quadrants) creates all sorts of subtle angles to find open teammates. Thanks to this great habit, Rondo is able to create an open shot for Greg Stiemsma on the break.
When Rondo gets the ball on the break and pushes it down the left side of the floor. He forces two Miami defenders to defend him.
Noticing Stiemsma coming down late as the trail post, Rondo pushes across the court. This is where he finds a clever way to distribute the pass. Due to the angle of his drive and the pace of the on-coming Stiemsma, Rondo delivers a flick-pass off the bounce with his right hand instead of stopping and pivoting around. It is a much quicker deliver that guarantees Stiemsma jumper will have no chance of being contested.
That isn’t the only time during last night’s game where Rondo found a proper angle to feed Stiemsma for an open shot. Late in the third, a staggered screen for Ray Allen leaves the former Badger wide open in the short corner. Rondo, after using a pass fake, then whips an overhead pass to Stiemsma for the jumper.
While that pass looks pretty ordinary, it’s that Rondo delivered it overhead that made it work. Notice Dwyane Wade’s hands in the following picture. They are down near his waist but could quickly get up to deflect or even steal a pass delivered from chest level. But by delivering the ball with an overhead pass, Rondo insures it gets to his target unmolested.
The following two clips involve Rondo finding clever angles to deliver to Paul Pierce. In the first clip, Rondo attacks the paint after an offensive rebound. On his drive, Pierce relocates to the wing. Rondo does an excellent job of using his body to shield his defender while delivering an inside hand shovel-pass. The result is a wide-open Pierce 3.
For lower levels, coaches would most likely teach and drill a jump-stop to a reverse pivot to make that pass to Pierce. However, in the following picture you will see that the timing and speed of the game factor into Rondo’s decision. Wade, who had leaked out down the floor on the initial shot attempt, was coming back into the play. Had Rondo taken the more “fundamental” but slower approach, Pierce might have found his shot blocked or altered by Wade.
In the final video, Rondo makes an absolutely fantastic delivery in the post from the top of the key. Words don’t do this justice, so just take a look:
With a step and some sickening spin, Rondo makes a spectacular entry to Pierce on the block. The natural tendency for a player is to throw it to the wing there and let entry come from a better angle. However, take a look at where the shot clock is in the following picture.
With that little time left, a wing entry could be denied long enough to force Avery Bradley (the player on the wing) to most likely create a contested shot for himself with very little time to do so. But thanks to Rondo’s ability to seek out creative angles, the end result is a Pierce layup instead.
So while Nash, Kidd and Miller may be hanging it up soon, fear not for the demise of the distributor. Thanks to Rajon Rondo (and perhaps Ricky Rubio), this rare breed will avoid extinction.
