It is early days, but seriously what the hell is going on? I figured their lack of a shooting back court, along with potential fit issues with Rondo/Butler/Wade would be doom but they're playing some great ball early in the season. I'm actually confused. They've beaten a couple of quality teams and are squashing the Nets right now as one would expect. It looks like they've bought in. I had them missing the top eight completely, I guess we'll see if they can maintain it.
I never understood why people would scoff at a backcourt of Rondo-Wade-Butler. Rondo and Wade aren't that washed up yet lol.
Rondo is a different animal. What you have is 2 scorers in Wade & Butler. Then in Rondo you gotta facilitator who loves getting others involved. It's a perfect match. Not to mention he'll get you 8 rebounds & 2-3 steals. People sleep on Rondo
Wade and Butler can't shoot but they know how to play All-Star basketball. Get someone to pass to them (Rondo) and you have a quality team; a quality defensive team. l didn't understand the collective media scoffing either.
I think most (myself as well) looked at the lack of three point shooting ability amongst the three, (Butler being the only decent one) and potential attitude clash. Both Rondo and Butler weren't getting the most glowing reviews as far as being in harmony with their respective front offices, and even their coaches. Then adding a player who plays the same position as Butler...it just seemed messy. I'm not sure any one has been willing to call Rondo or Wade great defenders based on the last couple of seasons, but perhaps it's a matter of effort and coaching that's getting it out of them. I'm more surprised by the offense than anything. Credit to them, they're playing great so far. I suppose we'll need to see how they handle the odd losing streak here and there before we can properly assess how it's all come together.
I saw that video of the little squabble between butler and the Celtics. What stuck out to me was rondo, butler, Wade, mcw, and I think it was Gibson was their lineup. Lol would never have thought
extremely surprised at how many people thought they would be a bad team this year. addition of wade was always going to be great for butler as a proven winner and mentor to butler. Rondo whether you like him or not has a championship pedigree with a will to win at whatever cost. They're surrounded by solid role players with an actual solid bench. Oh and they actually play some defense.
What they have, are guards!!! Rondo, Wade, Butler, MCW, Grant, RJ Hunter and Canaan. They have figured it out, you need more than one or two guards that are above average and Morey has not figured that out yet. He's constantly relying on Harden to save the day. Outside of Harden, Gordon and a constantly hurt Beverly that's it! Based upon what I saw last night verses the Cavs, we are not far off, we need at least two more BIG guards that can score and another big man that can rebound.
They have a really good starting lineup. All their starters are good defenders. Mirotic is a good shooter and MCW off the bench is a good boost as well. They can finish second behind Cleveland
It's still very early. I don't believe that Wade will continue shooting the 3 like that all season. Until I see it with my own eyes.
Not sure why you are "extremely surprised". Nearly everything you just stated are just superlatives that may nor may not have made a difference. The biggest concern was spacing with Rondo's lack of shooting and Wade's poor career 3PT%. Obviously things are looking pretty nice right now that Wade is hitting from deep. Besides that, you have the question about how the three guards (Rondo, Wade, Butler) would fit together when they all need the ball to be effective. Rondo was radioactive regardless of his time in Boston; it was and still is a gamble. Butler deserves a ton of credit for not only taking a back seat, but also doing a ton of the dirty work (so far). We'll see how long that lasts when Wade's shot isn't falling I will say that bringing RoLo to replace Noah was a great decision, he works very nicely with Taj Gibson. Let's revisit the bulls after a few more games
the shooting was being overblown imo. Not all teams have to rely on such high 3pt usage. especially with teams that do play defense. Chicago has shooters on their team and guys like butler are respectable. Wade has always shown a knack for being able to knock down big shots 3 pter or not. Out of those 3 guys the only guy really you can question for being a ball hog is rondo. And that's mainly because he likes to be in control as a PG. Butler and Wade have never shown the lack of willingness to not share the ball. And it's actually not Butler taking a back seat. He's still playing the way hes been. There's good chemistry between these two and it's having that effect throughout the entire team. But yeah long season we shall see, but the extremely surprised part was mainly from seeing the projected win total for chicago being 30-35 wins.
Shooting consistency was the only question...they're all pretty good athletes and technically 2 way players, even Rondo, because of his ability to pass.. They're all capable of making big plays in very facet (steal,block, pass, drive, etc)...only rondo's shooting is the exception.
Seriously how bat sh.it insane is Rondo to keep getting suspended by your team no matter which team you go to. Unreal that dude.
