http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ding-clint-capela-improvement-future-all-star Q: #peltonmailbag is there a good way to explain variations in Rondo’s effectiveness besides “playoff Rondo” or “National TV Rondo”? Specific lineups make him more effective? KP: So first, a confession: Much like Rondo does, I find the concept of "Playoff Rondo" to be somewhat overrated. Rondo is certainly better in the playoffs, and that's rare in and of itself. On average, weighted by minutes, players see their per-minute win percentage drop about 6 percent in the playoffs because the competition is tougher. By contrast, Rondo's had gone up 2.6 percent before this season, which is pretty good. It ranks in the 89th percentile among players with at least 1,000 minutes played in the playoffs since 1977-78, and 10th when we limit to players with at least 3,000 minutes. That will likely go up a bit this year, since Rondo rates 8.6 percent better than during the regular season. However, to imply Rondo is a totally different player in the postseason in my opinion both overrates his playoff performance and underrates how good he was in the regular season during his prime. Anyhow, I think this year there is something of a reasonable explanation in terms of New Orleans' lineup change. Rondo played just 348 minutes during the regular season with the frontcourt of Anthony Davis and Nikola Mirotic, according to NBA Advanced Stats; that trio has already played 178 minutes together in the postseason, nearly three-quarters of Rondo's total. With Mirotic and Davis on the court, Rondo averaged 12.6 points and 12.3 assists per 36 minutes during the regular season, up from 11.3 and 11.3 overall. That said, Rondo has been even better in the playoffs than he was with the spread lineups during the regular season, averaging 14.0 assists per 36 minutes. There's also no such obvious explanation for his performance in Boston given the Celtics' lineup consistency, or for national TV games where rotations were unlikely to change. The simplest explanation is probably that Rondo truly does focus more in bigger games.
