The pluses a healthy and even 90% Rondo would bring over Burke are defense and pass-first mentality. I am still not convinced that Burke is anything more than a shoot-first point guard, and his defense has been just ok in the games I have seen. Another thing you get with Rondo is a fierce competitor. We are seeing some of that in Burke, but he lacks that killer instinct, and I think Rondo has shown he takes it personally when they don't succeed. But we have enough weapons, that, if fully integrated, would more than make up for our point guard only scoring 10 per game, and in fact are probably preferable to a point that looks for his own scoring as much or more than getting others involved.
Case in point, and yes just one game, but Hayward's miracle game. Did you see Trey's line?
10 pts on 4-12 shooting
6 assists
6 boards
2 steals
Decent line, to be sure. But he took only 4 fewer shots than Hayward, while getting outscored by 27, and had one fewer assists. I know he is a rookie and this is only one game, but I am not seeing a pass-first PG here. If this were Stock and Malone, and Malone ended with nearly 40 points Stock would have been sitting on 12 assists minimum, and if it were just 12 we would have noted he had a bit of an off-game. I am not expecting Trey to be Stockton, but I would have expected more from the PG in that circumstance. I am a bit concerned that his style of play might not be the best for us, especially if we catch a super-star.
