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Thats more on Spo than anything and the little fact that Rondo is simply better.
IMO this is a pretty interesting comparison that speaks volumes of the void in leadership there might be in Miami. Both situations start off very similar at the beginning of Miami's training camp in October, 2010 and Boston's training camp in October, 2007. Each team was beginning its first season with a big 3 at SG, SF and PF, while there were people who wondered if their lack of talent/experience at PG would be a problem.
Rondo, the Celtics' PG, was entering his 2nd season and while having good defensive ability, had absolutely no jumper. The fear was that when the ball wasn't in his hands, the Celtics would be playing 4 on 5 on offense. Eddie House was his only real compe ion.
Chalmers, The Heat's PG, was entering his 3rd season. He also specializes in defense (not as good as Rondo but still good), and while he isn't as talented as Rondo, he isn't as raw as Rondo was in 2008. He isn't a playmaking threat with the ball in his hands, but unlike Rondo needs to be guarded as a catch & shoot threat. In addition to House, Chalmers also had Arroyo to deal with, who is a slightly more consistent shooter than he is but is an atrocious defender.
Now is when both teams start handling things differently.
From the beginning of training camp with Boston, Doc Rivers and Boston's big 3 took a firm stance that Rondo would be the starting PG for better or for worse. He'd be the one taking the ball up the court, he'd be initiating plays on offense, and if his jumper couldn't do anything to keep defenses honest, so be it. Rivers, Allen, Pierce and KG did whatever they could to make sure Rondo knew that he could play without worrying about losing his starting job.
Opening night: Rondo starts and plays 32 minutes. Boston wins with Rondo scoring a surprising 15 points and holding Arenas to 26.3% shooting.
Now there's how Miami handled it. Spoelstra never fully committed to Chalmers. The season prior Chalmers lost his job to Arroyo because of a shooting slump in spite of the fact Chalmers is a good defender and Arroyo is a corpse on defense, and Spoelstra did nothing to give Chalmers a vote of confidence. While blame lands largely on Spoestra for being so bad at handling a young guy's confidence, it didn't help that we never heard Lebron, Wade or Bosh give Chalmers any kind of endorsement. Sure enough, Arroyo's hot shooting preseason gave Spoestra enough of a reason to ignore how much better Chalmers was than Arroyo in the 2010 playoffs.
Opening night: Arroyo starts, Rajon Rondo of all people torches them with 17 assists and Miami loses. Even though Arroyo only plays 12 minutes because of how easy a time Rondo had abusing him, Spoelstra decided it was better to overuse Eddie House for the rest of the time instead of give Chalmers burn. He was a DNP-CD.
At the end of November 2010, Chalmers is averaging less than 10 MPG, and the Heat are 10-8 largely because of how poorly they defend PGs. On the flip side, at the end of November in 2007, Boston is 13-2, Rondo is averaging 32 MPG and they are playing dominant perimeter D.
The Celtics keep doing with they're doing through December and midway through January. Rondo keeps getting around 30 MPG even after terrible games (like getting completely outplayed by Chauncey Billups), and they keep winning. With Miami, Spoelstra budges somewhat with Chalmers after his team's 9-8 start. Arroyo still remains starter, but Chalmers starts getting 26+ MPG and the Heat start winning. From Dec. 1 to Jan. 9th, they go 20-1. After a 4 game losing streak from Jan. 9th-Jan. 18th where their perimeter D is terrible, Chalmers finally gets the nod over Arroyo to start.
Fast forward to March 3rd of each team's respective season, Miami and Boston both pick up a veteran PG (Bibby to Miami, Cassell to Boston). Both situations generated inevitable whispers that each team's young players might lose their starting job to the veterans with playoff experience. Doc Rivers immediately came out and said Rondo was still the team's starter while Spoelstra remained mum on who would be getting the minutes at PG.
So here we are now with the Heat 2 games completed with Bibby. Sam Cassell didn't even play till his 4th game with Boston with Rondo logging heavy minutes in those games. Meanwhile, by Bibby's 2nd game with Miami, Chalmers lost significant PT to him. After a 38 point 2nd quarter which got Miami a manageable halftime deficit, Spoelstra decides to start the 3rd quarter with Bibby because of his shooting. With that liability at PG, SA scores 63 2nd half points and Miami's perimeter defense looks beyond bad. Through their 2 games with Bibby, Chalmers' confidence looks to be at an all time bad while his shot can't hit the side of a barn. Compare that to Boston in March of 2008 where the questions about Rondo losing his job began to completely disappear.
Thats more on Spo than anything and the little fact that Rondo is simply better.
I agree it's 90% on Spoelstra and 10% on the big 3, but I disagree 2008 Rondo > Chalmers.
Rondo has better bbiq, Chalmers makes tons of really dumb plays. Rondo just understands the game better.
Back in 2008 Rondo was still learning. I agree his ceiling >>>> Chalmers' ceiling, but in 2008 Rondo did plenty of dumb things and had plenty of growing pains. This is also just personal theory, but I'll bet the amount of dumb mistakes Chalmers makes would go down if he got consistent PT.
I agree
Orton trying to do what the spurs never did.
Tbf with Miami, Spoelstra is mishandling almost everything. Even how he draws up his plays.
I think you're a good poster but this is bad/incomplete analysis. There's some stuff you missed out on. First, Chalmers was injured to start the year so they couldn't really commit to him; its not like he's played so well they could just name him a starter without him having to even compete for the job. Plus Chalmers has had severe maturity issues dating back to that NBA camp he and Darrell Arthur were kicked out of. He's been late to practice continually over the years, and been fined a ton of times for breaking team rules. His being late to a shootaround was one of the reasons he was benched in the first place. Just going with a guy who displays a lack of commitment like that would make a coach a joke/pushover.
Also comparing Rondo and Chalmers is misguided in my opinion. Except for shooting threes, which Chalmers is just decent at, Rondo is better than him at everything. Plus he's a much better athlete.
I think you're a good poster but this is bad/incomplete analysis. There's some stuff you missed out on. First, Chalmers was injured to start the year so they couldn't really commit to him; its not like he's played so well they could just name him a starter without him having to even compete for the job. Plus Chalmers has had severe maturity issues dating back to that NBA camp he and Darrell Arthur were kicked out of. He's been late to practice continually over the years, and been fined a ton of times for breaking team rules. His being late to a shootaround was one of the reasons he was benched in the first place. Just going with a guy who displays a lack of commitment like that would make a coach a joke/pushover.
Also comparing Rondo and Chalmers is misguided in my opinion. Except for shooting threes, which Chalmers is just decent at, Rondo is better than him at everything.
I think comparing Chalmers to 2008 Rondo is legit. People seem to forget the gaping difference between 2008 Rondo and current day Rondo.
It's an interesting point. I almost didn't remember the Cassel/Bibby similarity between those 2 teams.
Anyway I agree about the point of Spoelstra and the rest of the team leaders not giving the appropriate support to Chalmers as he's clearly the best point guard on that team.
One thing clearly different imo between the heat and the 2008 Celtics comparison is the fact that the role of the point guard in Miami's offence is not really well defined.
That all Lebron James point forward/ can play all five positions/ has to have the ball in his hands all the time/ play 1 on 5 on tons of possessions thing really doesn't help to know exactly what they want from their starting pg.
In the 2008 Celtics they knew they would have Rondo handling the ball most of the time. They run occasionally isos for Pierce, but their offence is dictated by Rondo even in 2008 when he wasn't nearly as good as he is today. This Heat team on the other hand, their whole offence is based on Lebron and Wade driving to the basket witch means having the ball on their hands.
And even though you mention pg defence as one of their weakness early on the season, Miami is a good defensive team. Their main weakness is executing on offence in half court, because they barely run sets plays.
So basically even though I don't think PG play is their main problem I agree that by now they should assure Chalmers he has the job and commit to it. I think Spoelstra tries too hard to put players around Lebron that would fit the way he wants to play instead of setting a balanced offence.
The roles are different I agree, the similarities are in the cir stances for each player.
And I'm not saying PG play is their main problem, I was saying the way they've handled Chalmers is more a reflection on Spoelstra's stupidity/Lebron's "leadership". It's the tip of a much bigger iceberg, while the unyielding confidence Boston had in Rondo in 2008 reflected how great the leadership Rivers/KG provided for the 2008 Celtics.
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