Who Would You Want: Rajon Rondo Or Chris Paul?

Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo have always been at each other’s throats. Some cats, like Derrick Rose, they just don’t care about the competition. They do their thing, and if people annoint them as MVPs or anything else, it doesn’t matter. But some guys… they need that respect. They crave it. Chris Paul is like that. He rolls with LeBron and D-Wade. The best in the business. And Rondo is definitely like that.

What happened when we caught up with Rondo earlier this fall? He said he’d beat everyone on his own team one-on-one, including Paul Pierce. Then he said he’d beat every point guard in the whole league. Who would he take out in a one-on-one championship? “Whoever gets there,” he said. Okay then. I guess that settles that.

So now we have two guys – Public Enemy No. 1, the player you love to hate and then the people’s champ, the next Isiah – in direct competition not just on the court, but because their respective squads are thinking about trading these two for each other. Paul wants to go to New York above all else but Boston is busy convincing him to come to New England. Rondo doesn’t really want to go anywhere, but could be changing his stance soon because the Celtics are offering him to New Orleans and are now even discussing things with Indiana. If both of these All-Stars survive this condensed season in their current situations, it’ll be amazing. Something’s gonna happen.

So now we bring it out to the Dime fam. Who would you rather have running your squad? Rajon Rondo or Chris Paul? We’ve argued this time and time again. Here are some highlights from our past arguments.

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CHRIS PAUL
“Now, after finishing up his sixth NBA season, some want to say he’s fallen off. Hypebeasts argue that his short-lived reign as the NBA’s best PG has come to an end, and after one phenomenal season by some guy out of Chicago, he’s no longer the best point guard the NBA has to offer. Pure blasphemy.

Nothing turns a fan off more than an injury. Someone can be the best and most idolized player in the league, but the second he gets hurt, he’s forgotten about instantly. When a player gets hurt, there’s no telling if, or how, they’re going to come back. So when Chris Paul got injured, it was almost like he had automatically revoked his best PG title. Nobody gave him the chance to come back off that injury and prove he hadn’t lost a step. They wrote him off immediately. Just because the best PG gets hurt for a season or so doesn’t mean you have to start looking for a new one right away.

It’s safe to say that with his first-round series against L.A, CP3 opened up a lot of eyes again, and reminded people that he is the best, and most complete point guard the league has seen in years. If that series wasn’t enough of a reminder, hopefully in the future he’s competing for championships. If that happens, no matter what team he’s playing on, I’m sure there won’t be any question as to who the best point guard in the NBA is any longer.” – Jaimie Canterbury

RAJON RONDO
“The amount of players that make others around them better in the NBA can be counted on two hands. They are a rare commodity. Rajon Rondo happens to fit in that category. With the decline of Steve Nash, Rondo is the best playmaker in the league. His ability to create for others is simply unmatched in the NBA. He averaged 13.2 assists per game in November and December combined, and finished the year just behind Nash for the NBA lead in assists at over 11 per game.

Some could make the argument that this is a function of the players around him, but that simply is not the case. Watching Rondo play, it’s obvious that his elite level of quickness and court vision allows players such as Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis to do what they do best: spot up and shoot.

The point guard is supposed to be the facilitator for the rest of the team. They rely on him to get the rest of the players on the court involved. Rondo’s 3.3 assist-to-turnover ratio speaks for itself.

Rondo plays within himself, always focusing on how he can manage all of the players around him. This is no easy task either. Since Rondo is playing around a core of three potential Hall of Famers, satisfying three gargantuan egos isn’t easy. Somehow, Rondo knows how to keep everyone happy, while managing to explode for occasional big scoring nights.

He might not be a high-volume scorer, but Rajon Rondo is a master of the point guard position.” – Lucas Shapiro

Which player would you rather have running your team?

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