The NBA playoffs miss Rajon Rondo (and his triple-doubles)

Nobody triple-doubles like Rondo triple-doubles.

Former Celtics coach Doc Rivers liked to say that his title-winning starting five from 2008 (Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins) never lost a playoff series together.  In 2009 Garnett was out for the postseason, and in 2010 the Lakers ruined Perkins' knee in Game 6 of the Finals.  Boston traded Perk for Jeff Green in 2011, and that was that.

Since then four of the five have never missed the playoffs.  Perkins is making his 4th straight appearance with the Thunder.  Allen played in two more postseasons with the Celtics, and is now in his second with the Heat.  Pierce and Garnett took Boston to the playoffs three more times before getting there with Brooklyn this year.

Rondo, on the other hand, has been kept out of each of the past two postseasons (last year due to his torn ACL).  As exciting as these playoffs have been, they are without a doubt missing one of the league's premier postseason performers.  Take a look at the graphic on the right (from basketball-reference.com) of every playoff triple-double recorded since Rondo first entered the league in 2006.  Despite being absent the last two years, Rondo's 10 postseason triple-doubles still lead the NBA during that time (LeBron James has 9).

Maybe even more amazing is the fact that in the 38-month span that Rondo accumulated those 10 playoff triple-doubles, the rest of the league had just 6 combined.

Thanks to @MrTrpleDouble10 for the tip.



Follow Mark Vandeusen on twitter @LucidSportsFan