Yeah, and you're gonna be the guy next June saying, "Yeah, I just don't think the Heat get to the Finals without Carlos Arroyo (or Mario Chalmers, or whatever)." Sorry, but no - Rondo does not deserve to be in the conversation. He's definitely a great point guard. Fourth-best in the league, IMO. But until he can A) learn how to shoot; and B) be able to consistently control the floor from night to night with the same remarkable consistency as the truly great point guards do - the way Deron does, the way Paul does, the way Nash does - he won't be in the conversation. Amusingly, you really didn't even provide a counter to the "he's playing with three future Hall of Famers" argument - you just said "winning is a valuable part of the argument." Which I won't argue with, but "winning" has to be put into context, too. Any reasonable person who watches the NBA would have to conclude that with Deron on the Celtics, yes, they still would have gotten to the Finals. I just think it's silly to argue otherwise. Just as it would be silly to argue that Rondo would have anywhere near his current level of hype if he didn't play with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen every night - even the aging versions we see now. I'll admit that, at this point, Rondo is the Celtics' best player. Quite clearly, in fact. But we've seen Deron/Paul/Nash become significantly better players than Rondo WITHOUT the benefit of three selfless Hall of Famers facilitating everything they do.