BOLTON -- Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge raised a few bleary heads of the assembled media at their annual golf outing on Tuesday morning when he declared that Rajon Rondo is the team's best player.

"The way he played last year in the playoffs was, I thought, pretty incredible," Ainge said. "He proved he’s the best player on the team and he’s earned the respect of his teammates and coaches. That’s a big step. We’re excited for him this year."

Just in case anyone missed it, Ainge went on WEEI's Mut & Merloni and repeated the assertion with a little more context. (You can listen to the whole interview here.)

"What you saw in the playoffs is what we've known for a little while about Rajon, is Rajon," Ainge said. "A lot of people will say Rajon's had success because he's had three superstars and Hall-of-Famers playing with him, and what we saw in the playoffs is that Rajon's the best player on the team. Even the game that Paul [Pierce] fouls out, Rajon goes and scores nine straight points and was more aggressive where he probably wouldn't have been that aggressive had Paul still been on the court.

"That's going to be sort of the next phase for our team, is when does Rondo take the game over as opposed to waiting for Ray [Allen], Paul and [Kevin Garnett] to take the game over. Rondo's our best player, and I think everybody knows that and he proved that in the playoffs this year."

All of this may come as news to Garnett, who is the anchor of the team's top-rated defense on a team that wins games on that side of the court, but public perception clearly agrees with Ainge. Rondo made his first All-NBA (third) team and finished eighth in the MVP voting this past season -- his highest mark to date -- which was interesting because he didn't have a particularly great season.

He shot a career-low 45 percent and didn't crack the magical 60 percent free throw mark, which is grading on a really steep curve when you consider that NBA point guards made better than 80 percent of their free throws on average. He also missed 13 games, or about 20 percent of the last season's truncated schedule.

It's not that Rondo had a bad season, but thanks to a combination of gaudy assist totals and his streak of 24 games with double-digits in that category, it became a part of the unofficial narrative that the Celtics second-half turnaround was largely because Rondo had stepped up his game and made everyone else around him better thanks to all that passing.

Interesting theory, but not really true. The real reason they bounced back in the second half was because their defense once again became scary good. Their offense remained mired in sludge and while one can quite easily make the argument that it would have been a whole lot worse without Rondo, it's hard to laud a point guard for his effect on others when the offense ranks 25th in points per possession. (Difficult, but not impossible.)

None of that really matters because the Rondo who played in the playoffs was every bit the super-duper star that a top-10 MVP candidate should be. In 19 postseason games, Rondo took more shots, made them at a higher percentage, rebounded better and cut his turnovers down to a manageable size. And he was brilliant in games where he was needed the most.

He had 23 points, 14 assists and just one turnover in a must-have Game 3 win in Philadelphia and scored 11 of their last 14 points after Pierce fouled out in a triple-double performance in Game 7 of that series. By the time the Heat series got underway, people were starting to catch on that Rondo was playing out of his mind and in case anyone didn't notice, he scored 44 points in Game 2.

The wonderful thing about the Celtics is that it really doesn't matter who wins the unofficial title of best player on the team because they have proven time and again that without their core stars playing at a high level together, they're not going to go far separately.

What is interesting about Ainge's declaration is that the Celtics are clearly turning to Rondo to take over more consistently. Doc Rivers made a key strategic decision to put the offense in Rondo's hands and let events unfold as they will. If that didn't sit well with Ray Allen, for example, then that's too bad.  

What the Celtics are saying, both in theory and in practice, is this is the way it's going to be. If this is the semi-official passing of the torch, then that's notable in some respects, but it's still on Rondo to show it each and every night, or at least on a more consistent basis.

"He’s gotten better and better obviously and now he’s one of the best point guards in the league," Rivers said. "I think what he wants now is to be more consistent all the time. That’s his next big step."

Rondo has been the team leader this offseason. He made an unannounced stop in Las Vegas to meet with the rookies and has organized summer workouts. He's always stayed in tremendous shape and Ainge said he's in even better condition now. His body has had time to rest and his mind should be at ease after a summer that was blessedly free of trade rumors.

The Celtics have become younger in several key areas and more athletic in others. In Courtney Lee, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and even Jason Terry, he now has players who can keep up with him on the break and should flourish in transition. All the elements are coming together for Rondo to have his best season, and if he's able to do that then he can truly become the team's best player in more than words.