IC Cold Links: Rondo Makes The Mind Wander And Wonder, More Draft Advice For Pacers

People are gonna get on the Pacers about not drafting Rondo, but I sorta think he doesn’t become who he is if he wasn’t playing with the big 3. Just being taught by them on how to be a winner and a champion really shut down his immaturity. Same thing with Darren Collison… not that he was immature or anything but there’s no way he becomes who he was last year without learning from Chris Paul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_NBA_Draft

Rajon Rondo was selected 21st overall in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Suns and traded to the Celtics. Both the Suns and Celts are set at PG obviously with Nash/Rondo so you could argue that neither team has lost out.

However, 4 picks before Rondo was taken, the Indiana Pacers selected Shawne Williams, which remains one of the biggest WTF moments during this rather sub-par stretch of Pacer basketball. Taking a kid who has serious and quite evident character issues and didn’t exactly play at a level to be take mid 1st round on potential alone. Sure he was Conference FOY, but in a weaker conference and the Pacers had many glaring needs then (AND NOW!). Rondo was no sure thing either, but would have been a great PG insurance plan for the soon-to-be worthless Tinsley. We were starting to realize that Tinsley was not the answer around that time and at the very least could have used some PG help.

Sure, it is just another What-if in Pacers history, but to make matters a little bit worse is Rondo would have replaced Tinsley, selected in the 2001 draft… immediately before Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas (yeah I know Arenas is on the same jackass level as Tinsley, but at least he was Talented AND a Jackass). Mehmet Okur was taken a few picks later.

Even Bayless is having a solid season as well (whom the Pacers traded to get the rights to Rush despite needing a PG).

Needless to say, there is a reason the Pacers are left filling void after void and making lateral moves. Well, Bird and Company get another chance to “redeem” themselves soon, but I wont get my hopes up.

Oh yeah, we’re still on that “3 Year Plan” which takes us until 2011 so expect more of the same from the Indiana Pacers.

B-Huse… I understand what you are saying but I have 2 words to counter your argument: SHAWNE WILLIAMS.

He was a great athlete, defender, and distributor, but he couldn’t (and still can’t) shoot a lick. There was also some friction between him and Tubby Smith in college and there was some question about his attitude and coachability. Here are some quotes from his Draftexpress profile before he was drafted:

Despite his highly intriguing physical attributes and skills, Rondo is anything but a surefire bet to pan out as a starting caliber NBA point guard.

The biggest concern about his game revolves around his perimeter shooting ability.

Rondo is clearly still coming into his own as a player and at this point projects as more of an upside type than an immediate contributor.

When it comes to the draft hindsight is always 20/20 but there were reasons that a lot of teams, Pacers included, passed on Rondo.