Between now and the June 28 NBA Draft, SUPERSONICS.COM will break down one of the top 15 prospects in the draft per day, getting audio analysis from Sonics Director of Basketball Operations Dave Pendergraft and commentary from Sonics play-by-play broadcaster David Locke and SUPERSONICS.COM's Kevin Pelton. Today, Kentucky guard Rajon Rondo.
Pendergraft's take:
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Locke's take: Rajon Rondo may not fit into the top 15 breakdown any longer. Point guards are one of the real issues of this draft. Marcus Williams is being mentioned anywhere from 7 to 17. Randy Foye is likely to be taken around 13. Where that leaves other point guards like Rondo and Kyle Lowery is a great question.
The Locke three-part test on Rondo makes you wonder why he is a first rounder.
It is hard to determine who the man was on a well-balanced Tubby Smith club at Kentucky. Rondo was the point guard and he was the engine that drove the team. However, they weren’t dependent on him to win. Moreover, Kentucky was very inconsistent.
In the second half of the conference season, Rondo was awful. He was in single-digits scoring in 10 of the final 12 games of the season. He simply didn’t get his shot off and when he did he didn’t shot well. His rebounding and assists numbers were ok, but his offense left the building.
Since most big games happened in the second half of the season, he was not a success here either. To his credit, he had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists against UConn in the NCAA tournament.
My best guess for an NBA comparison is maybe William Avery and that is not a good sign. A solid guard out of a big program that has come out way too soon.
Pelton's take: I don’t see the Avery comparison. Avery was not a good defender, while Rondo has excellent potential at that end of the court. He's not big, but he's got long arms and is very quick. That kind of quickness is becoming more important in the modern NBA as stopping penetration takes on a top priority for NBA teams. Rondo also is an impressive rebounder for his size, averaging 6.1 boards per game - more than many of the wings in this year's draft.
The question marks all revolve around one issue - can Rondo learn how to shoot? He shot just 27.3% from 3-point range last year as a sophomore, making only 16 all year, and his shooting has not impressed NBA scouts in workouts this spring. That's a big reason why Rondo has slipped a little bit after being a top-15 prospect at the start of the pre-Draft process.
If you're good enough elsewhere, you can survive as a point guard without being even an adequate shooter - witness Brevin Knight - but if Rondo is going to be an average starter or better, his shooting must improve.
