Wall came in very hyped. He is still young, he has all the athletic tools to be great. Yet something is just missing in his decision making. Even rondo at a young age excelled faster, as did paul, Dwill, and many of the other guys. He seems to be just extremely athletic and a tease and I am curious ifyou could have Rondo or Wall on your team right now, who would it be?
Seeing as Wall just started his 2nd season after a lockout and plays on a pathetic team with a bad coach, this isn't the best time to ask. Wall's upside is definitely higher than Rondo's but it's too early to tell what he will become. I've said from the beginning that Wall's upside is lower than Derrick Rose.
Have you watched the Wizards this year? They're bad. Historically bad. Rondo came into the league surrounded by a perfect environment. Wall basically got stuck with epic moron Blatche, overpaid and useless Lewis, and one dimensional chucker Nick Young. He'll figure it out soon enough, but management really needs to get it through to their players who options A, B, and C are.
Rondo is close to being a finished product. There's not much he can improve on. Wall's ceiling is still very high. He needs to get the hell out of Washington though. His early years are being wasted.
Wall needs to suck it up and play better. He isn't the only good player that had to pay his dues for a couple of seasons. High lottery picks often "waste" their early years. Welcome to the NBA! A lot of things can happen to improve the situation in Washington and he's a part of that. I doubt he leaves in 2014.
I may be way overboard but I think of John Wall as an even better athlete than Derrick Rose but he has been disappointing so far, read something about him not feeling well in the confidence department, the way things have gone for him make me doubt atm if he has what it takes to reach his sky high potential.
I chose Wall. I'm really high on him. He's unselfish, possesses elite athleticism, a great motor, and terrific size for a PG. He's coming off a great rookie year as a 20-year-old and was a consensus All-American as a true freshman at Kentucky. Here's the thing. Wall was born in 1990. When you look at players aging curves, plotting talent as a function of age, the better a player is at a young age, the higher his ceiling tends to be (barring serious injury). This is a major reason why Rubio was touted so highly. Even though he's off to a good start this year, I think Rondo's always going to be limited by his outside shooting. He's still shooting a ghastly 65% from the FT line, just unacceptable for a guard. Still, Rondo is better right now. But when Wall makes the leap, he'll be crazy good.
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What is funny is when he was drafted, they were saying he would turn around a franchise bc he was that good. A once in a decade talent. I remember on draft night they said that the worst case scenerio was Derrick rose for him....you heard that right, they said rose was Wall's WORST Case scenerio....boy oh boy, you can guess whose marketing he is signed with-lebrons, and you can guess who hyped him this way, espn...lebron's pocket boys
Could you back up your statement in your OP that Rondo and Williams were better than Wall at the same age? Because I'm not seeing it. Rondo wasn't overly impressive as a 20-year-old, and DWill didn't set the world on fire in his age-21 rookie season.
That's what happens when the hype machine is in overdrive. Derrick Rose is unique and is carving his own path. But since they are both highly heralded PGs who had the same college coach, people put a standard on Wall that he probably can't live up to. Maybe this season expectations will become more reasonable as reality sets in.
The Rose comment was kind of obtuse, but it wasn't completely off. At the time, Rose wasn't the NBA first team talent that we see today. He was actually pretty pedestrian after two seasons in the NBA. It wasn't until year 3 that he exploded into what he is now. I am going to hold off on the Wall judgment at least until he gets a couple years of experience under his belt.
Rajon Rondo now. John Wall has great potential, but it sucks that he has to play with those guys over in Wash...
