lol Papas? I just saw him play in FIBA and he wasn't impressive. If they could trade him for almost anything would be a plus.
lol I was on the Faried bandwagon too at first but as FIBA went on I noticed his deficiencies and realized that TJ is just as good. Faried had trouble with the pick and roll and in the NBA that is the bread and butter of offences. He also had no outside shot at all. He is worth at most a Ariza contract so it would keep flexibility to the team.
Age and maturity to what last year was the youngest average age team in the playoffs. Playoff experience. Shooting % is superior (37% to 47%). Rondo is a multiple NBA all star. I just don't think there is much more improvement in Rubio to be had. All the talk/rumours seems to be about the PG position. I think there's other positions that should be of greater priority. TBH I'm not unhappy with Beverly as a starter. But if Morey is set on bringing in a PG, I'd take Rondo well ahead of Rubio.
Agree with the other parts to some extent, as I think Rondo's on the downside of his career so I don't put as much stock into his past glories as you do. But shooting "advantage" does not exist. Rondo's TS%, which accounts for 3s and FTs, has been 49%, 48%, 52%, and 46% the past 4 season. For Rubio it's 48%, 48% and 49%. When it comes to scoring, Rondo sucks just as badly as Rubio if not more so.
This is an oversimplification of how Rubio's shooting impacts his team as a whole. If he shot the 3 at 40%, he would take more than the <2 he has taken per game over the past couple of seasons. If you watch him in action, you can see how reluctant he is to shoot due to his shooting troubles. I also think you also underestimate the impact of an extra 30 points over a season, considering how atrocious the Timberwolves were in the 4th quarter (and especially so in close games). Teams will usually play honest defense for most of a game, but in a close game in crunch time, teams can play a more effective defense by playing off of Rubio. This helps to cut off his passing lanes, ruins spacing for interior play, and lets opposing defenses rotate faster on the perimeter, essentially neutralizing his strengths as a playmaker. Watch the recent France vs. Spain game for an excellent recent example of how Rubio messes up the spacing for his team by being on the floor. There's no doubt that Rubio has some serious talent, but his lack of shooting along with a lack of finishing ability has a tangible and detrimental effect on his team, something that can be tricky to see by just looking at stats at the end of the season. All that said, Morey wanting to take a flyer on him is perfectly understandable. He would be an excellent player for us if he became even just an average shooter. But that is far from guaranteed, since he has been a poor shooter and finisher at every level he's played. You claim to have watched a lot of Minnesota games. It just doesn't jibe with what I've seen (and what rockbox posted), and watching and analyzing NBA games is part of my job.
Both players have had fairly significant injuries impacting number of games the past few seasons (Rondo the past 2), but in fairness there's not much in it. Rondo's lifted his assists the past few seasons at what seems a sacrifice to his ppg.
lol Yeah or the Spain versus Brazil where Rubio was showing major skills at ball handling but his shooting ability and finishes at the rim were atrocious. He will need those skills on this team to be effective. He never displayed max money skills.
Mind you, I'd much prefer Dragic to Rondo & Rubio. I've just given up with the Bledsoe contract saga and the Wolves putting in an offer.
I wouldn't pay him more than 8mil. Rubio is massively overrated. This is literally the worst perimeter scorer in the league. Can't shoots, can't finish. At least Lin could finish at the rim most of the time, I give him credit for that. Rubio is also no lockdown defender, bigger PGs will abuse him, and what's the point of having him out there with Dwight because any time Dwight posts up Rubios man will completely ignore Rubio and double team Dwight...
His max will probably be 16mil+ with the cap increase. I don't like Rubio but he's about the biggest PG in the nba
If Rubio is our best option at this point, then its better just to keep Bev. Thought Rubio was shorter, but he's just as scrawny as I thought.
The fact that Ricky friggin' Rubio is even being talked about as a potential max contract player is hilarious. Is Rubio even a Top 15 point guard in the NBA right now? I know the Rubio lovers will ignore the fact that he's the worst perimeter scorer in the league, but it matters.
Only slightly. It's not in Rubio's nature to shoot. He wants to break down the D and get to the rim. He really wants to run pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop every possession and beat teams to death with dishes. He'll never be a high or even average volume shooter for the amount of touches he gets. He simply prefers (as do Rondo and Kidd and others) to make a play. I watched probably every minute he played last season. He'd still be reluctant at 40%. He'd take a few more spot-up 3-balls but that's probably about it. He'd still be putting the ball on the floor looking to make a play. It's in his nature to make a play. In the long-term it's not his 3-ball shooting that's a weakness. It's finishing at the rim that hurts him the most. And if you seen his games it should be obvious why. Other factors that effect his percentages are the "superstar" factor. That is, he's the guy (just like Harden/Kobe are the guys and McGrady was the guy) that takes the full-court heaves and a lot of junk shots at the end of quarters and when the shot clock runs down on a bad possession. Those crap shots take several points off all those guys' percentages. Those crap shots hurt Rubio's percentages a lot more than they do Harden and Kobe because they are high-volume shooters. Yes. And Rubio's teammates shot 556/1624 on their 3-point attempts for a blistering hot 34.2%. IF they could have shot 566/1624 on their 3-point attempts for a scorching 34.8%..........they would have had an extra 30 points to work with. But you know what...go back and look at their schedule and figure out how to maximize those 30 points into wins. At most it would have given them 4 extra wins if strategically placed at just the right points. You're looking at 44-38 and 10th (still 10th) in the WC. Because Minny too often did not have shooters on the floor defenses always sagged off everybody and helped on Love. That just didn't happen in the 4th quarters. The NBA is the NBA. The overwhelming majority of teams come out early and play soft D. They're trying to keep the foul count down for later in the game. And then as the game goes along they ratchet up the D throughout. And come the 4th quarter against Minny everybody sagged in the paint except the defender tied to Love. Opponents were happy to give Minny the 3-ball because NOBODY outside of Love (and Martin) could shoot it. So what you have to realize is when Love sat it was even worse. And when Love and Martin sat....it was even worse yet. That's the only quality shooters they had. IF Minny had better shooters around Rubio...just league average shooters around Rubio...Rubio would have been a 10 assist player and they would have scored much more than an extra 30 points. His shooting woes are magnified on a team of piss poor shooters. Just look at Rondo last season. Coming off injury. Never could really shoot that well. Team sucks. Highest volume 3-point shooters shoots them at the team average. You look at Rondo's season in a vacuum without understanding what he's done in the league, take his name off his stat line and you could trade it for Rubio's. In fact, Rubio was actually better shooting in the paint last year than Rondo was. What I've seen since before he came into the league is a playmaker who wins games when he has talent around him. Not a shooter. Not a volume scorer. A playmaker. What I see is a guy that's going to take around 10 shots a game even if he is shooting 50/40. I don't see a guy that's going to start taking 14-15 shots a game. His basketball DNA is playmaking, not shooting. You make good legitimate points, Mad. Points that I knew some educated baller would make. Repping you for it. We happen to fundamentally see this differently. I understand and appreciate where you are coming from on this. And I could be wrong. We'll just have to wait and see.
In what way has Rubio improved in his time in the NBA? This guy has been in the league for 3 years now and has played pro ball in Spain for longer yet, he is still the same player he was when he was drafted. He is still a great playmaker and provides above average defense, but what has he added to his game? Year 3 is usually a good marker to see how a player's career will turn out and he hasn't done anything to improve his game. It's getting to the point where you have to wonder if he will ever reach his full potential and grow. If he improved some of his weaknesses like his shooting and finishing ability, I would be all for signing him, even if it's not a vast improvement. But he hasn't, and that's why I don't want Rubio on his team. We don't have time to wait and see if a player will reach his potential while Howard is losing his prime years.
lol I see why you think this but he is more than likely to not become more efficient on the Rockets as the team is constituted now. Also Harden is the factor here. He will still handle the ball a lot and Rubio will not supplant Harden as the initiator on offense. His value on this team is when Harden is resting. That makes him at max unworkable. Unless you think Harden will change his game and adapt to Rubio. Morey will find pieces to fit with Harden and Howard game.
