How the hell did the TWolves eff this sup so bad in 2009? They pick 3 PGs in the first round (skipping over Steph Curry twice in the process). Ty Lawson, Ricky Rubio, and Jonny Flynn. Out of these three, the Wolves manage to dump the bust (Flynn) and hang on to the guy who is the WORST perimeter scorer I have seen in years. Meanwhile Ty Lawson is clearly the superior basketball player. I mean, seriously, how the hell do you eff it up that badly?? I won't even bring up Jrue Holliday
Most of the experts rated Flynn over Lawson, too. A lot of experts rated Oden over Durant, too. GMs screw up. Many times. Get used to it.
i never saw the hype with Oden, maybe because i watched Durant during his college years... I dont think Oden even had games in college that stood out... they overexagerrated athletic plays like the block he had againist tennessee in the elite 8( when that is just a basic play).... the overhyping of Oden over Durant is similar to the overhyping of Luck over Wilson, RG3, and Cam in the nfl... for some reason people refuse to look at stats to let the numbers do the talking for them <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fKtLstOkWqM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Lil Ricky was incredibly overhyped. 100% of teams would have drafted him ahead of Lawson that year. Jonny Flynn also had most people fooled. The Grizzlies taking Thabust was the biggest failure of that draft by far.
They are being used completely differently, they are both very good at what they do but they're two completely different point guards, Ty Lawson excels in a scoring role, while Rubio is a traditional PG and a true floor general. I don't get this constant hate on Rubio just because he can't shoot, Jason Kidd couldn't shoot during his prime and he's still considered one of the greatest PGs of all time, Rubio has the potential to reach Kidd's level of play, he may even figure out how to shoot one day. Not to mention his great defensive instincts and reactions. Rubio was a great pick. Flynn is a different story though...
It's very doubtful Rubio reaches Kidd's HOF level. Sort of like V-Span being compared to Steve Nash. One thing Rubio doesn't have that Kidd had was the dominant personality & leadership to will/intimidate teammates to play harder/better. But anything is possible. Rubio's creative passing ability is something special.
McHale wanted Jennings, but he got fired before the draft. http://www.startribune.com/featuredColumns/51704327.html http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2009/news/story?id=4255421 Rubio > Jennings
Horrible analogy to compare Oden-Durant to Luck-Wilson/RG3/Cam imo. The Oden one should have been more obvious than the QB one. Oden was a 7footer that showed some ability in the small number of games he played in college. But that 7 foot potential trumped what some GM's and fans saw when they watched Texas and their wack coach and how KD excelled at that level. Luck/RG3 were placed on the same level. It's that a lot of people didn't see Wilson there on that level until last season after he had taken over everything and everyone Seahawks related.
Agree with this. Maybe some of it has to do with one being American and the other being European. Either way Kidd was a standout from the start and even though his lack of ability from the perimeter was a hindrance for a while, he still countered that enough to play at an All-Star level consistently.
The Oden blunder was due to the age-old oversimplistic "You can't teach size" convention wisdom, which has lead to countless draft blunders. Rubio still has some unreached potential. Flynn is a lost cause. I agree that Lawson has come out to be the best. Kahn has screwed up a lot of things. That 2009 draft was one of the most horrendous.
Rubio is a flashy passer and the face of the franchise. That's what Wolves fans pay to see. Ty Lawson wasn't this good until his 3rd or 4th year as a starting PG.
Jason Kidd could make layups. If Rubio doesn't figure out how to at least finish at the rim and maybe spot up for 3s, that pick was a total bust. Keep in mind that not only did they draft him over far superior players, they were also planning on giving the five-year franchise player extension to him rather than Kevin Love.
He's shooting the 3-ball pretty well so far this year. Taking a couple of them a game and shooting at 46%.
If oden was health he'd be a 15 pt/13 reb/3 blk monster and the debate wouldn't be as bad between him and durant. Oden would be right there with dwight for DPOY. I guess you guys forgot his domination at ohio state. A backcourt of Ty Lawson/Steph Curry would've been sick Flynn had just gone off in a 6 ot game, the whole world was on his nuts, rubio i have no idea wtf people were thinking comparing him to pistol pete, he's more like rafer alston in that he's got mad handles and no shot.
Oden was arguably the best player coming out of High School since LeBron and had some dominant performances taking his team to the National Title game playing with one hand. The hype was justified. It didn't work out for him. I thought Flynn at #6 was an overdraft at the time and thought they should have taken Curry, but the injury definitely screwed him up. Lawson was not terribly highly regarded coming out of UNC.
For what it's worth, Lawson has had a better PER every year of his career than Rubio's best. Lawson has gotten even better. Rubio is hitting his three's ok. But he's only taking two a game. For some reason he is taking 7 two pointers a game and only hitting at a 32% clip. Is he missing layups or something? Constantly stuck shooting mid rangers as the shot clock expires? They don't have simple mathematicians on their staff? The kids a great FT shooter, a solid rebounder, an ok defender, and clearly a great passer. I think he can actually be a "floor leader" language aside... ... but not if he is so incompetent at scoring. Even with other historically bad shooters (Kidd, Rondo), they found ways to score. Given his FT%, I don't know why he struggles here so much. I think it is all mindset... but perhaps in a way that is unchangeable at this point? I mean I wouldn't call Kidd a bad scorer... just a bad shooter, which he improved. He wasn't even a great FT shooter early in his career. The question is, will Rubio ever get to the point where he isn't constantly thinking about how to find the next open person even when he is the one that is so wide open? I realize he takes shots and tries to score occasionally... but again, it's a mindset. It's ingrained in his head... distribute, distribute, distribute. Which is great. But the real mindset needs to be be "aggressive, aggressive, aggressive"... which will still lead to distribution, but might make him at least a passable scorer. This is the CP3 mindset. CP3 could score a lot more if he wanted to.
http://hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=ricky rubio He's pretty bad at finishing at the rim (~45%) and really terrible from 3-15 feet. His open, standstill jumpers are okay, better than Rondo in that regard. I've noticed that he has this weird tendency to shoot layups with the wrong hand. Like, he'll lay the ball up on the left side of the rim with his right hand, and vice-versa. A lot of the things Ricky does on the court are spectacular in their creativity, but I think that belies a somewhat shaky grasp of basic fundamentals.
Are people forgetting that Oden was hurt for like 90% of his career? He wasn't a bust because he sucked...he was a bust because he couldn't play at all.
Yes, but in the 10% time he was healthy, he didn't show much of a special player. This is just speculation. But even if he didn't have all the injuries, he probably would have ended up a good big man, but nowhere close to Durant's level. In fact, Durant was widely considered the better player coming into the draft. The only reason Oden was picked first was because of the notion that "a good big man is more valuable than a good perimeter guy."
