I'm seriously tired of this guy using the board to monetize his own community offline. It's very obvious.
And everyone should know you're a hypocrite for starting that "Why" thread in the Feedback saying GARM rules mandate that moderators move a thread you didn't like. Then you continue to scoff at the rules when you don't want them to apply to you -- like bumping year old Rubio threads (while admitting that is all you are doing to "keep it alive") and now creating trade proposal threads. Why doesn't everyone do that? Let's start "Who would you trade for Griffin/Westbrook" threads, too. Let's all abuse the rules of the GARM like basketballholic does...then whine to Clutch in the Feedback regarding threads we don't like -- "Why"
With all the negatives thrown at the o.p., I feel like this post's stupidity may have gotten lost What makes you think Rubio's nationality has anything to do with people's interest in him? He's been in the NBA for years. He's a known commodity. Throwing "foreign" around as if it makes a difference.. right. (Separately, who's "you guys" ? Clearly it's just the o.p.)
Exactly, when basketballholic keeps bumping the year-old, dead Rubio news thread (which is based on one dude's rumor), he has ulterior motives for doing it ... that benefit from the popularity of this board. It allows him and his buds to make it appear there is a lot of Rubio chatter, and they get clicks from it.
James Harden is as ball dominant a guard as exists in the NBA. I don't expect that to change, as his value to the team is his scoring, drawing fouls, and drawing the defense on penetration to pass to the open man. Harden is also worse than mediocre on defense. In order to maximize Harden's value, the players around him must have two characteristics: 1) they must be able to space the floor and hit open shots to allow Harden room to penetrate and provide outlets for when he draws double teams, and 2) they must be plus defenders so the four of them can effectively guards the five players on the opposing team, mitigating or neutralizing Harden's atrocious defense. Rubio is an above average point guard defender, so he has that going for him, but he is not a superior defender to Beverly, so there is no upgrade in that aspect. More importantly, Rubio is a bad shooter. He is not a fair shooter, or nearly average, he is bad. Harden would constantly be getting pressure from the guy assigned to Rubio, limiting his offensive effectiveness. So, although clearly a better playmaker than Bev, Rubio does not fit the number one criteria for being an effective teammate to Harden. The only way Rubio would make sense on a team is to have him be the primary ball handler and initiate the offense. That is not going to happen with Harden on the team, nor should it. He is a bad fit for the Rockets, whatever your evaluation of his value in a vacuum. I voted not to trade for him. I suppose one could trade Brewer for him on the assumption that Rubio has more trade value than Brewer, but if that is the case, why would Minnesota make that trade? I suppose Rubio could also be used for salary matching, so if the Rockets were putting together a package for KAT, he could be included, but that seems so unlikely as to not be worth considering (maybe we could give them 5 first round picks, one coming every other year for nine years).
I'm from Spain and I've seen the guy play hundreds of games since he was 15. I've seen him playing for Joventut, for Barça, for the national team and for the Timberwolves. Any basketball fan in Spain follows the Wolves cause of the existing hype around Ricky since he left to the NBA. Ricky's career has been disappointing so far. He was seen as a super talent of an ever seen precocity, a brain made for playing basketball... He was mentally faster than everybody already at 16... Supreme basketball mind, supreme vision, anticipation (offensively and defensively) supreme passing skills, supreme length for a PG.... Everything seemed to indicate that the sky was the limit for him, when he was 16-17. I think he has lost some explosiveness after that knee injury and that definitely braked his progress. He has not substantially improved his shot and any part of his game. Has not developed a post game, something that I think should end up doing in the long run as Jason Kidd, Shawn Livingston did... He still has that unique vision of the whole basketball court; there are very few players around the world with his anticipation and basketball instincts... He is a great ball handler. Incredible passer, has not only the vision but the skills and the accuracy. He's an ideal player to run a fastbreak and a smart, sober and creative organizer in stagnant. He's very competitive, has been a winner since he was a kid. He has olympic medals and any possible title in Europe before 19 y.o... I mean, he has interesting things to add to your team... His scoring shortcomings keep limiting his potential. He is not only a bad 3 pt shooter, neither is a good midrange shooter, and is an even worst finisher near the rim than an outside shooter, his shooting touch is simply poor at any possible way. Plus he's not athletic, and can't jump. I recently saw here a comparison with Rondo... I think the best Rondo (that elite PG) had a more explosive first step, was more destabilizing and dominating, and managed to score efficiently (over 50%) in spite of his shooting issues. He was a dangerous finisher, had a nice touch near the basket with both hands, a nice tear drop, a floater... Ricky has not that in his game... Ricky has not yet been able to complete a single season over 40 FG%. His career high is 38.1%. His career high. His career average is 36.8%. His scoring inefficiency makes him predictable and eventually can obstruct the team offense. That's why seems difficult to me to see Mike D'Antoni interested in him. The Celtics of Doc Rivers were basically the antithesis of D'Antoni's basketball philosophy. Adding Ricky to your team implies giving up a superfast tempo. That's not necessarily a problem to me, but seems to be not acceptable for D'Antoni and for the current Rockets. I think Rubio could bring a lot of things to a Harden Rockets team, even though he's not a good 3 pt shooter, unefficient scorer, his fundamentals and overall skills would help any team at winning. Plus the Rockets would not necessarily require of his scoring, and he's still 25, has room for improvement... I think he would help creating a true winning culture very needed, but these hypothetical Rockets would not be D'Antoni's Rockets, not the current Rockets. It's a little bit a shame because truly the player's market value seems to be low, the player is available and could be obtained without giving up very much, so it could be interesting, and I think he would love coming here, a fresh new start would be motivating for him. But again, I don't see it with MDA.
What do you mean by monetizing a community? He's making money by bringing up Rubio.............ah, that's the reason....... What did BTG used to get for mentioning Jones??
Rubio's value ranges somewhere between that of a used Tampon and one of those Free bags of pretzels they give you on a Southwest Airlines Flight. It's free but you paid out the A$$ for it somewhere else.
He's not a very good shooter but he creates for others. Not sure how well it would mesh with Harden who is also better with the ball in his hands.
Excellent post. Interesting that you say he would not be a good fit with the MDA uptempo style of offense, which runs counter to a lot of posters here who believe he would fit well with this offense. Remains to be seen and at the right price, is worth the risk.
