Dirk? Morrison was hyped even more than Rubio. He was some kind of Larry Bird clone, but he was too slow.
Then, there is Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, and Ginobili. Rubio isn't Eminem, unless Gasol, Dirk, Steve Nash, and Manu Ginobili are Vanilla Ice. Morrison is Vanilla Ice equivalent. Let's not forget coach McHale, who wasn't too shabby when he played, too. If anybody was Eminem, it would have been Bob Cousy. Then, there is also Pistol Pete, who is mentioned as a comparison for Rubio occasionally.
In addition. I see you being one of those who think all other leagues are crap compared to nba and players cannot be judged unless they start playing in NBA. Whatever, I don't want expand about that, but the fact is that NBA fanbase always get late news about players coming overseas. Rubio hype in europe was year 2008 and 2009. I can give you another name you will probably hear about only after 2 years (he will become eligble for the draft) but he will be allstar in nba for sure. His name is Dario Saric - hope you won't call me cult follower of him after several years.
Well I live in Toronto which has a huge European population and I read realgm (Toronto Raptors), so I've witnessed this Rubio lovefest since he played against Team USA, don't remember the year. Look, the kid is 21 and he's yet to adapt completely to the NBA and the league is yet to figure him out as well. I guess by mid-season there will be better stats available to judge the guy. Based on what I've seen from him so far he's reminded me of Calderon, but that's just me.
It was year 2008. I do agree it's too early to make conclusions. For me him and calderon are quite similar in setting plays, but rubio is better on D while calderon has better jumpshot. PS. All I want is not start acquisations like cult following or comparisons to justin bieber fanhood out from the air, as I'm said I do follow him since 2006.
Can you really be unbiased when you've been a fan of this guy for so long (you've stalked him since he was 16)? I think not. Look I'll admit, there are player I like who I overvalue as well, so I understand where you are coming from.
what's holding rubio back from being great really is his scoring ability. he's most definitely not going to be the next nash. nash would drop 40 pts on you easily back in the suns' playoff runs. but i can see him be the next mark jackson.
He'll score enough as his career progresses. He may never be the shooter that Nash is. However, it won't matter. Rubio has the ability and instinct to control the whole game, night in and night out, no matter what tempo. He'll control the half-court game and play slow down against more athletic teams and he'll control the game and run the break against older less athletic teams. He controls the game at every tempo. That's what makes him special.
Nash averaged 3 pts a game as a rookie. Rubio is already doing better. He may never reach Nash's 3pt%, but he can't be good. Stockton was a sub-40% 3pt shooter and still an all-star.
Well, to be fair, Nash only played 10 minutes a game as a rookie and took less than 3 shots per game. It's basically impossible to make a comparison.
Yet again you are accusing me of something you have imagined by yourself. Show me where I did overvalue him? By saying he's good at passing and setting up plays, while he needs to improve his jumpshot and, even more, drive to the basket and layup while being defended. The thing that he's much better on D than calderon is a fact, not overvaluating. If you, after seeing ONLY several games, think otherwise - that's only your opinion. And WTF about stalking??? seriously?? I'm a basketball fan, I do follow some teams. plaeyers etc. You can call everyone on this thread a stalker including yourself. Can you defend your argument about calling me a stalker?
If you want to make comparisons, for me Jason Kidd is the best one. Great court vision, average jumpshot, good on rebounding and D.
Easy there outlaw96, I was just messing around by calling you a stalker, I guess I figured you would get upset, just pulling your chain. As I said earlier neither of us can make a claim either way about the guy. There are no "facts" other than stats. Below is Calderon's NBA stat page, do a comparison with Rubio's, it's almost identical. Remember though there will be a skew in the numbers because of the sample size and minutes difference so it kind of makes this comparison pointless. Lets have this discussion a couple months from now, I'm sure this thread will still be still be on the front page......... http://www.nba.com/playerfile/jose_calderon/
Yep, stats do look similar. Still need bigger sample size. Could extend this discussion later as you said (just without trolling ) PS. a little off-topic but you mentioned that you are on Raptors forums and they have been talking about rubio since year 2008. Has someone ever talked about Dario Saric (no big hype in europe asweel, but only because he's from small market Croatia - would be different story has been him Spanish)?
Just like LeBron. Only LeBron was preceded by WAY more hype than Rubio. Do you think of his fans as being a "cult"? Or just people who are knowledgeable about the game?
Rubio is lighting it up. WoW!!! I am really diggint hsi team. Wanna see Derrick Williams play more instead of Beasley and Johnson. Cant wait till Webster and Lee come back.
