i dont think how i described his d will ever change, he's not fast enough laterlly now and he never will. That's not going to change. He's always going t have the ability to play the passing lanes and be a pest on help d and things like that, but he doesn't have the speed or strength to be a great one on one defender, ever. Right now he's considered good, in Europe. Here he's going to have trouble at first so he's going to look worse on D, eventually he may work back up to being solid, but with the rules here, speed and size, i dont think he'll ever be a complete defender.
The way everyone on this board is talking about him, people make Rubio seem like Rajon Rondo. Similarities: Good defense Can't shoot the ball well Great playmaker Young. If Rubio turns out to be a better Rajon Rondo, I'd do any reasonable trade for him. Rubio + the fact that he is 18 years old, which means he can still learn how to shoot = Starting PG of a contending team for sure.
Um, NBA teams can only pay up to $500K, so it's not like the problem is on our end. It's between Rubio and his current team and obviously they can't get 6 million from him so they are going to have to work out some kind of agreement.
he's going to look like nash playing, but jkidd is pretty much spot on, but with more trouble defending the post.
speed isn't something you can really gain, you just dont become fast, unless you're really out of shape and then train, then yes, but this guy is already a pro athlete, he's never going to be very quick and spanish players don't go for weight training or adding pound, so i really doubt it..
not a good comparison, rondo is a lot quicker and more athletic, rondo can make plays, but isn't a passer, which rubio is
even the american commentators who did the games came away unimpressed. the only player who impressed me was rudy. he came out of nowhere and just blew up.
except rondo plays all-nba defense his first year in the L. he should be all-nba 1st team D over chris paul the past 2 years. and rondo is freakin' quick as hell. rubio isn't.
According to your logic, Brooks should have been the best defender in nba since he is so fast. And, Battier should have been a bad defender since he is not fast.
I'm 90% sure we can't get Rubio. Minnesota definitely doesn't want to part with him. Even if we land Rubio, the kid doesn't even want to play this season. What's the point? We want to win while Yao's health is still not a (major) issue.
I believe the buy-out money could come from just about ANY source other than an NBA team... that is, a shoe company for example (Nike, Reebok, etc.) or a cell phone company deal or whoever (just not the NBA team)
As I posted in another thread, his size (measured 6foot5 with shoes 6foot8 wingspan at Kings workout) could help him get away with Battier style defence at the PG position, size can help him stay back a little more to prevent getting blown by, but still have the ability to challenge a shot with his length. The guy at 18 won the defensive player of the year in Spain and led the league in steals. At the very least could he be an average defender on SGs when he bulks up. With the abundance of midget SGs in PG bodies (like Brooks) in the league, that type of skillset (PG skills but defends SGs) could be useful. Like most people on this board, I've only seen bits some clips of his play, so I have no idea if he'll end up a total bust or stud, but I don't think defence will be his biggest problem. His total lack of elevation on his jump shots and layups scares me the most. That shot is going to get blocked in the NBA, but I've seen him dunk so there's a good chance he can work on getting more elevation on his jump shot. A possible worst case scenario for Rubio could be a big, bad shooting, defensive guard with PG skills which is Eric Snow. It would be very disappointing if that's his ceiling, but that's still a serviceable player.
um, actually he was pretty good. he didn't get enough "shots" that's all. he scored 8ppg but yet took just around 5.5 shots a game. he shot 42% from 3s. we stuck to him like glue (much respect).
From Ric Bucher's twitter: For those who didn't watch our draft special - all 1 hour of it - I mentioned that Minn's #1 goal was to get Rubio. So forget any deals. Unless, of course, Rubio is Spanish for Yi Jianlian. (Yes, Gottlieb, I'm using it here, too.) But I don't think it is. So it seems that Minny will keep him...
Please tell me that's a joke... you would give up a lot to get a potential starter for 10-12 years and then trade him for a guy who will be 36 next season? Makes no sense.
WTF? Not even close, you can't just flip it around like that....i never said you have to be fast to be a great defender or that the fastest guys were the best, rubio has a BAD COMBINATION of lack of lateral quickness AND strength/size, that's whats going to hurt him. If he had just one of those then he'd be able to overcome the other, but without both of those it's going to be hard for him to be a complete defender, as in one that can play lock down man to man D, play help d, the passing lanes, etc. He's got good anticipation, hustle and basketball IQ and that's what helps him intercept passes and get a hand on a crossover occasionally, he's also persistent so he's going to bug you if you pick up your dribble and things like that...but staying in front of a bigger pg? Not gonna happen. Staying in front of the shorter and quicker guards? Also not going to happen.
