Rubio may show some flashes in the Euro league but honestly, he doesn't put up that great of a stat at all. He may be a good passer and playmaker but going up against more physical gifted PG in the NBA, I just don't see him being able to play at the high level. Sure he has good passing abilities but if he doesn't have the quickness, the athleticism, the shooting touch from long range, it will be hard for him to succeed. Every starting PG in the NBA has either amazing athleticism, size, strength, quickness, speed, long range shooting touch, and passing ability. To me, Rubio only has one. He may be crafty but that isn't enough to make him into a all star caliber PG. He may be a decent PG but that's about it. He doesn't have what it takes to be a franchise player or an all star PG in the NBA. All the All Star caliber PG in the league has size, quickness, strength, athletic ability, shooting touch, and explosiveness over him. The only All Star player that he is similar to is Steve Nash because Nash doesn't have the athletic ability but Nash is an amazing establish shooter throughout his career and a more elite passer than Rubio, which is why Nash is a great player. You can try to compare him to Rondo because both players can shoot but Rondo is stronger, and bigger than Rubio. When Rubio was playing against the USA team, Stephen Curry basically outplayed him on both ends of the floor. Curry did a great job on defending Rubio and is able to score on Rubio with ease. I can see why many people are so high on Rubio because he shows flashes with his fancy passing ability but that is against Euro PG. His stats isn't all that great so I just don't see him putting up any better stats in the NBA. You can put any All Star PG in the Euro league and they will dominate the game as well as putting up monstrous stats. Rubio wouldn't be a bust in the NBA, but he wouldn't be an All Star player either. Best case scenario is a solid starting spot in the NBA. Pretty much an average NBA PG with fancy passes and plays and thats about it.
Morey loves the guy, and he is smarter than most everyone on this board, "except me of course" so I trust him more than a bunch of lay people. LOL - totally kidding BTW.....but I do think Morey knows what he is doing...and does like the guy. DD
I have watched him regularly over the last 4 years. And I put way more value on how he plays against current NBA superstars than last season when he was dinged and playing with some political difficulties that most casual basketball fans don't realize. Rubio's team was not built around him last season, it was built away from him. They should have built the team around him. But alas, they didn't, and he was injured, but he endured. This guy controls the whole basketball game. He will attract players that want to get easy shots and win ball games. He's a generational talent. As dumb as David Kahn is, I have to hand it to him, especially if he gets Rubio and Love locked up long term. Those two guys are going to turn Minnesota back into a contender if they both stay put. However, they do have a chink in their armor, that being Kahn's own stupidity, that could cause him to trade away one or both of them.
I still see Rubio as a Rondo type. Run the team, make the great pass, finish at the rim (if not always), etc. And that's not all bad.
Some guys just can't see outside of the boxscores. They thought that Rubio is bad because he finished with five points and three assists, but if you watched the game you will see than Rubio created for example 7 excellent scoring opportunities for Navarro, he made all shots, but he 5 times he put the ball on the floor for one hit (his signature move) even if he shouldn't and that's not an assist in Europe, but assist in the NBA. How the hell they can see that if they don't know how the guys around him played? Rubio created a lot of opportunities for the guys around him, they should just shoot, but Navarro puts the ball on the floor almost everytime before the shot, Michael, for example, moved it farther to another perimeter player and so on. The same thing in a Spanish National Team. Pau is putting the ball on the floor almost everytime (not an assist even if it just a one hit) and so on. Guy feeds them all, he made some solid decisions, great passes, used a good tempo but came of the floor with 0-1-1 stats. In NBA he would have a 4-5 assists in that kind of situation Dudes, don't try to measure his game with stats, especially in Europe, our guys on a board are counting the differently and that's the case. With open floor, with catch-and-shooters, with pick-n-roll/fade/pop players he will be just fine
RTM, he'll dominate if Adelman builds the offense around him. And Adelman is brilliant enough and creative enough and smart enough to do just that. You are right, he may not dominate statistically. But he'll dominate the game the same way that Magic Johnson dominated it. He'll control tempo, he will make his team ultra efficient offensively, and he will run an unstoppable fast break that is not predicated on his foot speed but is built on his ability to get the ball in the middle of the floor, his floor vision, and his ability to make every ridiculous pass to all the gazelles running around him. And for that, he has the best rebounder and outlet passer in the game to get him the ball on the break (Love). And a top-notch coach that knows how to create offensive juggernauts and builds offense based on spacing. Rubio and Love are going to light up the Wolves. They will compete for a playoff spot when the season starts.
Ironic that Rick thought he would get fired in Houston if we got Rubio and now he's hired to make sure the kid gets the right coaching. Probably something that's been posted here 50x.
The Wolves actually have a nice core of talent going foward. It was their coaching that sucked with Rambis at the healm. With Adelman, I can see the Love led Wolves being good.
Agreed. I like their talent but they need to figure out their depth; with Derrick Williams still not having a define position yet. Should they play him at PF and bring him off the bench behind Love? or should they play him at SF and start him over Micheal Beasley and Wesley Johnson? Those are the things they need to figure out. They also don't have a real SG on that team that can score at will. Personally I think they need to make some trades with that young talent they have to balance out the roster a lot better and bring in some veterans. Maybe a guy like Kevin Martin might be available, for the right price (Derrick Williams?), to fill in a need at SG for them.
I'd do a Martin for Williams trade in a heartbeat. We would then have the "assets" to pull of a big move. Williams has all the makings of an all-star with superstar potential.
But none of that matters if he doesn't become a legit shooter. Before Rubio shows that he can master the most important basketball skill for a perimeter player, I'm not going to think much of him.
I'm thinking Steve Francis. But actually I don't remember that well, I was kid when he was with the Rockets and I watched him play.
Rubio shoots 39% and 22% from behind the international 3pt line. Against Euroleague competition. Magic scored 18ppg while shooting 53% in his rookie year. You can say those were from penetrations and because he's 6-8 and cause matchup problems, but Rubio can't do the same. The guy plays UNDER THE RIM. Not over the rim. He'll get even more shots blocked in the paint when he comes over. Jason Kidd and Steve Francis both shot 30-35% from 3pt range even early in their careers. They weren't a liability outside. They just weren't deadly like KMart. All three look like Steve Nash in the shooting department compared to Rubio.