Yao, Scola, Rubio, Rudy F. What an International marketing grand slam that would be! ......not to mention a durn good bball team with multiple championship potential............and then even more International marketing.........
I also have no problems whatsoever with Rubio's decision. For one, the Wolves were dumb to take him when he made no secret of his disinclination to go there. Teams have got to start figuring out that foreign players do hold leverage in the draft, and trying to draft a guy that has no interest at all (AT ALL) in your club has a high risk of backfiring. US college players don't want to go to Europe. Foreign players are perfectly happy staying at home and being a mega star. We need to break out of an ingrained US-centric mindset in these situations. Imagine you are an 18 yr old soccer wunderkind. You're in the MLS and dominating. Further imagine there was an EPL draft rather than purchases. You want to go play and prove yourself in the highest tier in the world. That is going to mean moving away from home and country, leaving your family and friends. Now suppose you aren't drafted by Man U or Arsenal or Liverpool or Chelsea.....but are drafted by Sunderland (correct reaction: who now?). Now you're balancing staying in the US and making good money versus BFN Northern England small town and a squad that is constantly being relegated. Even if you're with Columbus and not LA or NY, I'd be surprised if anyone would make that jump, even if you leave out personal obligation in a buyout. Rubio is doing what's best for him. Maybe we want to make that decision for him, based solely on NBA blinders, but he's making the right decision for him. And this doesn't qualify as a backstabbing at all.
its all Minny's fault.. they should have flipped Rubio sooner.. "Only a fool holds out for the top dollar." -- Joseph Kennedy
I have the feeling that Minny didn't get a great offer for Rubio. Out of all the rumored offers, our offer was probably the best, and our offer wasn't even that good.
...but that's his problem so far - he doesn't manage his assets well. Why did he lose two tradeable assets in Miller and Foye for the chance to take two high draft picks pick back to back in a draft that was full at the top of PGs(outside of Thabeet/Griffin)? He only needed one PG. The second he took Flynn, teams knew they didn't have to offer him as much for Rubio because they knew that wouldn't work out and Kahn would have to move one of those players eventually. He put himself in a position where he lost negotiating power because team's perceive that he HAS to move a PG eventually whether Kahn realizes or not....it's just a waiting game for other GMs. Now with the recent news, the offers are going to be even less and my point is Mike Miller and Randy Foye could have got him more value if he had been smarter about this whole situation.
Hilarious! Man, I'm such a geek that I bought the soundtrack to the new Trek flick. On target, Clutch!
Minnesota will make out just fine. They aren't going to do any significant winning for the foreseeable future with or without Rubio or with any other player they could have drafted instead of Rubio. When the two years are up, they can choose to sign or trade him.
Ricky Rubio staying overseas is a good for Minnesota's long term future as a team, as long as they stay patient. They get to evaluate Flynn, if they find that Flynn is a franchise player then they can trade Rubio, if they see that Flynn has problems running a team they can trade Flynn and try again with Rubio. If Rubio had agreed to come over this year they would have had to trade one or the other, the coach already said he can't play them together. Minny will stink next year, the best thing for them is to stink and get a high draft pick, they really don't need Rubio adding 5 wins to their season because they're not going anywhere anyway. Rubio's value will be down this year and next, but it should be higher than ever in 2 years. He will not have buyout issues so that opens up the whole league as trading partners. He will hopefully improve his shooting and gained strength, not to mention experience, in those 2 years. In the near term this is very bad for Minny and for Kahn, Minny is going to have terrible attendence and trouble finding local sponsers, things that Rubio's presense would have helped. Kahn looks like a fool in the short term and might be fired this season, although my gut says he'll get 2 years.
Yep and neither of those two players would help them significantly over the next two years and most likely any players they could get for those guys wouldn't either. The Wolves are in a rebuilding mode with young players. Adding Rubio in two years may be better than wasting two years of his rookie contract now.
But that's what makes it such a big gamble. If Rubio had just come to the NBA to develop, he gets to spend his rookie contract "getting experience". So he can be paid like a star once he becomes one. If he develops into a stud in Europe after 2 years, and wishes to come to the NBA, he'd basically have to waste an extra two years toiling under the rookie salary scale. If you just go by money, Rubio will never come to the NBA because it's just not worth it from a financial standpoint. ~$4 mil per year minus super high income tax and having to adjust to a new environment is pretty crappy when you compare to his contract in Europe. And he'd have to accept this pay cut for at least 4 years. 5 if he wishes to leave his original team.
I think you are mistaken that Rubio would add to Minny's win total this season. While it's debatable what he will be long-term, IMO, there isn't much debate that he won't be an impact player as a rookie. Once people figure that out, Rubio's impact on home game ticket sales and sponsors would slip back to nearly nil. I also think it's very possible in 2 years he won't be worth the #5 pick in the 2011 draft. If Rubio wants to be an above-average NBA player, he better gain strength and learn to shoot over the next 2 years. There ain't no "hopefully" to it. I like Johnny Flynn's game, but he won't be a franchise player. He isn't that kind of talent. I do think he can be a very good starting PG if he shows a little floor vision and develops a reliable mid-range pull-up jumper. This guy is worth keeping an eye on.
Have you checked out Minny's roster? It is stacked with bigs and very low on shooting guards and points. If they lost Flynn to injury then what are they throwing out there? Rubio would add 5 wins just by providing depth.
If you assume Flynn goes down with an injury, yes, but I wasn't making that assumption. The T-Wolves are definitely thin at the smalls but I really don't think Rubio would do squat next season in the NBA. He just isn't ready yet. Only a bad backcourt like the T-Wolves would give him rotation minutes.
they not even sure if rubio will play in the nba much less play for the twolves in 2 years.. they could have picked up someone else during the draft like Stephen Curry or DeMar DeRozan bottom line is twolves traded for the pick only because they thought Rubio was going to play for them this year
I think at worst he could be a very good backup, someone that comes in and changes tempo and pushes the ball, that's at worst. I'm not even assuming Flynn goes down, depth is important in the league. Lets take Kyle Lowry, a backup who plays 20 mins a game, off the Rockets and not replace him with anyone, what effect will that have on the Rockets overall win/loss record? Having a capable player for those 20 minutes has a huge effect on how the team looks. The Rockets are deep at every position for a reason, Morey built this team to withstand injuries and to have guys pick up other guys on off nights. Of course you can't withstand injuries to both of your best players, but last year we did really well with Mcgrady out, that would not have been possible without depth.
I consider Foye to be part of a rebuilding project. He's not Brandon Roy, but he's not chopped liver either. Miller wouldn't have helped them rebuild, but he's a nice player you can package for other young talent. You have to remember Minny didn't just give away Foye and Miller, they took on horrible contracts as well, contracts which will tie up their financial flexibility over the next few years. Kahn messed up on this one, plain and simple.
