Wasn't rubio one of the players who made the racial gesture in the team photo with the slanted eyes? Imagine the locker room with him and Yao
I don't know but thebet seems like a dumb move. In my opinion, you don't spend a lottery pick much less the 2nd overall pick on a player to come off the bench. It's got to be Rubio or we will trade the 2nd pick down for something in the 4-6 range and try to pick up Harden. I doubt we draft Harden at the second pick since Morey is known for not overpaying and Harden could be had past the 3. Basically, I wouldn't want thebet. Nothing against him but we would be giving up too much for a potential back up (plus I'm not impressed by his game at all, but this post isn't about that.)
Perimeter threat, the guy who can create from outside and handle the ball and make the right decisions. We don't have that...well we do but he's always hurt mentally and physically. His shot is average, it's not horrible. Mechanically, it's not horrible so it can improve. When people harp on his shot they act as if he's going 1-13 out there or something.
DD, let's pretend we can predit the future here so i can give you two scenarios.... 1) thabeet helps us win 2 rings the next two years with his size and shot blocking complimenting yao, then our core goes to hell and we rebuild.... 2) Rubio forces us to take a step back, although competitive we don't get over the hump, our core goes to hell, we start rebuilding and Rubio becomes a star let's say that's exactly what will happen within 2-3 years, do you still take rubio over thabeet? I'm just trying to figure out to what extent you'd go with rubio.
i think we can pretty much guarantee he won't...spanish players seem reluctant to beef up....Marc gasol is the only one who's actually beefy and i think he's got a weight issue
well i wanted his answer specifically, but since you answered...based on your response, that's not much different than brooks......don't think rubio is going to come in and have 10 asst 0 TO consistently...he too is going to make mistakes his first few years like brooks...i know you didn't write that, but i get the feeling some people expect this guy to come in playing like a polished pro, ready to rule the NBA from day one...but the guy has his mistakes to go along with all his flash, he's going to need time.
That's absurd. How bout we predict Thabeet as a player who plays 10 mins off the bench and we traded artest,tmac,or whoever for him and all we got was 10 mins of backup play and we still make the playoffs but don't win any championships. Now the other prediction is Rubio or Harden and we get a starter who plays a majority of the game who actually replaces the production of who we traded and we win the championship or we lose just as if we had Thabeet. Who are u taking? The 2nd overall pick chosen to be a starter or the 2nd overall pick chosen to be a backup. Hypatheticals shouldn't factor into an argument.
Thabeet is not that good he got nuetralized by quicker smaller players, if you are going to compliment Yao, you need a JUMPING jack style of player that can shoot the midrange game. Not another tall guy who can get leveraged out with ease. DD
I don't think there is any benefit in playing the "What if" game, because anything could happen. At the end of the day, Thabeet is just not that impressive a player, he is very limited offensively, is great on D, and can get better on O. I just don't believe with the new rules that drafting a "Could get better at O" guy at number 2 is all that good. I think it is easier to teach a good O guy to play D than it is to teach a good D guy to play O... To me, Rubio is going to be really really special.....and he would make the Rockets better now and in the future.....IMO, of course. DD
Thabeet also is going to need time. The biggest difference between Brooks and Rubio is Rubio's game is built on being a pure PG...Brooks isn't. Rubio has the vision and creativity. Like I said earlier. I think Rubio at 18 years, helps our team more than Brooks did 2008-09. Yeah he'll go through his lumps, but he's not going to be the focus of the team. We still have Yao and Artest, so we won't ask much of him. Lowry will still split his minutes...and if he really is the bball prodigy he's been up until this point of his career then like other phenom's he's going to come in strong.
i was hoping you'd answer that specific question, i know it means nothing as far as who's really going to do what since other factors can affect the outcome, but like i said, i just wanted to know if you'd still get rubio if you knew this would happen.
Also Rubio's weakness isn't his defensive game. That's above average itself. So Thabeet is a guy who is very limited on offense but a great defender coming into the NBA... Rubio is a guy whose a great offensive player and at least a average defender. Plus Rubio would have Lowry backing him up, so we wouldn't lose anything on defense. I say we GAIN on defense because he'd make our offensive possessions much easier, allowing us to work harder on defense.
