Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Ricky Rubio Still in Spain for Two Years

Forget the drama over whether Timberwolves General Manager KAAAAHNNN managed to get Rubio's buyout done, and then see Ricky backed away from it. That part doesn't really matter. Ricky Rubio is staying in Spain for 2 years, and the Timberwolves will own his rights in the NBA throughout that time.

Look, every NBA team knew that Rubio's contract with his old team was hugely problematic--his buyout was fantastically huge, compared to the amount of money he was making, which made sense for Joventut, but awful sense for Rubio. The Timberwolves were only allowed to pay for $500,000 of his buyout. Every NBA franchise knew it was going to be a pain in the ass to get Rubio--out of the GM's picking in the top 5 picks, it is possible that only Kahn had the job security to be that patient.

Regardless, Rubio is not a "blown pick"--he's 18 years old, he's apparently got a pantload of talent, and he's 6' 4". To get him, the Timberwolves gave up on an undersized shooting guard in Randy Foye and a veteran shooter who wouldn't fucking shoot the ball named Mike Miller. That's a steal, even if he's only trade bait in 2 years. I'll happily take new trade bait over failed players. Oh, and we have Jonny Flynn, who I'm already pegging as a pretty awesome #6 pick.

And to be fair, the professional writers are taking a pretty calm look at this--most of them are not calling Rubio a blown pick--you've got to go to the idiot commenters to find that perspective. Yahoo's J.E. Skeets has a nice rundown of the reaction (including heated, though obviously false, rumors that the Timberwolves would give up Rubio for a couple of shitty/redundant Knicks players). Skeets made one huge mistake in not including the best writer on the Timberwolves on the net--one Britt Robson, whose take is the nice, sane take.

Update: Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus is also taking the reasonable view.

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