http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/779/20090601/draft_report_ricky_rubio_of_dkv_joventut/ Most Interesting Part to me. "Putting Rubio in a system where he brings the ball up the floor and dishes off to a one-on-one wing star on most possessions would be a waste of his talent and would turn him into an ordinary point guard. His skills as a scorer and spot-up shooter aren’t good enough to really compensate for a style that doesn’t let him be a gunslinger." Seems to me like we would have to change our offense quite a bit for him.
And isn't that the best reason in the world to draft him? And it wouldn't necessarily mean us becoming the Suns, either. Think Greg Oden might like this?
I just posted something similar to this in another thread. While I really don't think Rubio is going to be as good as others do, drafting him would show that KP is commited to pushing the tempo and force McMillan to change his slow paced offense. Despite what some may think, I think Roy woul dlike this a lot as well.
Although I tend to agree that the offense needs more creativity and movement and that Brandon needs to add more off the ball movement, post ups and cuts to his repertoire, I don't think you'll ever confuse him with Reggie Miller or Rip Hamilton. Getting a guy like Rubio and trying to blend the two together would probably not be maximizing either player's strengths and we'd probably see the same situation we have with Sergio where the two would have trouble coexisting on the court ... especially since it appears that Rubio doesn't have the shooting ability to play off the ball much at all. The question for me becomes: Do you force your all-NBA shooting guard and the face of the franchise to adapt, or do you add pieces that compliment his already prodigious skills? I'm not sure there is a black and white answer to that question, but it seems like a bigger risk to adopt the former rather than the latter strategy.
I really do not think this is as big of a deal as presented. Roy can play next to a good ball handler that runs well in the half-court - even if he is not a great shooter. A simple solution where someone like Rubio plays in the half-court next to Roy for 12 minutes and 12 minutes on a faster 2nd unit when Roy is on the bench is just fine. I am pretty sure that you are a fan of getting Miller here - Rubio is projected as a super-deluxe version of Miller - neither is an elite long-ball shooter - both need the ball to penetrate and set up others. Having Rubio or Miller is the same stuff - as far as I can see - with the exception that Rubio is younger and has a much higher ceiling (even if it will take him a couple of years to get to Miller's current play level in the NBA). Reducing Roy's play-making duties by half if we have a great PG that sets people up (including Roy as a target for his passes) - is not a bad thing. What we can not have is a ball-dominating PG that can not create effectively in the half-court (like Sergio) next to Roy.
Yeah I do like Miller but that's as much for the fact that he's a veteran with a proven track record of being able to get to the hole and play the position at a fairly high level. Rubio could really end up being a total phenom, but I still have questions in my mind about Rubio's ability to get it done at the NBA level. In short I'm increasingly apathetic towards the draft and its ability to solve the team's problems.
If people couldn't handle Steve Blake's defense, they're going to hate Rubio. I think there is way too much hype around Rubio. I think he will get man-handled in both aspects of speed (on defense) and strength (on both ends of the floor). Poor defender with an inconsistent jump shot and great court, who can't run a standard half court offense. That sounds like someone we already have and are about to let go for nothing.
Don't confuse "poor athleticism" with "poor defender". Rubio, in just about every report on him for a few years now, has been called anywhere from "a strength" to "genius" on Team D, b/c he knows where to be, where to gamble and has great court vision. Sure, he's skinny. Bobby Medina's still getting paid, afaik. It's not that he "can't run a standard half court offense", it's that he runs an amazing P&R offense--which last I checked was a half-court offense. Our "standard" iso offense revolving around Roy didn't do that great against good teams. Even at UW, Roy played really well playing off of Nate Robinson, rather than being "The Man" with Bobby Jones and Will Conroy. The article was saying that bringing the ball up and running a wing iso would waste him, and I totally agree. Much like Rudy and, to some extent, Oden are being wasted. I'd much rather have the P&R or a motion offense, especially if we have a floor general/wizard running it. To mix metaphors...isos are fascist--motion and passing are democratic.
A couple issues though: 1) He may be a great team defender and know where to be. Steve Blake also falls under that category. Being a great team defender doesn't do you much good if you are not strong enough to defend people one on one. As you noted, the NBA is a one on one game and teams will go at a mismatch if it presents itself. 2) Rubio does appear to be a great pick and roll guy, and yes we run the pick and roll a lot (just like most teams). However, we have a guy named Brandon Roy that is one of the best players in the league at getting to the hoop. We would be foolish to run 50% of our sets (as mentioned in the article above) as pick and rolls through Rubio. Sure we could stash him in the corner, but he's not near the shooter Rudy or Blake is. 3) I don't understand how Oden is being "wasted". The guy clearly wasn't fully recovered, is a half step slow off his feet, still needs a little more time to adapt to the speed of the NBA game, and has zero touch around the basket. All this, yet he still scored at a decent rate when he was able to stay out of foul trouble, especially given his limitations. I don't see how that is wasting his talent. If we want someone to get him dunks and dunks alone, there are a ton of centers (including Joel) who can make wide-open dunks. I think he's a bad fit with our current personnel and our current coaching staff. Sure, we could blow it up and design everything around Rubio, but we've got a pretty good thing going right now.
I don't think there is a question. We build the team around Brandon. Period. His season where he pushed himself into top 10 player, All-NBA, has cemented his status as franchise player you build around. Conincidentally, LaMarcus and Oden are PERFECT matches for Brandon Roy and the type of game he already plays. Imagine that. How fucking convenient. As far as bringing in more talent, which I am very much in favor of doing, we need to look for pieces that fit well with that group.
