I would think if they were worried someone might jump ahead of them the Kings would say they were not interested. To drive up the price to make someone trade for him I'd think they'd say they are going to draft him, not that they are not interested.
Clearly, Rubio is a project player. He's not NBA ready at this time, but has that dreaded "potential" tag. He may pan out and he may not. He's pretty much an unknown quantity. Drafting him will be a gamble for whoever lands him. That said, his upside is pretty promising. He's one of those players who will show what he has about the time his rookie contract expires.
Rubio looks to be a stud- great handles and amazing passing combined with a strong defensive game at the Europeon level (granted it may not translate, but he should be better than your typical euro prospect). If I knew for sure that we would get Boozer with cap space, I would trade Aldridge for Rubio.
Chad Ford said in his chat that Sacramento is not that enthused with Rubio and might go with Holliday. So, in theory, if everybody goes with whom they're supposed to like, it could go: 1: Griffin 2: Thabeet (seems a stretch) 3: Harden (I can see this, particularly if they really see Westbrook as their PG) 4: Holliday 5: .... Also mentioned was that while Washington is sort of interested in playing Rubio next to Arenas, Rubio's "camp" has zero interest. And as we know, Washington is open to trading the pick, particularly if they can offload salary. Maybe we can get Jamison AND Rubio! Anyone with Insider care to summarize Chad Ford's latest draft musings?
Amen. I'm in the admittedly small camp that doesn't understand what everyone saw from Rubio in the Olympics that makes him such a can't miss prospect.
He did it as an 18 years old. A 6 years older Deron Williams with much more experience and a WCF experience behind him got 8 PPG, 2.8APG, 2.3 RPG, 1.5TOPG, 0.75 STPG in 19MPG (with much better shooting percentages, to be honest). Do you think that an 18 years old Deron Williams would have got the production Rubio had as an 18 years old in the Olympics going all the way to the gold game? If you think he would (and I do not think he would) - you understand why Rubio is such an intriguing prospect...
The problem with that line of thinking is, it assumes you can predict future development. That's a 50/50 proposition at best. If he isn't producing at a high level now (statistically), there's no guarantee he will later just because he's young.
Rubio is producing at a high level now... he averaged 9.8PPG, 5.8RPG, 2.7RPG shooting 41% from the 3 and 39% overall in only 22MPG - in a league much harder than college (the Spanish league) playing against men bigger and stronger than him. This translates to 16 points, 9.4assist and 4.4 rebounds per 36 minutes... which is not bad at all... Flynn - who seems like a great prospect - averaged 17.4 points, 6.7 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 37.3 minutes last year against lesser competition - and he is older. Would you rather have a 16.8 points, 6.6 assist and 2.6 rebounds per 36 or a younger player who averaged 16 points, 9.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds per 36 against tougher competition? Flynn is the first, Rubio is the 2nd. Rubio most certainly produces. He produced fantastically in the Olympics when you actually look at his production vs. Deron Williams who is much older, stronger and more experienced in the same kind of minutes... Of course - not all prospects pan out - but to say that Rubio is not producing is absurd and it ignores the facts... Do the same thing with Derrick Rose's college stats - and per 36 - Rubio scores less but at a higher percentage fom 3, distributes more and rebounds about the same per minute - but against better competition...
I think the level of competition thing is overrated. It has proven a rather poor predictor of NBA success, with surprising successes and busts on both sides of the equation.
41% from three and 39% overall suggests he can't finish well inside does it not? And thats against less athletic players.
I didn't want to start ANOTHER Rubio thread, so I'll stick this here... Let's suppose the Grizzlies didn't draft Rubio (and Minny doesn't really trade Kevin Love for the chance to do so). I can actually see the Thunder considering some of our players because Presti is an ex-Spurs guy and might be intrigued by "character" players. With that in mind, what about this: We give up: Rudy (sob!), Sergio, Travis and Joel We get: Collison, Earl Watson (who did best under Nate, did he not?) and the #3. Is that too stupid to contemplate? Would we give up too much? Would the Thunder just laugh in our faces? I dunno. The Thunder have Durant and Westbrook for scoring, but their bigs are either finesse (Krstic) or undersized (Green). Same problem as with Memphis - we don't have a PF to spare to offer, but I can see Presti really liking adding Joel for rebounding and defense (and Krstic can play PF in a pinch). The other three are to fill out the deal, and because I can't really see OKC giving up the #3 for JUST Joel. The players we get back are salary dumps by OKC. I can also see Presti liking Freeland - although not enough to prefer him over Rudy, I'll bet. Then we offer our 24 to anyone who takes either Collison or Watson off our hands, and use our cap space to sign someone to fill out the depleted roster.
Basically that would be trading Rudy, Sergio, Outlaw AND Joel for...#3 (Rubio) because you mention dumping #24 (Collison or Watson) somewhere? I would not trade Rudy for Rubio straight up and certainly would not include Joel. That is a big NO on this deal. If it was Outlaw/Sergio/#24/$3 mil cash for #3(Rubio)/Collison...maybe.
OMG you can't be serious! I would do that trade in a heartbeat if I was certain Rubio would fall to #3. At that point I would trade the #3 for the #2 with Memphis. Maybe Blake +Cash and the #3 heck throw in Frye and the rights to Freeland in exchange for the #2.
