After chilling out after last night, I feel I need to give my full opinion in a calmer state: I'm not worried about Rubio not wanting to play here. He's said if they play him, he'll be happy to play for us. My worry is how soon he'll be over here to play. With the contract he'll be getting with us, it will be tough to pay off the buyout with that alone, but Rubio is marketable enough to get a nice shoe deal, or some other type of marketing campaign to get him the rest of the money he needs. I will be very upset if Rubio isn't able to come over, but it's indeed possible that he'll be in Spain for 1 or 2 more years. I just got back from the rookie press conference at the Target Center (Rubio was not present), and was very impressed with what Flynn had to say. He said he's ready and willing to come off the ball, and let Rubio run the show. He also said he would love to play with him and that they can make eachother better. He said that while he's used to playing with the ball in his hands, he'll be willing to let Rubio run it and have him play off the ball. Great, I'm happy he's coming in with that positive attitude. Whether I think offensively that will work is another story, but it's good to know Flynn is willing to give it a shot. Defensively, I feel much better about the whole situation after hearing some great points from David Kahn. Eventually, it would be Corey Brewer guarding the other team's best perimeter player, and Rubio would take the other wing that poses less of a threat, while Flynn, a damn good defender in his own right, would guard the point guard (under most circumstances, wouldn't work with a team with a guy like Lamar Odom, as Rubio wouldn't have a chance). Rubio is a legit 6'5, and he's going to get stronger, as he's only a couple months older than me. He'll get to the point where he won't have trouble with bigger 2s and regular sized 3s, for the most part. It will be tough at first, but we have guys like Ryan Gomes and Corey Brewer to help out and take a lot of the minutes in the meantime defensively. Offensively, I still have my concerns. While Flynn seems very willing and ready to playing off the ball, I just don't think he'll be able to do it. I like him and his skillset a lot, but scoring off the ball isn't something he's known for at all. The way it sounds, Kahn wants to, and will keep both of them, definitely Rubio at least. Usually, you can hear him dodge a question regarding a trade for one of them, but he flat out said he likes this idea of trying these guys out in the backcourt. He is obviously head-over-heels in love with Rubio, and was raving about him as if we just got Jerry West in his prime. And he also sounded extremely excited about playing Flynn. He went on to say in the press conference that he sees Flynn as a guy who could become on of the best lockdown defensive guards in the NBA, as he showed a tenacity defensively in the workouts that made him simply say ''wow''. Thinking about it, I think what happened with pick #6 is this: They by no means saw the top guy on their board (Rubio) actually being there at 5, so when they took him, they still felt that nobody came close to being a high level player like Flynn that was still available on the draft board. So they probably figured, "we can figure out how to use him later, right now we need to take this guy, he's just too good to pass up on". So, they took him. It's still up in the air to me over whether he'll still be here if/when we get Rubio's buyout situation figured out, but I think he'll still be here, for better or for worse, that's what I believe. I also have an explanation for what I think about them passing on someone who in theory made a lot more sense in taking at 6, Stephen Curry. Kahn keeps saying how it's because Curry, his dad, and his agent went around and told everyone that he's a point guard, and that's what he wants to be at the next level. But there's on issue with that statement, Jonny Flynn is a point guard. I think, more than anything, they got the sense from Curry and his party that he wants to be "the man" on whatever team landed him. And when Rubio fell into our laps, we were/are obviously going to try to build our team around him and Big Al. If we would have drafted Curry, he wouldn't have been too thrilled about the situation, not only because he wouldn't be able to run the point, but also because he wouldn't be running the show. In fact, he'd likely be the third best player on the team at-best. Flynn, on the other hand, was a guy higher on their draft board, and more willing to do whatever the team wanted them to do. So, they took him. It will be interesting to see what we end up doing with this whole little predicament, but I like this little problem we have here, to be honest. If it works, great. If not, we have two outstanding, one potentially transforming, guards who will have a lot of value in the trade market, and would bring us something in that would be more forumulaec and systematic, and would make more sense to succeed. I'm ok with the spot we're in right now, as we can only get better from here.
Kahn has made some comments about not being low-balled by other teams, it doesn't seem like he'll just give him away which is nice. Hopefully for Minnesota Rubio takes two years to mature and enters peacefully into your rotation.
I have trouble finding the logic of trading a good young player in Foye (16ppg?) AND a solid role player at the end of his contract for a chance at a good young player. I'm even more baffled that they decide to use 5 and 6 on point gaurds...regardless of what Curry's camp was saying he would of been a great fit at the 2 for you guys. All the chances he'd have feeding off the open looks from Rubio and the double teeming down on Big Al Anyways......i'm just stunned for the Timberwolves fans - a team with this many holes to fill and they go and draft 2 of the same position with the 5th and 6th pick
^^Curry is a jackass though. He refused to work out with us, and i say an interview with him where he straight up said he was just like steve nash. The guy is a shot happy little kid that is gonna get pushed around like crazy his first few years. If it weren't for the quick release i'd say he has no shot, but he could be a solid 7-8-9 guy to sit in the corner and drain threes ie daniel gibson lol maybe eddie house if he bulks up.
