When you are in the desert and you are thirsty and you have not seen TV for 3 weeks - when you get to the oasis you go to drink first - and if you get to watch "Junkyard wars" later - that's nice. You solve the big problems first, and the others are nice to have. Sure we could get more efficient on offense - but we would do that with tons of other point guards, not just Nash. Unfortunately, Nash does not really solve our problem of being close to die of thirst... he might actually make it worse... ... and while there are very few teams that can stop the really fast point guards - you do not need someone that will stop them - you just need someone that will slow them, make their life harder and protect our bigs from getting stupid fouls when exposed trying to cover for them...
Rubio has game-changing talent. He is a very disruptive defender (a la Rajon Rondo - he was ACB defensive player of the year this year, I believe) and a distributor of Jason-Kidd like talent. In fact, Jason Kidd is probably the nearest comparison. Of course he doesn't have the raw athletic ability of the young Jason Kidd, but he's got the PG skills and, while no doubt easier to post up, is as annoying defensively. Kidd never put up huge scoring numbers but was always a tranformative player wherever he went. Rubio isn't just any PG: he's by far the best PG in a great PG class. He was more important to Spain (and, apart from in the final) played better than Rudy. I was not pleased to see this at the time, because I was all geeked about getting Rudy and wanted him to be the best player. Rudy has never been seen as the prospect that Rubio has. Rudy is a skinny SG of average height with poor dribbling skills. It's his intangibles that are off the charts. Rubio has that plus is tall for his position, an amazing ball-handler and defender and has a practically unequalled floor vision. Do you think that he's being ranked as the second of a two prospect draft for nothing? If anything, he should be ranked first, and it's only because people rate size more that he isn't. I will bet that in five years people will see the ranking of Blake Griffin over Rubio as they now see the ranking of Glenn Robinson over Jason Kidd. Now, can we get him? Probably not. Would Nate use him well? Very unclear.
That is correct. When it comes to PG with Blazing fast speed (no pun intended!) you are either a team who has one and can compete nightly with other teams that have such a guard, or your are a team without one, who is victimized every time you play one of these teams. Right now, between New Orleans, San Antonio, PHX, Utah and Houston, Portland gets raped by the opposing PG about a 3rd of the schedule. Wouldn't it be nice to make that not be a detriment so many nights of the year, and know the team actually matches up for a change?
Do we have to use the term "raped"? It's pretty offensive, particularly if anyone reading this actually has been raped. And it's nice that you list PHX and Utah there - I'm sure Deron Williams and Steve Nash would be surprised and pleased to be told they have "blazing speed".
Some quotes on Rubio from people who've probably seen him play a lot more than any of us: DraftExpress: Jonathan Givony (who may have also written the above): "Scouts" talking to ESPN the Magazine last year: Aaron Torres: Henry Abbott's "insider sources":
Thanks! If Memphis is going to give him up, the conversation would at least have to start with Rudy Fernandez UNLESS we were able to get the #5 pick from Washington AND if Jordan Hill dropped to 5, then we could produce some sort of package that included Jerryd Bayless and Hill.
I'm not too familiar with what the Wizards are expecting to receive for the #5 pick. I know they want to cut salary to get below the lux. tax. We could use Brendan Haywood. We could send a package of Outlaw and Sergio for Haywood and the #5. They could immediately terminate Outlaw's contract and shave Haywood and the #5's salary off the books in place of Sergio's $1.5. This would save them about $7M next season ($14M if you factor in the luxury tax cost).
