JJ Barea or Ricky Rubio?

[lobishome]

[Esohny]

Nice Carhartt hoodie.

[shrink]

Rubio should just give Barea some of his eyebrows.

[Breakdown777]

Nice Carhartt hoodie.

He looks like one of those silly clueless European tourists in that picture, lol.

i`Los Amigos!' (dunno how to get the upside down "!", so I used and "i")

[Narf]

Barea is overrated. Most of the people know him because of the play off run, but dont know how badly he sucked in the regular season. The guy is nothing special at all, he can play pick and roll with Dirk better than anyone else but thats it. No Dirk, no fun, undersized tweener PG.

P.S. Ricard ''Ricky'' ''The face'' Rubio. Yeah, that sounds great...

Um, he was better during the regular season than he was in the playoffs
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... ajo01.html

He's a change of pace PG, who drives and scores and forces the defense in. Rubio drives and dishes, and Ridnour doesn't even drive but is one of the best outside/midrange shooters in the NBA.

It's hard to make a game plan for all 3 of them, and Adelman is going to play 2 PGs at a time enough to drive opposing teams nuts.

[thinktank]

Perfect assessment, Narf. For stretches of games, it has the potential to be effective. I think Barea is a nice guy to drive the car and push the chassis and Rubio does that too, but in a totally different way. I think using Luke as a 2 may be a good idea. The guy has proven he can shoot it and if he can find places to spot up within an offense, he could shoot even better. Kind of a mini-Hoiberg.

[Narf]

Thanks. It actually occurred earlier today to me that Ridnour is the same size as Eric Gordon....and a better outside shooter. Obviously Gordon is more talented, but Ridnour has all the skills we want offensively as a SG off the bench. Good ball handler, great shooter, team player and Rubio defending the opposing SG mitigates his liability on defense somewhat. And he played SG in stretches with Jennings on offense back in Milwaukee.

[AQuintus]

Thanks. It actually occurred earlier today to me that Ridnour is the same size as Eric Gordon

Nope.

Ridnour is an inch shorter (6'1" in socks vs 6'2"), has a 6 inch shorter wingspan (6'3" vs 6'9"), a 3 and a half inch shorter standing reach (7'11.5" vs 8'3"), and weighs 39 pounds less.

And all of that is based on their combine numbers (Ridnour at 22 vs Gordon at 19), so there's a decent chance that Gordon is bigger now than he was then.

[Killboard]

For play two pg together one of them needs be able to defend sg. The only one who can do that is Rubio. Im dont sure if he can do that now, and maybe he cant do it vs all but he has the lenght and the skill for acomplish that. Im looking for a good defense zone too.

[Klomp]

MANKATO, Minn. - Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman didn't wait long to get a peek at his two new guards.

Adelman played rookie Ricky Rubio and newcomer J.J. Barea together for most of Thursday's scrimmage at Bresnan Arena on the Minnesota State Mankato campus. Barea's performance in his first practice with the Wolves could tempt Adelman to use the duo more.

"He looked good," Adelman said of Barea. "He's going to help us. He picked up our stuff real easy."

When asked about Barea, Wolves forward Michael Beasley said, "I don't think he missed a shot."

Barea was signed as a free agent Wednesday after playing five years with Dallas. Though only 5 feet 11, Barea played mostly shooting guard when paired with Rubio.

"I like playing off the ball when Ricky handles it," Barea said. "I can shoot more and drive to the basket. I really think we can play together."

Adelman said he will give Luke Ridnour a chance to play with Barea or Rubio in today's practice.

http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves/ci_19558723

[call.me.dude]

Might still be Luke from day 1 if he's still here.... then Rubio. Don't think Barea will ever start.

I would doubt it. If Luke's still here, it's going to be tough to get all 3 consistent minutes and if somebody's minutes are going to be cut it's probably Ridnour's.

I don't see much of a problem here. Barea and Rubio can play together for at least 10-15 mpg and it would be better than most other options at the 2. Rubio is somewhat similar to Kidd in terms of playing style and some of the qualities they have and he worked beautifully with Barea.

SG: Johnson + rest 34, Barea 14
PG: Ridnour 20, Rubio 22, Barea 6

As the season progresses, give Rubio the starting job, increase his minutes and sacrifice some of the SGs minutes for JJB.

[MagnusPinus]

Offensively they are a nice couple, but honestly on D Rubio showed he can't defend Sg..

[cojayar]

Offensively they are a nice couple, but honestly on D Rubio showed he can't defend Sg..

He must adapt, but definitively who can not defend a SG is JJB.