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According to David Carro, the Spanish partner of Rubio's NBA agent, Dan Fegan, who we spoke with here at the Copa del Rey, there is “still a chance that Rubio could find his way into this year's draft.” Negotiations are reportedly underway to lower his buyout to more manageable proportions, possibly 3-4 million Euro. A solution could come as early as “this month” Carro told us, and in that case, Rubio would be able to afford getting out of his contract if he were to be “a top-3 pick” (which he very likely is), as long as he could pay off the buyout over the course of his rookie deal. Asked why Joventut would have any reason to even negotiate considering the leverage they hold in this situation, Carro responded that Rubio is the “image of the team” and that they “would not want to have a mad player.”

Obviously the door has yet to be completely closed on Ricky Rubio and this year's NBA draft, so we'll have to stay tuned.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ricky-Rubio-1155/

Great News if his agent can get it done!

I don't want to get excited about this until he announces and we are in position to take him. I have done that too many times before

It's simple. If Wolves fall to the bottom 3. Rubio stays. If wolves somehow wind up in the 6-10 range, Rubio's coming out.

Rubio will go to either Seattle, or portland. Simple as that.

revprodeji wrote:Rubio will go to either Seattle, or portland. Simple as that.

You are right. Portland would get him.

revprodeji wrote:Rubio will go to either Seattle, or portland. Simple as that.

how you guys are you so sure? I want him on the wolves

Portland is gonna have a hard time getting Rubio, since they're not even willing to deal travis outlaw to get Vince Carter.

Rakocevicftw wrote:Portland is gonna have a hard time getting Rubio, since they're not even willing to deal travis outlaw to get Vince Carter.

That just means that there is something horribly wrong with Carter. He will probably drop dead in 24 hours or he's about to commit some major crime or something and get kicked out of the NBA.

Quit worrying about Portland. They'd be awesome if they had Durant but they blew it.

Rakocevicftw wrote:Quit worrying about Portland. They'd be awesome if they had Durant but they blew it.

And they had Deron Williams in hand, and traded him for Martell Webster and some late picks.

This was only 2005, but with new management, the team the Blazers could have been is forgotten easily. However, for some immature fans, the sins of McHale, like trading Ray Allen for Marbury in 1996, or Wally Szczerbiak (1999), are still the subject of regular whines.

It's premature to call Oden over Durant a bad pick.

shrink wrote:

Rakocevicftw wrote:Quit worrying about Portland. They'd be awesome if they had Durant but they blew it.

And they had Deron Williams in hand, and traded him for Martell Webster and some late picks.

This was only 2005, but with new management, the team the Blazers could have been is forgotten easily. However, for some immature fans, the sins of McHale, like trading Ray Allen for Marbury in 1996, or Wally Szczerbiak (1999), are still the subject of regular whines.

Are you surprised that fans complain when a team is doing bad? One of the great joys of being the fan of a struggling franchise is remembering and rehashing all the mistakes of the past.

Worm Guts wrote:It's premature to call Oden over Durant a bad pick.

Disagree. Everyone says Oden will be a franchise center, like Duncan, Shaq, Yao, Howard etc. Look at his numbers, his body of work so far as it compares to those guys early in their careers. If you want to talk about health that's fine, but consider that this is a guy who lost most of his one college season to injury, then his first NBA season, and now a bunch more stuff this year.

He's like Ilguaskas for me at this point - he'd have to play the next 3-4 complete seasons to shed the label of injury-prone. And injury-prone players are not as valuable as guys who can stay healthy. Durant is going to be a monster in his prime, and he's better than Oden today.

It could turn around, but right now, today, Durant should have been the first pick in that draft.

TrentTuckerForever wrote:

Worm Guts wrote:It's premature to call Oden over Durant a bad pick.

Disagree. Everyone says Oden will be a franchise center, like Duncan, Shaq, Yao, Howard etc. Look at his numbers, his body of work so far as it compares to those guys early in their careers. If you want to talk about health that's fine, but consider that this is a guy who lost most of his one college season to injury, then his first NBA season, and now a bunch more stuff this year.

He's like Ilguaskas for me at this point - he'd have to play the next 3-4 complete seasons to shed the label of injury-prone. And injury-prone players are not as valuable as guys who can stay healthy. Durant is going to be a monster in his prime, and he's better than Oden today.

It could turn around, but right now, today, Durant should have been the first pick in that draft.

He broke a wrist in college, I'm not sure how you'd project that to the knee problems he's had as a pro. Two completely unrelated issues.
I still feel that if Oden heels and develops, then Portland is a dynasty. I don't necessarily think that's the case if they have Durant.

Calinks3 wrote:It's simple. If Wolves fall to the bottom 3. Rubio stays. If wolves somehow wind up in the 6-10 range, Rubio's coming out.

So negative... I think you could make a strong case for Rubio going first overall, if he gets into the draft. Look at Chris Paul's impact, or Rose on the Bulls this year, or Nash's two MVPs - with the hand-checking rules as they now are, great point guard play has immense value.

If I were Sacramento, Washington or the Clippers, I'd have a tough time taking anyone else in this draft with the first pick. If you guys want to go all conspiratorial, I'd say he ends up in DC... how good would he look next to Arenas, Butler and Jamison? You'd have to convince Gilbert to play without the ball in his hands a little bit more, but I think the freedom it would afford him would make it a terrific fit.

revprodeji wrote:Rubio will go to either Seattle, or portland. Simple as that.

I'm curious as to what this means, how would Portland get him? They won't be in the lottery.

Worm Guts wrote:He broke a wrist in college, I'm not sure how you'd project that to the knee problems he's had as a pro. Two completely unrelated issues.

I'm not saying they're related, I'm saying that combined they make him injury-prone. Some players are injury-prone and some aren't... the ones that are are less valuable than those who can suit up and produce every night.

Worm Guts wrote:I still feel that if Oden heels and develops, then Portland is a dynasty. I don't necessarily think that's the case if they have Durant.

I dunno... the Blazers are a playoff team this year with LaMarcus Alderidge and Joel Pryzbilla as the frontcourt mainstays. They need a 3 to complete that team. I agree that if Oden reaches his ceiling they'd be scary. I'm just not convinced that he will; there's no evidence to suggest that he'll suddenly start showing up and dominating every night. For the Wolves' sake, I hope he remains what he is now. It's bad enough that we've already got Durant, Bynum and Chris Paul to deal with in the West over the next ten years.

And um, Seattle doesn't have a team, so I'm pretty sure you're taking him more serious than he should be taken.

No matter what, Rubio coming out is a good thing. Even if the Wolves aren't in the position to draft him, that's one more player getting pushed down for the Wolves to decide from, or maybe to wiff on, depends on how full the glass is for you.

But we're looking at like the 5th pick if it stays true to the standings, and when I use the ESPN mock lottery, it turns out in our favor quite frequently, so I'm assuming good things.

Also, if the Wizards, Thunder, and maybe even the Clippers or Grizzlies draft ahead of us, there's a chance they pass on Rubio. My point being it's not an Oden/Durant or LeBron/Darko type of draft where there's a guaranteed top two.

TrentTuckerForever wrote:
I'm not saying they're related, I'm saying that combined they make him injury-prone. Some players are injury-prone and some aren't... the ones that are are less valuable than those who can suit up and produce every night.

Injury prone is a tricky term, sometimes injuries are just flukes. His broken wrist was a fluke, the problems with his knees might be chronic. So while Oden might injury prone, I think the broken wrist was more of a coincidence than an indicator of things to come.

TrentTuckerForever wrote:I dunno... the Blazers are a playoff team this year with LaMarcus Alderidge and Joel Pryzbilla as the frontcourt mainstays. They need a 3 to complete that team. I agree that if Oden reaches his ceiling they'd be scary. I'm just not convinced that he will; there's no evidence to suggest that he'll suddenly start showing up and dominating every night. For the Wolves' sake, I hope he remains what he is now. It's bad enough that we've already got Durant, Bynum and Chris Paul to deal with in the West over the next ten years.

Because of the knee injury, I do think if the draft was done over you'd have to take Durant over Oden but I'd still take what Oden was projected to be over what Durant is projected to be. I guess I want to see where Oden is a year from now before declaring that Portlant made a mistake. I remember it took Rashad a while before he got his explosiveness back after microfracture surgery, I want to see how Oden responds.

I don't see Durant as a volume scorer and Brandon Roy as a franchise star pairing very well. It's not like Durant is a Kevin Martin type of efficency scorer. Durant needs the ball in his hands and quite a few shots. He's improved, but he's not going to be as effective coming off screens and working without the ball in his hands that playing with Roy would command.

I think most people have been harsher on Oden than he deserves. Next year we'll see a much scarier Oden. Keep in mind this is the first year he's ever played against opponents that can come close to matching up with him, he just came off a MAJOR knee operation. Amare wasn't freaky athletic again right away either. Oden's been a very nice player this year, it's just that most people have these insanely high expectations of Oden and he's not a 30/10/5 guy just yet, so most people think he's a bust.

If he turns out to be a 16/11 with 3 blocks a game, which should be more than manageable, he'll be perfect for Portland. They're pretty much splitting time equally with Joel P from Monticello so far. Joel P is no slouch either. Give it time.