NBA Draft Thread-Rubio Falls to the Wizards:(

[lupin]

+1 W. Unseld

I think we'll look back and think EG's a genius for moving our picks in this weak draft

Genius? Talk about overstating. As if only one side of the argument can be rational.

IF they win a championship next season, then you could mention the word genius (still overstating). Anything else and we're just talking about competency. Sheesh. How far has the bar been lowered here?

And another thing, a combined salary package for Miller and Foye totalling ~#12M per season is still $7-8M more per season than a couple of rookie salaries. You think players like Miller and Foye, roleplayers on any contending team, are going to have careers significantly better than the Rubios and Curries of this draft? The draft is weak because it doesn't have a lot of all-star talent, not because all of the prospects are scab-level players. Newsflash: Miller and Foye are also not all-star talent.

[spaceman_E]

Like it or not Lupin, we weren't thinking about "careers" when we dealt our pick. This is about the next 2-3 seasons and that's it. We actually saved money in the deal and when you add in Song, it's only a few million more next season if they get re-signed.

Wiz99 - Courtney Lee is the only valuable asset you can get for Vince Carter? And you think that's a good job? The Nets have held off dumping him for salary space for so long and then they do just that, awful imo. Oh, and Amare is a great jump shooting big so you are wrong about his range but I still think the Warriors are giving up too much.

[Ruzious]

What Bill Simmons said about the Rubio pick:

5:03: Phew. Sota took him. The best part: Stern going into "I'm gonna be extra gregarious right now because they'll be replaying this in Europe!" mode as he announced the pick. Gotta say, I can't kill Kahn for turning Randy Foye and Mike Miller into Rubio. Nice work. An orgasmic Fraschilla says Rubio is "the best passer in the last decade of drafts" and he's "got a Gretzky-like feel, he sees the game two and three plays ahead." Totally agree.

5:13: From Ray in Washington: "Help, I can't breathe. My GM just traded the No. 5 pick for Foye and Miller while passing up Amare (mind you, our center is nicknamed Brenda and our power forward is an undersized 33-year-old). Now I'm watching the draft when, much to my dismay and sheer bewilderment, a team not called the Wizards selected -- this is difficult -- Ricky Rubio with the fifth pick. Now I'm forced to wish damnation upon this young man and his career for the rest of eternity to make myself feel better about what Ernie Grunfeld has done to us. Make sense of this please. Help."

(Sorry. I can't. Rubio is going to haunt you like Stevie Nicks haunts Lindsey Buckingham every time she sings "Silver Springs." He's gonna bulge his eyes at you and look crazy and vindictive just like Stevie as he's wearing a visiting uniform and throwing no-looks in a half-empty Verizon Center. You wait.)

Meh, he's 20 years behind with the Stevie Nicks reference. Now, she looks and sounds like a goat. Come to think of it, she looks more like Pete Maravich than Rubio does. Now that we're talking about Maravich... he really never was a great NBA player. He put up numbers and made the flashy passes, but he didn't win. But he was a helluvalot better scorer than Ricky "the Goat" Rubio is.

[Ruzious]

Like it or not Lupin, we weren't thinking about "careers" when we dealt our pick. This is about the next 2-3 seasons and that's it. We actually saved money in the deal and when you add in Song, it's only a few million more next season if they get re-signed.

Wiz99 - Courtney Lee is the only valuable asset you can get for Vince Carter? And you think that's a good job? The Nets have held off dumping him for salary space for so long and then they do just that, awful imo. Oh, and Amare is a great jump shooting big so you are wrong about his range but I still think the Warriors are giving up too much.

The reason it wasn't a good trade for NJ was that they included Ryan Anderson in it. Nobody paid attention to him, but I think he's going to play a significant role for Orlando next season. He's another big forward who can hit 3's, and he's a much better rebounder than Lewis and Turk.

[Wiz99]

+1 W. Unseld

I think we'll look back and think EG's a genius for moving our picks in this weak draft

Genius? Talk about overstating. As if only one side of the argument can be rational.

IF they win a championship next season, then you could mention the word genius (still overstating). Anything else and we're just talking about competency. Sheesh. How far has the bar been lowered here?

And another thing, a combined salary package for Miller and Foye totalling ~#12M per season is still $7-8M more per season than a couple of rookie salaries. You think players like Miller and Foye, roleplayers on any contending team, are going to have careers significantly better than the Rubios and Curries of this draft? The draft is weak because it doesn't have a lot of all-star talent, not because all of the prospects are scab-level players. Newsflash: Miller and Foye are also not all-star talent.

That's not the point. The question is whether you think the Wizards need to try to win now, or whether they ought to build to win 3-4 years down the road. That 100% drives your decision to trade it for a piece like Miller that meets our glaring need for 3 point shooting and try to see the upside of this squad now, or keep the pick to draft a guy who in a couple years could help us contend.

I'm sorry to say, our current roster -- age and salary-wise -- demands a push RIGHT NOW. We have 1 year left on Wood's contract, 2 years left on Butler's contract and probably no more than that on Jamison's 33 year old legs. We need to know whether these guys are worth keeping around. It TOTALLY makes sense to go balls to the wall next year.

And that's what getting Mike Miller was all about. Wiz were the 2nd worst three point shooting squad last year. Miller's career .401% 3 point shooting makes him an elite defense stretcher. He doesn't help much with our other problem: defense (Wiz were 3rd worst in PPG differential). But clearly the strategy for Flip will be (i) an offensive onslaught of Gil, AJ, Butler and Miller, and (ii) play decent enough defense to win out.

Here's what I expect EG's calculus to be next year: If Flip and a healthy roster makes this team really, really good offensively, we could compete with Orlando for the SE division 'chip, and ought to finish no worse than a 4th seed in the playoffs. We'd have home court in the 1st round, which is huge.

In this scenario, I fully expect this squad to make it to the 2nd round, something the Wizards/Bullets have managed only TWICE IN 30 YEARS. If they do, I'll call the Miller trade a good move. And if they win that one extra series (I could see them beating an aging Celts, for example), then we'd be in the Eastern Conference finals. And yes, I'd call Ernie Grunfeld a mother-effin genius at that point.

[Wizardspride]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9710 ... the-Lakers?

In some circles, Ricky Rubio, the fifth overall selection by the Timberwolves, has been hailed as the second coming of (fill in the blank). John Stockton? Steve Nash? Isiah Thomas? Bob Cousy? Jason Kidd? Lenny Wilkens? Mo Cheeks? Mark Jackson?

According to a veteran of international competition who has opposed Rubio on numerous occasions, the correct answer is "none of the above."

"Rubio isn't very quick, isn't very strong, and isn't a very good shooter," says the player, who was a record-setting point guard for a mid-Division I college. "What he can do is play hard, see the floor, deliver the ball, be totally unselfish, and make terrific decisions."

The player, who requested to remain anonymous so as not to hurt his own chances to make an NBA squad, also points to Rubio's decidedly mediocre play against Team USA in Beijing. "If I had to make a comparison," Player X says, "Rubio could turn out to be something like Steve Nash, only not as quick and not nearly as good a shooter.

[lupin]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9710744/Straight-Shooting:-Who-will-coach-the-Lakers?

In some circles, Ricky Rubio, the fifth overall selection by the Timberwolves, has been hailed as the second coming of (fill in the blank). John Stockton? Steve Nash? Isiah Thomas? Bob Cousy? Jason Kidd? Lenny Wilkens? Mo Cheeks? Mark Jackson?

According to a veteran of international competition who has opposed Rubio on numerous occasions, the correct answer is "none of the above."

"Rubio isn't very quick, isn't very strong, and isn't a very good shooter," says the player, who was a record-setting point guard for a mid-Division I college. "What he can do is play hard, see the floor, deliver the ball, be totally unselfish, and make terrific decisions."

The player, who requested to remain anonymous so as not to hurt his own chances to make an NBA squad, also points to Rubio's decidedly mediocre play against Team USA in Beijing. "If I had to make a comparison," Player X says, "Rubio could turn out to be something like Steve Nash, only not as quick and not nearly as good a shooter.

Ah, yes, his decidedly mediocre play at the age of 17. We all know that all basketball growth stops by that age.

[verbal8]

Ah, yes, his decidedly mediocre play at the age of 17. We all know that all basketball growth stops by that age.

It did for Kwame Brown.

If Rubio does not develop a shot, I think he will have a career similar to Marko Jaric with a few more assists. There have been point guards who have overcome not having much of a shot or much athleticism, but I can not think of any who have overcome both. I think he still has time to develop a shot.

If Rubio grows a couple inches and/or puts on some weight, he might be able to match up against SFs rather than trying to chase PGs. If you pair him with a small defensive oriented SG, it could work out well.

[Dat2U]

If I was EG on draft night here's what I would have done.

#5: Drafted PG Ricky Rubio.

I'd try to work out a deal with Minny for them to secure Rubio's draft rights and swap picks. If Minny agreed to a Mike Miller for Etan Thomas / Oleksiy Pecherov swap then I would have drafted G Stephen Curry at #6.

If Minny balked at trading Miller I may have settled for the 18th pick. I honestly think Minny would have given up the pick instead of Miller to secure Rubio.

With the 18th pick I would have drafted PG Ty Lawson.

#32: Drafted PF DeJuan Blair

This would have been a no brainer for me. I'd have given him a 3 yr deal.

I would have tried to acquire Vince Carter since he was available so cheaply. Mainly using Nick Young as bait. Nick Young, Javaris Crittenton, Mike James and likely Etan Thomas would have been the offer. I wouldn't have asked for Ryan Anderson in return, maybe Sean Williams instead. I think that's a better deal than they got from Orlando.

New lineup:

PF Antawn Jamison > Andray Blatche > Darius Songaila / DeJuan Blair (R)
SF Caron Butler > Dominic McGuire
C Brendan Haywood > Javale McGee > Sean Williams
SG Vince Carter > Stephen Curry (R) > DeShawn Stevenson
PG Gilbert Arenas > Ty Lawson (R)

This is was I typed on the night of the draft, so no revisionist history here.

Now the only move that might have been questionable would be the VC move, however it was done on the cheap and his deal expires after 2011 anyways, along with Stevenson, Songaila & Butler.

But the VC deal would have gotten Critt off the team so maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.

A core of Lawson (who's been great all year as Billups back up), Curry & Blair would have been an absolutely incredible draft.

[LyricalRico]

But the VC deal would have gotten Critt off the team so maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.

Hey, I was all over the "expirings+prospects for VInce" idea. That was probably my #1 scenario going into last offseason. Making that deal and keeping the picks would have been quite interesting. I'm still not unhappy with the Minny trade, but I would have preferred VC or Rip Hamilton.

[closg00]

Lengthy analysis & update on Ricky complete with YouTube clips. Watching Ricky work you can understand why Khan is willing to wait for him and other teams are trying to find ways to get him. Look for the sick behind the back pass early in clip one. The guy is baller and he's on 19.
http://thepaintedarea.blogspot.com/2010 ... rubio.html

[Rafael122]

Khan isn't willing to wait. He has no choice but to wait.

[LyricalRico]

Khan isn't willing to wait. He has no choice but to wait.

Yeah, thanks for making that correction. Also, he could afford to wait at the time because everyone on the planet expect his team to be one of the league's worst. Not sure you can call him a genius for that.

[closg00]

Khan isn't willing to wait. He has no choice but to wait.

Khan has choices, he could trade the rights to Ricky for a high pick or vet. Obviously Khan has choices.

[Dat2U]

So I was just looking at David Thorpe's current rookie rankings over at ESPN.

Here's his top 5.
1. Tyreke Evans
2. Stephen Curry
3. Brandon Jennings
4. Ty Lawson
5. DeJuan Blair

Can some team please hire me to be their GM please!

[closg00]

So I was just looking at David Thorpe's current rookie rankings over at ESPN.

Here's his top 5.
1. Tyreke Evans
2. Stephen Curry
3. Brandon Jennings
4. Ty Lawson
5. DeJuan Blair

Can some team please hire me to be their GM please!

Amazing, we could have had 2 of the 5.

[montestewart]

So I was just looking at David Thorpe's current rookie rankings over at ESPN.

Here's his top 5.
1. Tyreke Evans
2. Stephen Curry
3. Brandon Jennings
4. Ty Lawson
5. DeJuan Blair

Can some team please hire me to be their GM please!

Amazing, we could have had 2 of the 5.

The Blair pick is obvious, but taking it a step further, we could have had our choice from among several good young PGs (I'll add Flynn to this list) but we already had our PG of the future. I'll stop before I get transferred to an Arenas-related thread.

[closg00]

Watch Rubio live today at 2:45 EST on ESPN360. Yeah, Rubio, Curry, Flynn, Jennings....... never mind.
http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/index?id=8335

[Halcyon]

This is the girlfriend you can't let go of. The first step is to realize it's over.

Lock and move on I say!

[Ruzious]

So I was just looking at David Thorpe's current rookie rankings over at ESPN.

Here's his top 5.
1. Tyreke Evans
2. Stephen Curry
3. Brandon Jennings
4. Ty Lawson
5. DeJuan Blair

Can some team please hire me to be their GM please!

Amazing, we could have had 2 of the 5.

Even with the trade of the 5th pick, we could have gotten 2 of them, imo. If we pushed Minny a little harder, we could have gotten them to give us the pick that they used on Lawson (that they later traded). We'd basically have our current team less Oberto plus Blair and Lawson - but they were penny wise and pound foolish.