UcanUwill wrote:dc wrote:udfa wrote:It seemed like everyone was polarized on Rubio in the 09 draft, either awesome or bust, but he's just been a really solid NBA player his whole career. Looking forward to seeing him dish for Phoenix this year
Yeah, he's a good solid PG who can pass and defend. Been so pretty much all of his career.
He was ultra hyped up coming into the 2009 draft. People were talking about him like he was some wunderkind/prodigy who was some combo of Kidd/Magic/Stockton. I assumed that was true, but when I watched his HIGHLIGHTS I didn't see any of that. I just saw a solid player who happened to be 17 at the time.
I think a lot of his hype just came from his productive FIBA play, which was mature beyond his years. And he looked good in 2008 vs. Team USA, IIRC. He's just a better FIBA player than he is NBA player.
Rubio was so good as 17 year old its not even funny. He is goat pre 18 year old without a doubt. His IQ, vision and ability to play defense at elite level at age 16 and 17 was unseen, he was so natural he leaves guys like Sabonis or Pau in shame. That said he peaked in his teens, he really did. I know people will say he is much better scorer right now, but he is also worse defender compared to his super quick pesky teen version.
That said, he was never productive FIBA or Euroleague player. He just could not shoot, and perimeter guys who cant shoot are toasts in FIBA and Europe. His selling point always was that he is much better NBA fit than Euro player, and thats true. His draft self was so promising its absurd, but the redflags became very evident before he stepped on NBA floor. IF you remember, he was drafted right out of mediocre Juventud team, but he decided to spend 2 more years in Spain by signing with Barcelona. Years paseed and he showed zero improvement. He joined Minny 2 years later and he wasnt a lick better than he was when he was drafted. If anything he got exposed a ton, since his Euroleague stats were hurrendously bad, but Rubio always was the player with terrible stats but big positive impact in actual games, just my point is that he just didnt improve on anything.
He was such a natural 16 year old its amazing how he couldnt improve on that more. Its like he got a gift to play basketball so well by the snap of the fingers, but that was it, he couldnt build on it at all. What he didnt got just naturally, he never acquired that.
Great post overall.
But I disagree with Ricky never being a productive Euroleague player. Over his two years in Barca, he was 4th overall in Euroleague RAPM. 3rd in ACB.
Here is a post I made on it at the time, unfortunately the original stats for the site are down..
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