The latest on Ricky Rubio
Posted on July 11th, 2009 – 2:44 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Here’s the gist from Spanish media reports the last day or two on the Ricky Rubio Saga:
Two teams in Spanish’s top ACB league — Real Madrid and Unicaja Malaga — are trying to negotiate to reach an agreement with his current DKV Joventut team on that big buyout and sign him.
Real Madrid has more clout, but Unicaja Malaga looks like the favorite if he stays in Europe because of Rubio’s close relationship with Malaga coach “Aito” Garcia Reneses, who coached him at Joventut and also was the Spanish Olympic team’s head coach last summer in Beijing and because Rubio would rather live in beautiful Malaga closer to his hometown than big Madrid.
Unicaja, a financial institution that sponsors the Malaga team, is, according to reports, is willing to pay a good chunk — but not all — of the $6.6 million buyout Rubio owes if he wants release from the final two years of his contract. The bank figures Rubio would become an iconic marketing figure for them in Spain, much like Pau Gasol or Rafael Nadal.
One sticking point: Unicaja wants a three-year commitment and Rubio reportedly isn’t sure he wants to delay his NBA debut that long. Real Madrid is willing to allow him to come to the NBA after two years.
Either team can pay Joventut as much as they want to resolve the buyout situation. The Wolves, by NBA rules, can only pay $500,000.
Another European team buying out his contract and signing him is a more more plausible to disrupt his immediate future with the Wolves.
All talk a week ago that he’d return to Joventut for two more years rather than pay the buyout is little more than negotiating tactics.
100 Responses to "The latest on Ricky Rubio"
Looks like Flynn will be our point guard.
Be very cautious about press reports coming out of Spain on Rubio. Particularly ones which fail to directly quote anyone with authority on the buyout issue. The Rubio camp is already denying the previous Real Madrid position.
Tenga mucho cuidado acerca de los informes de prensa procedentes de España, el Rubio. Especialmente aquellos que no citar directamente a cualquier persona con autoridad sobre la cuestión de adquisición. El campamento es Rubio ya negar la posición anterior del Real Madrid.
What Marty said.
Factor in on top of that that Rubio has been quoted several times as saying if he stays in Europe, it’ll be with DVK only. Probably because of the time commitments the other teams want.
Anybody know when the wolves are playing in the summer league games? Are they on tv? Would like to see how Flynn does because if this report is true Flynn will be the man.
No TV on the summer league unless you pay to watch it on nba.com.
Cannot take Spanish sporting press stories seriously; they are way worse than our rumor mongering media. Way worse.
Especially without quotes, as Marty says. They just make things up.
Has anyone ever explained the rationale to the $500,000 buy-out limit for NBA teams? Why does the league care what teams can pay for the buy-out? I guarantee Taylor and his partners would cough up the money in an instant to get Rubio here. What a stupid rule. It actually does hurt our economy.
Wolves should commit to keeping Rubio no matter how long it takes. He could be an iconic player in this league, equal or greater to Garnett. The Wolves and FSN North should reach a deal with the ACB League or DKV to broadcast replays here if Rubio stays over there next season. Rubio is our guy. After watching plenty of youtube now, I can see he will be a perfect fit with our roster. Al and Love have great hands to catch his passes and finish. Carney, Ellington and Brewer will have wide open shots all night.
As soon as Rubio is here, Flynn is going to be traded for a shot blocker or another shooting guard.
Anyone know what the status of Shawn Livingston is with OKC?
Mike B–
The reason is to protect small market/low revenue teams. If the Knicks et. al. were allowed to pay $7 million buyouts, they would have an advantage in getting those players in the draft, because theoretically small market teams wouldn’t want or be able to pay.
Assuming there is any truth to some of these rumors, what is the point of Rubio buying out his current 2 year deal to turn around and sign another one? Jerry?
I thought that the point would be to buy out this 2 year deal in order to only have to stay 1 more year in Europe…
Wolves play first time on Sunday @ 5pm v. Houston. Monday @ 3pm v. D-League Select team. Friday (17th) v. Washington @ 7pm. DeRozan has looked very good. Evans was an all around monster in his first game (passing, slashing, shooting, some D). Hope that Curry can step it up over first game. Jennings came on at end of his first game, but threw up several wild jumpers for first three quarters…waayy too many TOs.
Hey, Billy, good question. Missed if he is playing any in LV.
Sandwich–
The point is that another European club could pay his buyout for him, or at least more of it than the Wolves could.
But in exchange for that, they would want a 3 year commitment, to make it worth their while.
I assume he would sign a deal with no buyout after 3 years with Real or Unicaja.
I’d like to see Target or Best Buy step up and help with the buyout. No rules against that.
Shaun Livingston is still recovering, but things are encouraging. He’s under contract with OKC and playing with their entry in the LV Summer League.
I’m just curious to see who we trade Flynn or Rubio to, when, and for what?
I love the idea of taking assets and drafting best-player-available. There is so much player movement in The NBA… the best way to build your team is to assemble the best assets you can and then trade them to make your team game-ready.
I think David Kahn has done just about exactly what he should have done to this point. Most of the folks who are killing him on this board are doing so speculatively, as in…
1. “What if Rubio never comes here?” - Speculative.
2. “How can Rubio and Flynn play together?” - Speculative.
3. “What did he ever do in Indy?” - Speculative.
I’ll destroy David Kahn on here if needbe at a later date, but the time to do it will be AFTER he cashes in all of his chips (and he’s got a lot of them.) So I’ll be watching very closely over the next year and a half to see if Kahn is really as good as he seems to think he is. But, to me, all of the big moves he’s made so far were no-brainers:
1. Foye wasn’t going to be worth his second contract…
2. Miller wasn’t going to re-up here.
3. Passing on Rubio twice would have made us an even bigger laughing-stock.
4. McHale (of whom I’m actually not a huge hater) needed to exit.
The real judgement day for Kahn will be in about 18-24 months. And if The Wolves aren’t primed to be at least a Top-4 playoff seed by the 2011-2012 season (considering all the assets we currently have bank-rolled), I will lead the charge to banish Kahn back to Portland to be the adminstrative assistant in his wife’s business.
“I will lead the charge to banish Kahn back to Portland to be the adminstrative assistant in his wife’s business.”
LOL 
good stuff!
Livingston is scheduled to make under a million next year. OKC has plenty of G. what are the thoughts about inquiring about him? what would it take to acquire him?
“Rubio would rather live in beautiful Malaga closer to his hometown than big Madrid.”
Are you kidding me? Do you know ANYTHING about Spanish geography?
Heres a hint, Barcelona (close to El Masnou, where Ricky is from) is all the way to the north, like, next to France, Madrid is in the middle and Malaga? You know that little place called Gibraltar by the Mediterranean? Yeah, pretty much next to that.
Madrid to Barcelona = 4 hours in a car. Malaga to Barcelona? try more like 12 hours.
Come on man, don’t make yourself sound ignorant.
In any case, this is all speculation by the Spanish press. Ricky’s priority is the NBA this year.
Trade him for some popcorn, lol, no not really but I was hoping we could have done a 3 team deal on draft night with NY and a team that had something we wanted. I wonder if this would be taking as long if he was drafted by NY?
Maybe we should have just signed Livingston before when he was in for workouts, but McHale knows best… oh wait now if we want him we will have to trade something for him rather than just signing him
Rodman, recalling the Joe Smith fiasco, I wouldn’t put it past anyone to figure out how to launder money from the team to pay the buyout. I have no idea what the rules are but I suspect there is a large “control group” restriction on the source of the buyout. Thus, individual partners could not pay the buyout, and I would not be surprised if the team’s significant sponsors were also restricted. Otherwise it would be far too easy to manipulate the rule.
Eric in Madison, I have some doubts as to the $500,000 cap as imposed strictly to protect small market teams. That’s probably part of it, but $500,000 is ridiculously low and I don’t think any team in this league would balk at paying more than that for a buyout on Rubio.
Tyreke Evans and Steph Curry are having a straight up shootout right now. Evans has 25 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists….Curry has 27-6-3
Warriors/Kings in OT
Mike B–
Well, that rule has been in place for a while. I’m sure the number could go up, but I doubt either the Union or the NBA feels a lot of incentive to increase it.
The teams don’t want to spend the money, until they are faced with a Rubio situation, and the Union doesn’t want their vets to lose roster spots to European players coming over earlier than they otherwise would.
Eric, agree with both points. I think those are league-wide motivations, not the small market / big market deal.
Stephen Curry has come out of the gate these two games shooting a measley 33%.
Mike, I just meant hire Rubio as a spokesperson so he can earn his buyout money.
Posted from last thread.
A few things.
1. As Jerry pointed out if the Wolves would have waited they could have had Rondo in the deal (without giving up Foye) that is exactly as it was reported at hoops.com when the trade was made. So I don’t how see a Foye for Rondo could of been anything but a ruse. The Wolves wouldn’t have gotten enough with KG and Foye for Al, Rondo and parts (no pick) that would have been stupid at the time considering how high everyone was on Foye.
2. You don’t trade Love for T. Thomas and Rudy F. thats just dumb. You can get Rudy for a song from Portland and Love is better than T. Thomas now just think in a few years. Rudy for C. Smith or expiring contract or a dozen basketballs fine. Portland doesn’t need him and if you look at what they are saying doesn’t really want him on the team.
3. Bryan go read about Memphis on Nba.com or hoops.com there have been several mentions of their dissatisfaction with Mayo. Scouts say he is not a good facilator, a sharp passer,a good defender or a penetrator; so really all that leaves is he can shoot. Which he does a lot of, which is not always to the benefit of his team.
4. We can go round and round on the KG trade but the fact is KG had to go at that point. We got Al who may not be a KG but we did not get robbed, like in the Cassel deal. Bryan if you want to point to a management mistake that was the biggest one (Yes bigger than Roy for Foye at least we got a Million for that) we got the lesser player with a long contract and had to give up a pick to do it. That by far was the biggest error in the Taylor/Mchale era
If Mayo’s such a problem, why would we want him? Let Memphis keep him.
And while Portland may not need or want Fernandez, they’re still going to drive a hard bargain. Just look at the deal they rejected with Utah and Chicago.
“Edkroeten says: As Jerry pointed out if the Wolves would have waited they could have had Rondo in the deal (without giving up Foye) that is exactly as it was reported at hoops.com when the trade was made”
This is ridiculous. If you followed the deal at the time, Telfair was going to be forced into the deal because BOS wanted him out for the gun charges. Its a lot of risk for a team to take on three big contract vets who’s age gives them a small window already, but you imagine BOS would do that without even keeping a PG on their roster?! Most sources say that asking for Rondo would have killed the deal.
Anyway, the wolves did well with Al Jefferson, Gomes, Telfair, Green, and two 1sts. Care to trade it back now?
I brought up Mayo on the last post because if Rubio was here, Mayo would be a decent pair with him in the backcourt. With Foye and Miller gone, we could really use what Mayo offers. Ray Allen had all the same critics in his first years in Milwaukee — not a good passer, weak defender, shoots too much. I think Mayo will be a fine shooting guard in the league.
Portland is not going to give away Rudy Fernandez. From our roster, Jonny Flynn or Kevin Love would have to be part of the trade package, I guarantee it. I think most people would think that’s too high a price. I am on the fence. I think Fernandez is going to be a special player.
Mike B - If your description of Mayo is “not a good passer, weak defender, shoots too much,” then what’s the big deal? The Wolves should be able to find a weak defender who shoots too much and doesn’t pass on the street, right?
From my perspective, I think Mayo is a better defender than he gets credit for and I think he’s a good player. But he’s a “get-mine” jacker who isn’t a great facilitator.
Would he be a nice fit for The Wolves at SG? Sure - I suppose, but I’m not certain why his name keeps getting brought up… Without moving Mayo, there’s no Kevin Love, no Ricky Rubio and no roster flexibility.
If you are just in love with OJ Mayo, then fine. But to act remorseful because he’s gone makes zero sense when you consider the haul we got in return for him.
Anybody know who The Wolves drafted with their OWN pick that we got back from Boston in the KG trade? We’ve moved around so many draft picks, I’ve forgotten.
KG Trade return - Al, Gomes, Telfair, Wayne Ellington, what else?
Who know somebody would top Bryan as a bigger idiot. this shrink tool obviously is giving you a run for your money Bryan.
Foo I think if you watch this video it will give you a clue to that draft pick that got returned from Boston.
http://www.odenized.com/2008/04/corey-brewer-finishes-season-on.html
Foo - no, I’m not at all remorseful about the Mayo trade. I’m contemplating the value of trying to acquire Mayo in the future to fill the SG position. That’s why I asked earlier if Memphis is happy with Mayo. If Memphis does not complete the Zach Randolph deal (which they should not), I would expect there could be some interest in Kevin Love, and interest in Jonny Flynn as well since Memphis does not have a point guard. I would consider moving one of those players to acquire Mayo.
I agree with you that Mayo does not get enough credit for his defense. I was only pointing out to another poster that the criticisms against Mayo are essentially the same criticisms I remember hearing against Ray Allen about a decade ago.
essentially Mayo and Foye for Love and Rubio and change (trade pieces, decent bit players). 2 jackers for a good (with lots of potential) PF who can rebound (and score a bit) with the best of them and a guy in rubio who could change our franchise (either as himself or in another trade haul). Say if he stays in Europe and gets better, he’ll only look better next year as a premeir PG prospect in a PG poor draft (thats riddled with the 2/3/5’s that we need).
sid wrote this awhile ago:
“McHale and David Kahn couldn’t come to an agreement to have McHale remain as coach is because I’m sure that McHale, a 16-year employee of the team under Glen Taylor, believes that with a healthy Al Jefferson and Corey Brewer returning, plus a year of experience for Kevin Love and three first-round draft choices, the team, though still very young, would be much more competitive than it has been the past two years.
I agree with McHale rather than Kahn, who spent that No. 5 pick on Rubio, even though the 18-year-old might not play for the next two years. Foye right now figures to be better than either Rubio or Jonny Flynn, the Wolves’ No. 6 overall pick out of Syracuse”
someone please tell me where he gets this stuff? its almost comical. ‘much more’ competitive? essentially the same team that was getting dumped on earlier last year minus the ‘experience’ love had and before Brewer’s injury and they will be ‘much’ more competitive? I will give them that a healthy Brewer gives them a nice piece, and a more experienced Love (who was better at the end of the year) will help, but to say this team will get ‘much’ better is an overstatement.
In addition, maybe RIGHT NOW Foye can play better, but give Rubio (who may or may not come here) or Flynn time, and even Sid will see these guys ceilings are 20 stories higher than Foye’s. Foye is a 6th man at best; he cannot create for his teammates with regularity, and he loves to just jack it up whenever he thinks its a good time. He is too small for the 2, plays below average defense, and does not know how to play the 1.
Flynn is a true PG that can jump higher than most guards, can play tremendous defense, get to the rim, and create for his teammates. He has leadership and poise. Rubio is electric and no one leads the break better. Both of these guys can flat out play.
Arenal - Thanks. I thought it was Corey Brewer. So if you take roster fodder Theo Ratliff and Gerald Green out, we traded Kevin Garnett for:
1. Sebastian Telfair
2. Wayne Ellington
3. Corey Brewer
4. Ryan Gomes
5. Al Jefferson
We’ll see that lineup on the floor from time-to-time next year. Considering that we had to move KG and that Al Jefferson was the best possible single-player available, I’m pretty pleased with the trade. When you have a choice of trades to consider, I believe it’s best to aim for the best player on the table.
I know a lot of folks liked the rumored (but never confirmed) Bulls offer, but as an individual player, Al Jefferson is better than LaMarcus Aldridge and Luol Deng. So, it’s a personal preference, but I’ll always take the best single-player instead of depth (which would have been better in the purported Bulls deal). But the depth isn’t bad in the deal The Wolves made with The Celtics either. Brewer, Gomes and maybe Ellington are all start-worthy players; Telfair is a very good back-up PG. But again, I don’t disagree with the folks on here who would have rather done The Bulls deal. My preference is just with The Celtics deal that we actually did.
This is obviously consistent with my other takes - I always say draft best-player-vailable and not for need; I am one of the fans of the Rubio trade because I believe his upside is much higher than Foye’s. I always prefer the highest-upside piece.
From a value point of view, I feel that it would be better for the Wolves if Rubio were to stay in Spain a couple of years while getting stronger (a bigger, perhaps) and improving his shooting range. At the same time, Johnny Flynn can be given opportunities to develop his game.
A lot of the discussion regarding the success of the 2009 draft has been focused on the Rubio pick and whether or not Rubio will play for the Wolves. I feel that a lot of Kahn’s credibility regarding this draft will be based on the play of Flynn. If Flynn turns out be be average and Curry and/or DeRozan becomes stars, then Kahn will have made a major blunder.
Regarding the play of Flynn, I feel that it will be enhanced if the team can obtain either by FA or trade another credible shooter at the SG. If they do not have a credible shooter playing SG, then the man guarding the SG will be more concerned about stopping Flynn than guarding the SG. Also, when Flynn drives to the hoop, it would be useful if he had people at the SG position who could make open shots. Thus, obtaining an SG who can shoot will enhance Flynn’s play and not obtaining such a player will diminish his play.
I think nurturing Flynn’s play should be factored in the equation regarding the extend the Wolves want to be a big player in the FA market next year. By focusing strictly on the 2010 FA market, they may be diminishing Flynn’s value.
Let’s talk speculation, Foo.
1. Foye wasn’t going to be worth his second contract…-speculative, yet to be seen. Let’s watch what he does in Washington.
2. Miller wasn’t going to re-up here.-speculative
3. Passing on Rubio twice would have made us an even bigger laughing-stock.-would have made us 30th instead of 29th in Chad Ford’s rankings. (The national people are laughing enough as it is.)
4. Since we don’t have a coach yet, all coaching hypotheticals are speculative.
The biggest speculation I’ve seen so far on this board is Ellington and D-leaguers will be able to hold down the SG spot for Wolves.
How could we have traded Kevin Garnett for Corey Brewer? Brewer was drafted before we trade Garnett.
Finally someone who’s thinking straight, Mike B.
The conditional first round pick to Boston would have likely expired on occuring two years after the Wolves gave up the pick to the Clippers, and had an expiration in 2012, where the pick became a second rounder. If the Wolves did not give up the Clippers pick by 2010, the pick to the Celtics would not happen. Thus, there has been no value regained by reclaiming the first round pick from Boston — unless the Wolves finish above the bottom ten teams this year and have to forfeit a pick to the Clippers.
Some typos in the previous post. What I meant to say is that Boston would receive our first round pick two years after we gave our pick to the Clippers, with an expiring date of 2012.
In search of conditional pick restrictions I also found this statement on espn.go.com regarding the Jaric trade:
McHale said the Timberwolves targeted Jaric all offseason, calling him as soon as free agency opened on Aug. 1.
“We really like Marko,” McHale said. “He’s very versatile.”
Versatility is something new coach Dwane Casey covets, and McHale said Casey lobbied hard for the team to go after Jaric.
Jaric is also considered a better defender at the point than Cassell, a big plus for the Timberwolves, who were picked apart by opposing point guards all last season.
“Marko is a big guard who can see over the defense, and he can defend both the point guard and shooting guard position,” Casey said in a statement issued by the team. “We feel we’ve really upgraded our defense and our team with the addition of Marko.”
Arguably, Jaric was Casey’s guy. Another vindicating point for McHale?
And Mike B…. did you know Musselman started coaching this whole mess of a team called the Minnesota Timberwolves….
I read that summer league could be listened to live stream does anyone have a web site?
logicalthinker have you got a thing for Foye or something? I have never seen anybody whine so much about a really lame player. He was hot for a month and floundered the rest of the year. Get over him already.
We don’t know that Casey lobbied so hard for Jaric that he’d have tossed in the first-round pick. And Casey lobbied to keep Brandon Roy, so he’s no worse than a wash.
You’re forgetting a major part of the KG trade: We had Gerald Glass! Remember the former slam dunk champ and T-Wolves billboard star?!
A history question: Wasn’t the pick Portland used to draft Randy Foye the one they got from Boston for Bassy? That’s even weirder to think about–we missed Roy twice!
I do like Foye. I followed him at Nova and am a fan of his. Loved his improvement from fresh to senior also liked his willingness to take big shots. I hope he does well out in DC just as I hope Miller does. I thought those 2 were nice pieces to a team. Time will tell how they fair in Wizard land. I don’t agree with the views of a lot of people here that the grass is always greener. It appears that anybody who hasn’t played a minute of NBA ball or plays somewhere else is vastly better than the players here. They’ll be different cause no 2 players are totally alike… but better??? We’ll see.
Ok guys,
1. I was saying I don’t want Mayo.
2. Too many people seem to in love with Rudy F. he is nothing special. Also we won’t be a playoff team this year so what is wrong with playing the rookies? We will make a lot of mistakes in the backcourt and win 20-25 games maybe a few more if either Flynn or Ellington grow up fast. If Portland wants more than C. Smith or an expiring contract let them keep Rudy.
3. For Shrink. Lets rethink your comment one Telfair is average if he was good and had a gun charge the Celts would still have wanted him. Next if the Wolves would have played hard ball you don’t think they could have gotten Rondo. We were giving them KG for Al and parts, come on get serious. Also Telfair only had year on his contract, so they could have dumped him and picked up a PG or used the pick that we wouldn’t have gotten to pick a PG. Taylor took Telfair because he was offered $$$. I don’t necessarily blame Taylor for that after all he wants to make profit from his business. But to say we had to take Telfair is just wrong. We took Bassy cause we wanted a PG and $$$.
It’s going to be a few years before we know if this draft was great or a bust, but can anyone say that the Timberpups before the draft were on their way to be anything more than a #8 seed in the playoffs?
Foye has developed into a quality 2 guard, Miller may regain his shooting touch in a different offense, but without a major revamp, the fans were going to run for the exits this year. At least now there is some hope that the new pieces in this and next years draft will get us over the .500 hurdle. With a lot of luck in both the draft and free agent market maybe contending for the division title is possible in 3-4 years.
Beats the crap out of watching .300 ball for the next 5-6 years!
Flynn definately seems to be the real deal, Rubio has way more upside than anyone else we could have taken at that spot, and Ellington was a nice pick that late in the draft . This may all turnout for the best and was well worth the gamble IMO.
Logical - You may be interested to know that before you started showing up the past few weeks, I was one of the biggest proponents of Randy Foye on this board. He was being mercilessly killed on this board during the season and right afterwards and I saw some redeeming factors in his game. But I need to divorce my high opinion of him as a player with his future on The Timberwolves. I share the opinion that he’s best suited as an NBA Sixth Man/Fringe Starter. And that’s not a knock on him… you’ve gotta be a pretty good player to be an NBA Sixth Man. I just happen to believe that Ricky Rubio (or the return we get from him) will be A LOT better than Foye.
I don’t fault you for taking the Bird-In-Hand approach with Foye, but you need stars to win in this league and if The Wolves’ brass believes Rubio is (or can fetch in trade) a star, then it seems like a no-brainer to make that swap.
I believe you’re positioning people’s perception of that trade too simplistically. It’s not an either-or thing, here. You know it’s possible to like Foye and ALSO like that trade, right?
And, I have to request that you don’t drop an I-Told-You-So when Foye performs better in Washington, as though that’s an original thought. I think most of us (myself for sure) feel that Foye will perform better when he’s appropriately placed in a niche/supporting role. That wouldn’t shock anybody. The beef with the placement of Foye on The Wolves is that he best cast as a Fringe-Starter/Sixth Man, who was being asked to be the primary scoring option in Minnesota.
So, yes, I think it follows that Foye will do much better with Arenas, Jamison and Butler there. Add in Mike Miller and Nick Young and it follows that Randy Foye will be in the mix as a Fringe-Starter/6th-Man in Washington. I personally expect him to thrive in that role.
Flynn looked pretty good in that first half.
Facial - if you’re watching the games, keep us posted on your impressions!
Wow… 10 minutes of action so far for my boy Wayne Ellington. The results so far: 1-for-9 shooting.
Ouch.
Watching the game…
Flynn is best player on the floor, even his turnovers look good (other players are not playing at his speed. This Kurtz (sp?) can really shoot.
Ellington is moving really well, but hasn’t been able to buy a bucket.
where are u guys geting updates?
Joey Dorsey is a man beast.
McHale should have just listened to us last year and taken him instead of “I’m never playing in the NBA” Pekovic.
pecherov seems like a shooter too..
link to game
It looks like Brewer is getting some minutes.
ectf
rob kurz; he’s a 2nd year that didnt catch on with the warriors who are already thick with wings so they let him go. he’s a solid player whn he gets minutes and is on. he could help us with the 2/3 (mainly the 3) and help split the minutes at a cheaper price than carney.
Good, the sooner he shakes the rust off, the better.
He should do pretty well this year. He’s the type of athlete and player that compliments Flynn and Rubio very well.
Glad to see Kurz getting minutes too.
Awesome, Kevin Love on the broadcast. “Maybe Al comes off the bench” - Kevin Love.
wow great link; does this thing regularly have local sports?
Kurz is more of a 3/4.
He’s a great shot blocker too. That would really help us out on defense.
Brewer looks as aggressive as I’ve seen him.
nice drive by brewer to get afoul
Brewer’s aggressiveness is a good sign. Some guys get timid after injuries and psych themselves into being passive. Ex: Channing Frye.
im doing usa basketball he says…
klove - please work as much as you can. you are good, but you need to add some muscle and drop some extra weight from ur waiste.
Bah, just as I thought. Love not playing has nothing to do about the team not thinking he needs it, it’s because he has USA basketball next week.
Mike B - I was just going to post the same thing about Love.
He was on the broadcast talking about how The Wolves need a long, shot-blocking center. And he said something like, “Who knows? Maybe I come off the bench, Al comes off the bench or that shot-blocking center comes off the bench.”
Nice that he’s saying all the right stuff, but I can’t see Big Al acquiessing to that!
what is with all the minny haters on that website? klove = madsen? wth?
More Kevin Love:
“There’s two things I can always do and that’s defend and rebound… and I’ll always play hard too.”
Nice to hear that Love thinks he can play defense… I’ll be curious to see how that side of his game progresses.
man kurz has such a nice shot. and brewer looks as fast as I have ever seen him. and flynn is taking everyone off the dribble…
Jonny Flynn just toasted his defender on the perimeter and drew the foul after his defender had to grab him just to contain him… if not, Flynn was off to the hole EASILY.
Foo, I almost posted that quote too. The boy is confident. Kevin Love does not need to eat White Castle.
the rockets guards arent missing anything right now
he tries to play defense. that much is true
well thats that; flynn and ellington need to work ontheir shot; but it seemed liked an intersting game.
Ellington - strong dribble-drive penetration and converted his jumper off the dribble.
He’ll need to do that consistently if he’s gonna get his 2nd-Team All-Rookie honors!
Game was pretty sloppy. A lot of these summer league games are really one-on-one oriented.
Flynn was nice, missed some shots but he really looks like a team-guy which i great for a point. Also, he will absolutely kill on Pick-n-rolls. Every pick-n-roll resulted in a positive in the first half.
I love Flynn and Ellington, but the boxscore sure isn’t pretty after this one!
http://www.nba.com/summerleague2009/games/boxscore.jsp?gameId=1520900010
Nice to see 7 assists from Flynn and 8 rebounds from Ellington though. Also:
*2 steals in 8 minutes for Paul Harris.
*Garrett Siler has D-League written all over him.
*Wouldn’t mind Kurz in a 3rd-string role. Liked his game.
im going to say that the team signs kurz for a minimum contract and lets carney go, and go into the season with something like:
PG: Flynn/Telfair/Brown
SG: Brewer/Ellington
SF: Gomes/Kurz/Pecherov
PF: Love/Songaila/Smith/Madsen
C: Jefferson/Thomas
One thing about Randy Foye, he was utterly useless in the pick and roll. Even a homer (”Foye could be an all-star”) like Jim Peterson frequently commented on Foye’s complete inability to do anything with the pick and roll.
Ellington was more athletic than I thought he would be - his rebounding was surprising. Ellington will hit his shots, im not concerned about that.
Brewer was ultra aggressive, but looked a little lost - he needs some reps and the summer league should be good for him.
For Ellington, he just needs to add something else to his game - whether that’s good rebounding for a guard, perimeter defense, improved ability to get to the hole/FT line, whatever.
Because even I think his game is too jump-shot oriented.
Foye didn’t understand the pick-and-roll, and that was the ultimate proof he wasn’t going to be a point guard. That’s one of the most basic point guard plays and Foye couldn’t ever get it to work…it was entirely a mental thing, his head never got the concept.
Good showing for our first summer league game. Flynn is the real deal, that’s for sure. Ellington’s shot will come together as he gets more comfortable….he’s a good shooter, he just looked nervous. Kurz definitely earned a serious look now, which I think is great.
Plus, Brewer and Bobby Brown both played well. Corey’s apparently been working on the mental part of the game while rehabbing, because he showed some stuff I’ve never seen before. That’s as in-control as I think I’ve ever seen him play.
I love how excited we always get this time of year about any shred of positivity. We are fans of one of the worst franchises in The NBA and are just dying to hang onto something positive.
I, for one, am guilty!
Kurz over Carney? I wouldn’t. Carney would easily get 15-20 pts in a summer league game without breaking a sweat. It’s tough to compare with the stats because they both did not get a lot of minutes, but look at the game logs. Carney won us games last year.
any commentso n my depth chart?
yeah, me too…I am hanging onto any positives. Anything I can get.
I’m not sure who said Carney over Kurz, but I agree that Carney would rip up this level of competition.
It’ll be a numbers squeeze for the 3rd-string spots on The Wolves, but it would be nice if Kurz and Carney could both get spots on the roster.
Med school,
Your depth chart seems pretty spot on. Kurz is the only ? in my mind. But I like what I saw today.
I am imagining a Flynn/Love pick-n-roll with Big Al flashing to the basket and Love spotting up at 15-18 ft (if he has that shot now). We would just need Ellington and BRewer to hit threes and that offense could work.
The D, now thats a different story.
New Thread…
First, I don’t think were one of the worst franchises, but we got some things to work on. Now to the summer league.
LOL, how are you going to conclude that Flynn is the real thing, that being for sure? Bryan If you concluded that from the game we just seen, then you are crazy. He has the things that it takes, but the real deal? Stats what, 11 points 7 assist, good, 7 turnovers! Those things will go down, no doubt, I hope, he was nervous, but got to the basket very well. Thats what he did best and assist, he needs to work on the shot and bad shot selection. He will be good, I agree to that though, good, maybe even better with time, but lets not call him the real deal yet, like he’s the second coming of Chris Paul, but look for a much better game next time around definitely, he does have a lot to prove and he is determined/will show better, I like him, just prove to be better then you showed.
Bobby Brown-I totally disagree, he is athletic and has a little size yes, thats all that looked well, he looked terrible and he played a long time in the game today. He did so many things bad, or not at all.
Corey Brewer- Drove hoop good, and some little mental ups and downs, thats it. I know hes coming off a injury, but he has way too much to prove. Still showed little shot, ball hogged, missed, but drove decent, keep working buddy, at least he scored more then others.
Ben Woodside-(Supporters)- Sorry the guy got no time and does look to be a roster filler at this point in summerleague. I hope after this game, they give Bobby Brown less time and give Ben a real chance, as bad as Bobby was I couldn’t believe I didn’t get to see how Ben played in this atmosphere. Look for him next game to get some time, I hope.
Kruz- Did pretty decent, has some range, he’ll get a serious look.
#20 looked ok, mostly big.
Ellington- too looked more athletic to me, wasn’t really scared to shoot, but shot poor, does need to add something, just nervous game for him, worries me a little, but I think he will do alright, just settle down, think on selections.
Now I don’t necessarily think we will do worse then last season, I think that might be a stretch. Guys will be more seasoned and work together fine, don’t write off after one summer league game. There will be improvement. Look for a better game Two and some change in optimism. Sometimes all we can do is hope, so lets hope, but we have opportunities.
Rubio is a bigger baby than Queen James…if he wanted to play in the NBA bad enough he would just sign with whatever team drafts him and then leave in 2-3 yrs. Playing in the NBA is something that millions of players would kill to have and heres someone who is going to throw it away because he doesnt like where hes headed. B!tch
