{"id":230953,"date":"2009-06-29T19:10:46","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T19:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vip.local\/2009\/06\/29\/record-rubio\/"},"modified":"2009-06-29T19:10:46","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T19:10:46","slug":"record-rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting the Record Straight on Rubio"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just wanted to take a moment and respond to a recent comment that was made on Hardwood Paroxysm regarding my take on the Ricky Rubio situation.\u00a0 Basically, what I said was completely taken out of context and the way it was relayed made myself and this site look ridiculous.\u00a0 I’m not upset with Matt Moore or HP at all.\u00a0 I get that he was trying to look for examples to prove his point that Minnesota fans are over-reacting to the Rubio situation and there’s not many Wolves blogs out there to build his case off of.\u00a0 He saw something that looked border-line extreme and ran with it.\u00a0 However, I feel the need to respond for two reasons.\u00a0 #1 – To prove I’m not the crazy person that Matt implied I am, and #2 – because it’s a good reason to write another front page post!<\/p>\n

For those of you wondering, the offending post, entitled “The State of Minnesota is Now the Edge of Madness”, can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n

For those of you looking to get down to the heart of the matter, here’s the excerpt from his post that I took issue with:<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve bought into the idea that \u201csure, he may not be around next year, but eventually he\u2019ll be here.\u201d What\u2019s the success rate on that? And in the meantime, you have a #5 pick that has netted you absolutely nothing.\u00a0 Not only that, but there\u2019s the level of exaggeration the kid has created in the fanbase, even as he makes it pretty obvious he has no interest in suiting up in Minny\u2019s colors.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re not just talking \u201cWow, he\u2019s going to be a great addition to this team as we rebuild, the future still is bright!\u201d No, no. We\u2019re talking \u201cHe is (not \u2018going to be\u2019, is<\/em>) better than Dwyane Wade and Deron Williams<\/a>.\u201d <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

You see, I never, NEVER said that Ricky Rubio is better than Dwayne Wade or Deron Williams.\u00a0 That’s insane.\u00a0 In fact, I said the exact opposite…<\/p>\n

Ricky Rubio is a once in a generation talent, and, at the moment, I can count on one hand the number of players I’d accept as compensation for him (LeBron, Kobe, Dwight, Chris Paul, and maybe Bosh).\u00a0 I’m not saying that Dwayne Wade, or Deron Williams, or a handful of players aren’t better than Rubio, but Ricky is one of a kind.\u00a0 If you trade away Ricky, you’re never going to be able to replace him.\u00a0\u00a0 As large of a haul as Kahn may be able to receive in a Rubio deal, I’d much rather see him hang onto Ricky and try to acquire those important pieces with our other assets. Rubio’s a special player, and if he’ll simply embrace the people of Minnesota, the T-Wolves nation is more than willing to make him our superstar.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe that wasn’t 100% clear, but what I essentially said was this – “I’d trade Ricky for LeBron, Kobe, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and maybe Chris Bosh.\u00a0 Even though Dwayne Wade and Deron Williams and a handful of other players ARE BETTER, I’d rather hang onto Ricky.<\/p>\n

So maybe you’re thinking, “Yup, Derek, you aren’t crazy for saying that Ricky Rubio is better than Dwayne Wade, but you ARE crazy for not being willing to trade Ricky Rubio for Dwayne Wade.”\u00a0 If so, fair enough.\u00a0 However, I have my reasons for feeling that way, and I think they’re at least fairly legit and not on “the edge of madness”:<\/p>\n

#1 – Dwayne Wade already has a lot of miles on that body of his.\u00a0 How much longer can he continue to to play the way he does before it takes its toll?\u00a0 Personally, I see Wade as a great player, but one with a limited shelf-life.\u00a0 Ricky Rubio is 18 years old.\u00a0 The Wolves aren’t ready to contend at the moment, even with Wade.\u00a0 I’d rather see the Wolves stick with somebody who’s going to be 21 in 2012, than somebody who may be limping around the court.<\/p>\n

#2 – Guys like Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, and whatever other all-stars you want to throw in there, all have, or will soon have, fat contracts.\u00a0 Ricky’s going to be making rookie money for another three seasons.\u00a0 If we go and trade for Deron Williams and you put his salary next to Al Jefferson’s, we’re done.\u00a0 That’s your team – Williams, Jefferson, and Love.\u00a0 You’re done with free-agency and you’re flirting with the luxury tax on any trades. \u00a0 Williams, Jefferson, and Love aren’t winning you a title.\u00a0 It’s a definite upgrade, and a likely playoff team, but I’m going to pass.\u00a0 I want Kahn to build for a championship. With a core of Ricky, Jefferson, and Love, potentially three 1st rounders in 2010, youngsters like Brewer and Flynn, and tons of expiring contracts, I think the better route for the Wolves to take is to keep Rubio and build the remainder of this team with those other assets.<\/p>\n

#3 – I just flat-out love the way Ricky plays basketball.\u00a0 He’s fun to watch and he brings a dynamic to the game that no other player does.\u00a0 I’d really like to see where he’d be able to take this team.\u00a0 Our guard play for the past three seasons has been beyond pathetic.\u00a0 We haven’t had a legit point guard since the day Sam Cassell was traded away.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe, just maybe, having somebody who can orchestrate the offense the way that Rubio can will finally help all our other players reach their potential.\u00a0 He himself may not be better than the other players I’ve listed, but if he indirectly makes Jefferson better, and Love better…\u00a0 Now we’re talking something special. Maybe I’m just pulling this out of my rear, but I’d really love to at least what the kid can do before we just ship him away sight unseen.<\/p>\n

So am I on the “edge of madness”?\u00a0 I would like to think that I’m not.\u00a0 I didn’t go into great detail in my initial claims regarding Rubio, Dwayne Wade and Deron, so it’s understandable why they were taken out of context.\u00a0 Like I said before, no hard feelings with Matt.\u00a0 I just felt like I should clarify my statements as HP is one of the web’s premiere baskeball blogs.\u00a0 I do have a blog network to run after all.\u00a0 Nobody’s going to want to turn their site over to a crazy guy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just wanted to take a moment and respond to a recent comment that was made on Hardwood Paroxysm regarding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[605037453],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSetting the Record Straight on Rubio - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Setting the Record Straight on Rubio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-29T19:10:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"Setting the Record Straight on Rubio\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-29T19:10:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-29T19:10:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/\"},\"wordCount\":1115,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"TWolves Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2009\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/record-rubio\/\",\"name\":\"Setting the Record Straight on Rubio - 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