the problem is by doing so Ricky takes what little credibility he has left, which is almost none, and it starts to become like TO in football a liability. No one wants to give big money to man who is a known liar and fraud, who isn’t concerned about being a team guy. It is selfish, furthering what I felt, if he did not come over this year he never would. I for one would never trust a selfish person to run any team. Look at history for this. This is my opinion I know, but at least to this blockhead your word still means something

that should a lockout occur in 2011 and the salary cap be negotiated lower as well as lowering the Max deal level per player, it will only hurt him. The way the rules are written is that after 3 years we have the option of giving him a larger contract provided that it still fits under the signing year’s cap number. That deal must be for 3-5 years and can include the standard raises and bonuses allowed by the CBA for other contracts. Regardless, we still hold his rights and he can’t get more than we can offer him.

I just read through the relevant portions of the CBA, and I have no idea where this is coming from. If that were the case, we would see first rounder foreigners coming over and only having to play on the scale for a year or two (if they delayed their arrival) and then looking for new contracts. Additionally, why haven’t we heard about this vis a vis Fran Vazquez before? Also, why hasn’t any other player on a foreign team tried this trick? I think it’s dubious to assume that Fegan and Rubio just stumbled onto a procedural trick that will get them a new contract, which is the implication of Sheridan’s article.

Second, it is 100% pointless to speculate about Rubio’s future past this CBA. Remember, prior to the economic meltdown, the NBA’s #1 concern was how to stay the unquestioned leader in world basketball and how to prevent players (Josh Childress, for example) from gaming the system. I maintain that the rules regarding foreign players and non-NBA teams is going to be substantially expanded and altered.

… the pre-existing relationships between international players and the NBA teams that drafted them, right? Does anyone think that Stern might be so heavy handed as to sanction new rules that would retroactively give a player in Rubio’s situation an escape clause?

Can somebody please explain to me why Rubio didn’t go to the Wolves this year?
Can somebody please explain to me why the fans of Minny still want this kid after he spit in the organizations face?
Thank you in advance.

Believe it buddy….I’ll be here all year because believe it or not…this is actually a great blog and the fans of Minny are smart and knowledgeable. I love having good basketball conversations.

It very well could go down as worse than Starbury. After yesterday- I have very little confidence going off of Kahn’s tone that Rubio ever plays for us.

Or should I say Kahn-aid drinkers. Now it’s going to be three years. Rubio & Fegan played Kahn for a fool. 90% of the basketball nation knows it, but somehow the abused T-Wolves fans tell everyone that they “don’t know Kahn like we do” and that “he’s actually a very competent GM when you get to know him”

Bottom line: they shouldn’t have drafted Rubio. Or, they should have planned that Rubio may fall in the draft (because of oh, I don’t know, perhaps an extremely complicated buyout) and ensure that Ricky would want to join the team if drafted. The NBA doesn’t have farm teams, Regal Barcelona is not triple A, anything could happen in 3 years. The move was Curry or DeRozan and bypass this whole mess we call summer of 2009

isn’t taking Rubio. This was the right pick (I’ll say this till the day I die). Rubio had the most upside of anyone left on the board. He was my favorite player heading into the draft. The problem was Rubio’s Primadonna attitude. He thought he had the right to jerk Kahn and the team around-with no consquences.

Curry wouldn’t have worked well with Flynn. Derozan doesn’t do a ton for me. The fundamental problem is that their weren’t that many really attractive options at this point.

Kahn played the situation as well as he could have been played? Kahn got played….so how did he play it well?
Once again I have to stress….how and why do you pick a player that does not want to play for you? On top of that…he has a very, very large buyout. No communication between the Wolves and Rubios camp and don’t sit here and tell me Kahn didn’t know Rubio wouldn’t report to Minny because it’s their job to know.
The fact is this…..Kahn gambled and loss. I think it’s so funny how before Rubio signed his new deal…..almost every Wolves fan just knew he was going to be in a Wolves uniform this year. They just knew that Rubio wanted to be part of their franchise. Now that he pretty much told Kahn to go screw himself….Wolves fans actually think they’ll see him in a uniform in 2 years!!
Rubio is not your average rookie who gets drafted. He wants to play in the NBA but he doesn’t need to. That’s the key…..he’s going to make millions regardless of where he plays. He’s young enough to stay in Spain for 10 years if he wanted to. Can Kahn make it that long? I feel G. Taylor should get involved. He doesn’t need his arena with less seats filled. With the backlash their organization is getting AROUND THE COUNTRY it will have a negative impact on his bottom line.

and I’m not entirely sure it matters in the real world. My understanding of the rule he cites is that a team CAN pay such a player over rookie scale, but can also sign him to a rookie scale deal.

Now, it’s not entirely clear to me where the leverage will be in 3 years. Right now, it stings. The Wovles needed Rubio to create excitement and sell some tickets in the short term, and I still believe that it would have been vastly better to have him now for development purposes.

But in 3 years, I think the public pressure will be different on the front office. We will have moved on, the roster will be entirely different, there will be new young players, and it’s not obvious that Rubio will be seen as central to the project as he is now. If Kahn sticks to his plan, adds some real pieces between now and the start of 2010-2011, we might not be pining for Rubio as much as we are now.

Of course, if the team is still stumbling along at 25 wins a year in 3 years, then there are serious problems, but if they get better, Rubio might not have the leverage Sheridan is assuming here. If he wants to play in the NBA, it might have to be for the scale, even in 2012. Now, he has some leverage too—stay with Barca; but it might not seem like such a disaster then as it does now. Yes, the Magic lost out on Fran Vazquez, but, well, weren’t they in the Finals a few months ago?

I still think it was more than just a math problem—I think he didn’t really want to play for the Wolves. Whether that remains true in coming years is still to be seen. But I’m adamant about not trading his rights. I’m not a huge fan of drafts, but we have rules, and the Wolves cannot let themselves get pushed around. They do have leverage in this situation,and they can’t let themselves get forced into a deal that doesn’t help them. If he winds up playing 6 years in Spain, well, that’s the way it goes.

That’s exactly what he should do at this point. If both were coming in at the same time, you would give Rubio the edge — he was drafted first and has a better resume. Now that Rubio isn’t going to be here for at least two years, it’s perfectly fine for Kahn to say that Flynn is the presumptive #1 until proven otherwise.

Rubio is an 18-year-old kid who decided to play for a good European team for a couple more years. This makes his family happy, and makes his life a lot easier financially. There is no mystery here. Kahn said it all in his press conference after Rubio made his decision.

We are just going to have to wait a couple years. In the meantime, having Flynn as the Wolves starting PG will hasten his development, while having Rubio as Barcelona’s starting PG will continue his development as well. We are in no hurry. The guy who got hurt in this whole deal is not Kahn, it’s Taylor. Wolves tickets will continue to be very cheap in the next couple of years.

That the Pioneer Press just came out with a good story about the Rubio buyout.

 href=“http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_13256102?source=rss” >

It adds some facts (hopefully) to what actually happened in Spain.

Yes I thought the article was excellent. Once I read it, it furthered my thought that Rubio is being influenced by a lot of people. If Kahn plays the loyalty card here well, like he has. I think Rubio will feel obligated to a)come over in 2 years b) do it at the guaranteed money amount. I think in a year, hell in six months he might regret his decision to not come and resent those who advised him to not follow his dream. I don’t know though only time can tell this. Does anyone know when the Spanish league season ends? Wondering what the chances are he finishes in spain and signs with the wolves at the end of next year then finishes the season with the wolves.