GameThread: Regal FC Barcelona vs. Montepaschi Siena

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh6jgHlsumU

I can’t wait to see him in a TWolves uni. He should fit in perfectly in the triangle as long as we can find some playmaking wings. I think a secondary pick-and-roll offense with Love and Rubio would be unstoppable. Those two are too smart and creative for defenses and it would create nightmares as long as Love improves his consistency on jumpers and Ricky can finish better.

The possibility of attempting to sign Navarro as well when Rubio comes over. They work well together offensively, and Navarro is a shooter (which is something we need). I know he left the Grizzlies to go back to Europe, but Rubio may be able to persuade him to come back, I think Navarro would be an awesome guy to bring of the bench to provide scoring.

February 26, 2009
-Juan Carlos Navarro (#10 on rights held ranking) had an outstanding first game against Real Madrid and then an average second one against Tau. He’s a clear-cut NBA rotation player, but after his experience last year with the lowly Grizzlies—losing more games in one season than he likely did in the previous five years combined—it’s questionable whether we’ll see him in the League again. He signed a 5-year contract for 12.5 million Euro this summer with Barcelona, so it would be very difficult to envision an NBA team being able to compete financially, even if he were somehow able to get out of his deal.

I love his game and think it is much more unique that Childress and I think he is certainly above Splitter and Pekovic, so we probably have 2 of the top 4, not bad for a team that didn’t used to have any real Euro scouting. But I’m not sure either of those picks can be attributed to better scouting. Pekovic was the obvious choice with the second rounder and you didn’t have to have scouts to know that, and Rubio was clearly a steal at the #5 (as long as you can wait for him). Here is to hoping that we do a better job of keeping an eye on the talent over there.