Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn has a message about Ricky Rubio. In a phone conversation today, he explained:
Don't believe anything you read, or any kind of emotional outburst, or any kind of emoting of any sort that he will not play here. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm looking very forward to him starting his career here with the Minnesota Timberwolves in what I assume will be a year-and-a-half.
almost 2 years ago
wyn
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God that 1 and a half years can't come soon enough.
It would be so nice to have a point guard who understands what it means to be a point guard and not just sit at the top of the key and dribble for 20 seconds.
It's the underhanded alley-oops I'm looking forward too the most
Hopefully in 1.5 years there will be someone to catch them.
Kind of makes Favors
shoot up our draft board a little bit, huh?
Very, very encouraging.
I really doubt that Kahn would come out and say in so forceful terms that Rubio was coming here if he didn’t actually believe it. That would be setting up critics with too much ammo to quote him down the line when he was forced into giving him up.
What he would probably do if Rubio wasn’t going to be here would be to maintain a silence on the issue, and kind of defer any questions about him with a “He’s the property of Barcelona for two years, then we’ll evaluate” type of response. And he had sort of been doing that for a while, I hadn’t heard him confidently state this since the draft, really.
So this was nice to see. If Rubio were to come to the Wolves and have a Jennings-like splash (though in a different way statistically, of course) that would probably be my favorite sports ocurrence ever. I would (will?) just LOVE to read Bill Simmons’ take on it.
I hope he can shoot better than
37%* from the field.
*Rough estimate based on his current FG%, minus the effect that I think his first month had on it
Darko/Pek, FAs and fans
I also wonder if this is a selling point for all of the above. I know I’m a lot more optimistic about the Wolves knowing that Rubio is coming – don’t you think potential FAs or player trade targets might be too? A year and a half is a long time, but for somebody with 3-4 seasons left on their contract it’s not (meaning that they know they’ll get to play with him). I think Kahn’s statements are especially timely given the new season ticket push and the impending push to sign Darko and Pekovic.
Growing my own "Darko-stache" since last Monday.
Yes, this.
Especially the season ticket holders. As much as I want to believe Rubio is an eventual Wolf, that he really wants to come over, and that it is only 18 months away, keep in mind that Kahn isn’t charged with revealing the unvarnished truth to the fans and media. How many times has a GM said, “No way Player X is getting traded,” only days before Player X is packing his bags because of “a surprising last-minute offer”?
I’ll be buying season tickets when Rubio’s feet hit the Target Center floor, and I’m guessing at least a couple of obstructed-view seats will still be available. But won’t believe he’s coming to the team until I see it.
No, I don't think players think this way
I think they look for either the most money or a team that is winning right now. I don’t think they consider what a point guard who has never played in the NBA and who won’t for at least another season might theoretically do for them sometime in the future.
by Eric in Madison on Mar 1, 2010 7:54 PM CST up reply actions
Well, to be fair,
I think b2b was saying that attracting FAs might be one of Kahn’s motivations for the quote, not that it would necessarily work.
And give biggity back his lunch money. Right now.
Ya
Definitely true for FAs, but I guess I was thinking more about players getting traded here. Imagine this – you work for a computer maker, perhaps a decently regarded one and then one day you find out that you’ve been transfered to a different computer company in China that as far as you know only makes cheap crappy knock offs. This is a huge blow to your goal of becoming a star computer designer. However, just as you are finalizing you strategy for getting the hell out of there through attitude and effort problems (not to mention refusing to shower for months at a time), you catch wind that Steve Jobs has decided to exercise his option to take over control of your crappy computer company in 1.5 years time.
Here’s my question – are you more or less likely (in this highly imaginative metaphor which may or may not adequately translate to the realities of free agency and basketball) to do your best over the next 1.5 years in order to be in prime position for when Steve Jobs gets there or are you going to cash out and tank it to leave as soon as possible? In basketball terms, perhaps if you’re younger and on a longer contract you will be more amenable to coming here knowing a potential star at getting you shots is waiting in the wings versus knowing that you’d come here only to be Jonny Stopped.
The other thing I’ll say is that if I had to rank who Kahn was targeting, I’d say it was: 1) prospective season tickets holders (70-80%), 2) Darko and Pek (10-15%), and 3) Free agents and trade targets (whatever’s left).
Growing my own "Darko-stache" since last Monday.
Please don't tease
Am I to assume that Steve Jobs will be owning the Wolves in a year?? Or perhaps a proven sports owner, like Robert Kraft or the Steinbrenners??
I must say...
that I like reading those remarks from Kahn.
If one thing has been made clear by this season, it’s that we have no star players. Rubio could change that.
Also of note...
“We have people at most of his games.”
Much to Bill Simmons’ chagrin, no doubt.
And, has anybody chimed in with a definitive answer about what happens with the lockout and similarly what happens if he waits 3 years?
Does the lockout ‘count’ as time since drafted? And is it true that after 3 years he is not bound by the rookie scale? This last one (believe I saw 4-letter guy say this in a chat a while back, sorry I’ll never find it) scares me as it give Ricky a very large incentive to stay an extra year if he is playing well.
'It's just noise coming out of an ugly scientist.' Michael Scott
Yes, I've heard a lot of conflicting information about these two things.
I’d like to get a real, firm answer from someone who knows.
shrink?
Unless Rubio finds a way to sign this summer
what he does will be directly effected by the new CBA, whenever it gets approved by all sides.
From the Chad Ford chat:
Roger (MN):
According to TrueHoop and Kahn, Rubio is expected to begin the 2011-12 season. Your response considering you’ve a.) openly stated Rubio won’t play for the Wolves and b.) speculated on countless Rubio trades to NY and LA, to name a few.
Chad Ford (1:16 PM):
What else is he going to say? “We drafted Rubio without having any idea whether he’d play for us. We then proceeded to destroy any chance that he’d play for us by taking Jonny Flynn on pick later. That scared him from even considering coming to the NBA for two years. Now we are just hoping and praying he changes his mind, decides that Minnesota is a terrific destination for him and he comes in the summer of 2012.” Which do you think is closer to the truth?
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