Wolves Updates 5/11
by SG on May 11, 2010 2:20 AM CDT
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Praise for Rubio, McHale interested in Bulls job and more
From Charley Walters/Pioneer Press:
It's a good bet the Minnesota Timberwolves will try to sign Rudy Gay from Memphis if he becomes a free agent this summer, but the Grizzlies are expected to re-sign the 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward. And if Gay were to leave, it's virtually certain it would be for the hometown Washington Wizards, who have $22.5 million in salary cap space.
But Kahn said Sunday that the plan to bring Rubio over after next season is still in place, and that the Wolves anticipate Rubio to be the beneficiary of two years of seasoning, two years of growing physically and two years of working on his jumper.
So while coach Kurt Rambis and the Wolves took some serious lumps this season, Rubio has been playing with veterans like Navarro, former NBA camper Pete Mickeal and Fran Vasquez, the Magic's 2005 first-round pick who has yet to come over to the States. Barcelona rolled through the European season, winning the ACB Super Cup in October and tore through the ACB League with a 30-3 first-place mark. In Friday's semifinal win over CSKA Moscow -- Mikhail Prokhorov's soon-to-be former team -- Rubio had 10 points and eight assists in 32 minutes.
"He makes plays one can't see," gushed a veteran NBA personnel man who was in attendance this weekend. "He knows how to play the point."
From Bethlehem Shoals/Fanhouse:
The point is, though, that while we haven't talked much about Ricky Rubio lately, he's holding ground -- even gaining it -- despite the overall success of his cohorts.
From Kurt Helin/ProBasketballTalk:
Rubio made the right call.
He will gain more leading a team in Europe's top league than he would losing 50 games with the Timberwolves. Rubio needed work on his shooting mechanics -- European teams practice much more than NBA teams, the quality coaches at Barcelona have spent far more time revamping his shot than Kurt Rambis and team could have.
From Austin Burton/Dime Magazine:
Popular opinion is that the Wolves, who have a solid young PG in Jonny Flynn, are looking to trade Rubio, perhaps to move up or get more picks in the 2010 Draft. It doesn’t seem anybody in Minnesota really expects last summer’s sensation will ever play for their team, but even if Rubio’s rights wind up in New York or another big market like his people wanted in the first place, he won’t be coming to the NBA until 2011-12.
From Nick Friedell/ESPN:
Kevin McHale said he has not been contacted by the Chicago Bulls about the team's head coaching vacancy, but he hopes the phone rings soon. The former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach said he would like to be considered as one of the possible replacements for the recently fired Vinny Del Negro.
"Of course," McHale told ESPNChicago.com on Monday night after working Game 4 of the Magic/Hawks series for TNT. "You go in there and talk to [Bulls general manager] Gar [Forman]. I know Gar and John Paxson real well. And hopefully if it's the right fit, it's the right fit. That's what you're looking for and that's what they're looking for. They're looking for the right fit.
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McHale
I thought he hated all the travel that came with coaching. Can’t blame him for wanting to sign on with Chicago right as they use all that cap space on a blue chip PF or SG though. Talk about a cushy situation.
I’d like to see him stay on as a color commentator. He’s a little raw at times and his Minnesota accent gives us all a bad name, but I enjoy him nonetheless.
Nothing like
cherry picking a team with a cap space and some bona fide good young players either.
"Thankfully, they are not straw-colored brain bats."
by biggity2bit on May 11, 2010 10:38 AM CDT up reply actions
Please let the Bull's be dumb enough to
give McHale the coaching and GM powers, can you say Love for Noah?
by Bad News Wolves on May 11, 2010 6:25 PM CDT up reply actions
"Popular opinion"
Popular opinion is that the Wolves, who have a solid young PG in Jonny Flynn, are looking to trade Rubio, perhaps to move up or get more picks in the 2010 Draft. It doesn’t seem anybody in Minnesota really expects last summer’s sensation will ever play for their team,
Apparently “popular opinion” is now another term for “echo effect.”
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." RWE
Interesting...
It seems like Rubio is the only thing “popular” about the Wolves organization — he is certainly the only part of the organization that gets any consistently-positive attention. With that in mind, why wouldn’t we trade him away as soon as possible?! Dammit, I hope the Wolves can get an attractive basketball product in place before Summer 2011. It’d be awesome to get him over here.
idd, if only to put on a little Nelson Muntz on all those “professional writers”.
Official Kahn/Rambis band-wagon rider since 2009
by Wim (Belgium) on May 11, 2010 9:48 AM CDT up reply actions
There's something else that's 'popular'
and that is that Jonny Flynn is now a ‘solid’ or (i think elsewhere was quoted as) a ‘stud’ young PG. My how opinions change in a matter of weeks.
"Thankfully, they are not straw-colored brain bats."
by biggity2bit on May 11, 2010 10:39 AM CDT up reply actions
Yeah, it's jush wishful thinking...
that Kahn is happy with Flynn as the long-term starter. After a season of evidence, he probably doesn’t feel that way.
Just imagine what sorts of “Kahn is trading Rubio” will surface if we draft John Wall…
It would be truly hilarious
if the Wolves draft Wall and trade Sessions. Then they start next season with Wall and Flynn, and still have Rubio’s rights. Fans would go crazy, and writers would spend six months coming up with “sources say” trades involving Rubio, Wall, and Flynn!
"A lot of heat"
“Barcelona will not sleep tonight,” said the play-by-play guy on the TV feed, and Kahn may be sleeping easier these days as well. When Rubio chose to play in Barcelona for two seasons instead of coming to Minnesota (the team that picked him sixth overall in the 2009 Draft), Kahn got a lot of heat and a lot of people around the league expected the Wolves to eventually deal away their rights to him. But Kahn said Sunday that the plan to bring Rubio over after next season is still in place, and that the Wolves anticipate Rubio to be the beneficiary of two years of seasoning, two years of growing physically and two years of working on his jumper.
Also, apparently, “a lot of heat” means that the collective attention of the assembled talking heads briefly was focused on the Wolves, and that its attention span was unable to grok anything more than 2 weeks out.
What reality is it in which one game, good or bad, completely validates or vitiates the Wolves’ approach? Kahn hasn’t changed his story on Rubio since draft night. That night he talked about waiting and about the Wolves being in a unique position to do so. Nothing’s changed — except the chatter, from moment to moment.
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." RWE
DA is good
Granted, most Rubio articles are wrong, but DA is the exception that proves the rule. Sure, the final game provided the hook, but he wasn’t talking about just one game. And Kahn did get a lot of heat. Maybe not searing intense NYC heat, but pretty good heat considering the also-ran team he runs.
Aldridge also mentions Paul Silas—another dumb McHale decision. That’s who they should have hired instead of Dwane Casey. Maybe they would have believed him when he said Ricky Buckets sucked.
And there’s a shot of the Josh Childress fro. He’s the guy they should get. Add him and ET, keep Darko, play Sessions more, then the turnaround starts.
What's "heat" and what's "light"?
I agree, David Aldridge is a better than par sports writer.
But being under heat means you have some pressure on you from somebody other than the ESPN crew working the draft. If you’re under heat your job might be on the line, for example.
Media attention from people who can’t remember what pick was used on Rubio…. Not a lot of heat there, other than that coming from the bright lights….
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." RWE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
Where do you come up with this stuff?
When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.
You kidding?
When I was maybe 11 I read the Heinlein novel. But it’s in the O.E.D., man!
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." RWE
and apparently, Rubio's draft position.
In the shock of all shocks, and article about Ricky Rubio has gotten its facts wrong!
Charley Walters
How does this guy still have a job?
Same way McHale had a job all those years. . . photographic evidence. ;)
Timberwolves - NBA champs 2013!
(used with permission - Wolf in MO)
by frankenhoops on May 11, 2010 10:33 AM CDT up reply actions
Still scratching my..
head why Rubio entered the draft last year. One assumes because he was serious about playing in the NBA. But why do it if he knew he had contractual issues that would last a couple of years? Was he banking on a particular team to draft him? Even then, still had the contract. Peculiar thinking or advice.
leverage...
…To get out of a bad contract and terrible buy out.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
by Stop-n-Pop on May 11, 2010 11:54 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
He made two assumptions that proved false
1) He was told he’d go 2nd overall, or 3rd at worst, which would have guaranteed him $1-2 million more in annual salary. He caught some bad luck when MEM and OKC won those picks after he had already declared.
2) He probably thought he could negotiate a lower buyout with DKV Joventud. As it turned out, they needed the money so badly that they wouldn’t budge. The ongoing failed negotiations leading up to the draft were a contributing factor in teams being scared away from drafting him. They didn’t want what we have, a two year wait.
And as Kahn has consistently said,
the Wolves, among all the league’s losing teams, were in a position to accept that wait.
David Kahn has been remarkably consistent about his talking points. Kevin “nurturing the kid until he earns his bike and his ‘man body’” McHale was almost mercurial next to Kahn. Just about the only thing our POBO’s really reversed himself on is the idea of Flynn and Rubio together, and even there he dropped it more than he ruled it out. The lack of a two-PG unit appears to have been mostly Rambis’s decision. In his season recap interviews Kahn said he regretted that Flynn and Sessions hadn’t been tried together, and Sessions went home for the summer with instructions to do with his jump shooting.
Otherwise the picture I get is that Kahn has basically stayed the course, and the few little echo bubbles about the team have swollen up and burst along the way. It’s no great revelation, I know, but when you know a situation at all, the 24-hour news cycle starts to look…. inane. Seemingly the only thing that lasts from one cycle to the next is the most superficial “hook.” Come this next draft, can you guess what ESPN will remember from last year? It’s only the stoopid stuff that survives each half-life. Man.
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." RWE
To Rubio or not to Rubio
That is the question. Obviously depends on what you can get. Can Draft Night come any faster? Lottery will help (or hurt).
Rubio went into the draft...
because he thought he would be picked no later than #3. If he was picked #3 or earlier he would have had the $$ for the buyout.
At least thats what I remember….
It's great to see Rubio made real progress this season
Makes it a lot less painful that he wasn’t here. I agree that he probably got more out of a season in Europe than he would have on this pathetic team. Let him spend another year in Europe, improve his strength and game, gain confidence in his ability, continue the winning, and then bring that attitude to Minnesota in a year when they are ready to start winning.
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