According this article on Rubio, Timberwolves general manager (GM) David Kahn says Rubio backed out on a deal to play this year. Rubio nowor has always wants to play in spain for two more years to better prepare himself for the NBA. There is a lot of blame to be spread for this happening.
1. Ricky Rubio-
One has to wonder, did Rubio ever plan on coming to the NBA this year? Or did he see he got drafted by the Timberwolves and is trying to get them to trade his rights to a major market team. Either way, Rubio does not escape this mess without blame. Ricky Rubio
I dont believe Rubio ever planned on coming to the NBA for a couple of reasons. Rubio as stated earlier is still under contract for his Spanish team. The buyout is 8 million dollars and the NBA only allows NBA teams to give 500,000 to help with a buy out. That means Rubio, if he really wanted to play this season would have to pay 7.5 million dollars to get out of his contract. Rubio is 18 years old and does not believe he is ready to make the big jump. Instead of waiting two more years and possibly falling out of the lottery, Rubio decided to apply for the draft. With all the hype Rubio got, it made his decision easy. Enter the draft now, become a lottery pick, stay in Spain for two years. If the Timberwolves and other NBA teams knew this coming into the 2009 draft, I do not believe Rubio is a lottery pick. If Rubio is not a lottery pick, the Tiberwolves and David Kahn are not involved in this mess.
2. The Minnesota Timberwolves-
David Kahn is not having the best off season and he has himself to blame for it. Drafting foreign players under contract is always a risk. No one knows whether or not to believe Kahn when he says Rubio backed out of a deal. Kahn definitely tried his hardest to get Rubio signed. It started with this trade that gave the fifth round pick and Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov. Kahn also made multiple trips to Spain that failed to get Rubio to break his contract
What would have happened if Hasheem Thabeet was still on the board? I bet David Kahn does as well.. Kahn says he has no regrets about taking Rubio because he believes that Rubio was the best pick at the time. However, why not take Jordan Hill? An up and coming front line player to team with Al Jefferson. Or if you are interested in another guard, take Stephen Curry who can play the PG or SG. Another option could have been DeMar DeRozan, who probably needed another year in college but is a player similar in size to Rubio and a SG. Current and future NBA GMs should learn from this experience and do some homework on a foreign player before drafting them.
Now both sides have to sit around playing the waiting game. Rubio has to hope that in two years the Timberwolves will have room for him. Rubio will be two years behind Johnny Flynn who should develop into a solid PG. Two years is a long time and the Timberwolves could make moves that could make Rubio expendable. On the other side of things, the Timberwolves have to hope Rubio is still the player they drafted two years from now. Lots of things could happen that hinder develop like Rubio getting hurt or Rubio just not getting better as a player. Do not forget the fact that Rubio might not even be an NBA caliber player, scouts have been wrong before.
-Mike Moreau
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