T'Wolve Draft Recap

The best explanation for the hype surrounding this year's NBA Draft is the sheer unpredictability. With a couple of potential superstars, a handful of raw talent that might one day develop into something special and a deep pool of lifetime NBA backups, the Draft Class of '09 was one of the weakest in public memory. But the dearth of talent was mitgated by the excitement of not knowing where almost anyone would end up. It almost reminds me of the fight for the most recent Republican presidential nomination; you knew Obama was probably going to slaughter any one of these guys, but finding out who exactly it would be was somehow incredibly entertaining.

I thought about writing a summary about some of the more entertaining picks, but let's just get to the heart of the matter: the Minnesota Timberwolves. With the fifth pick in the draft, the Timberwolves drafted Ricky Rubio, the 18-year-old Spanish phenom. Since Ricky has played ball all his career in Spain I've never seen the dude, but he's being described as a once-in-a-lifetime passing talent, the kind of preternaturally gifted athlete who sees the game one or two steps ahead. If you want to read more about these kind of players, check out the DFW article from the NY Times about Roger Federer.

Unfortunately, Rubio has been a total diva about the entire draft process. He basically made it known to the NBA that the only team he wanted to play for was the Sacramento Kings, a young, exciting team who play in a state with a climate akin to that of Spain. Price Rubio must've been stoked when Memphis and Oklahoma City passed on him.

Then, so did Sacramento. With the fourth pick of the draft, Sacramento drafted Memphis' Tyreke Evans, a strong, physical PG who despite his reputation as a ball-hog, appeared to dominate all of the group PG workouts. Leaving Prince Rubio to fall into the hands of... the Minnesota Timberwolves, manned by new GM David Kahn.

Minnesota did the right thing and selected Rubio. And with the sixth pick, with Davidson's Stephen Curry, a lights-out shooter who would have been the perfect young compliment to Rubio in the backcourt, Minnesota selected... Syracuse's Jonny Flynn, another, um PG.

And then with the 18th pick Minnesota took another PG, UNC's Ty Lawson, who they immediately swapped to the Denver Nuggets for Denver's 1st round pick next year, which will, in all likelihood, be worse than 18. With the 28th pick in the first round, the Nuggets took another G, albeit an SG: UNC's Wayne Ellington.

With Rubio confused about why the team would draft so many PG's, and upset about the move to colder climates, he had this to say in his first press conference:

Q. I don't mean to be funny here, it gets very cold in Minnesota. Is that something that would weigh your decision of staying in Europe or coming to the NBA?
RICKY RUBIO: I don't know yet, I have to think about that, because I'm just three minutes from a Timberwolves player. So I'm going to talk with my agent about that and we are going to see.

....

Q. Are you excited to go to Minnesota?
RICKY RUBIO: I'm excited to come to the NBA.

Ouch. And worse news, in today's press conference, Rubio refused to show up alongside Flynn and Ellington, adding weight to reports that Rubio will now opt to stay in Spain for another year or two before moving to the NBA. Needless to say, in not consulting with Rubio/Rubio's agent before the draft, and then drafting a pure PG/pure PG backcourt instead of Steven Curry, David Kahn blew a golden opportunity to improve Minnesota despite his wheeling and dealing for lottery picks. With six total picks in this year's draft, it looks like only two will be reporting to Minnesota for training camp.