2009 NBA Draft, 18 year old Ricky Rubio was drafted 5th by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Most draft experts believed Rubio would never play a game for the Timberwolves: Well, they’re on the clock to see if they were correct.
As reported in my “Early Morning Free Throws” post, the Knicks made a attempt to acquire Ricky Rubio, forcing the Minnesota front office to state: Ricky Rubio will begin his career in Minnesota, not New York. With this news coming out, I instantly thought two things:
Oh great, the Knicks aren’t getting another good player
and
Where does Rubio fit as a point guard in the NBA?
Readers probably won’t care about the first thought but the second one is a legit question. Consider this: The NBA is in a golden era of point guards right now. I’d make the case 25 of the 30 teams in the NBA have a solid point guard. At 6-4, I don’t have offensive questions with Rubio, he would play more of a Jason Kidd/Rajon Rondo role ( Don’t shoot, pass first, create for the offensive players, help the inept offensive players and when your open, make the basket) but rather the defensive side. Could Rubio defend some of the point guards in the game today? I honestly don’t know. Would he be able to run with a Derrick Rose? Russell Westbrook or even John Wall today? Can he survive a post up from Chauncey Billups? I don’t know, but I’m very interested in finding out.