Timberwolves Should Hold Onto Their Guns With Rubio

I'm a big Ricky Rubio fan and have said on this blog that I think he will become the biggest star of the 2009 NBA Draft. However, I've lost some respect for him in the way he's handling the fact that the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted him.

Okay, I get that foreign players wanna go to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or Miami. Those are America's sexy NBA cities. But if Rubio actually checked out the draft order, he would have known that none of those destinations would occur for him.

When the lottery order was announced, the No. 1 pick went to the LA Clippers. Now, who really wants to be a Clipper? Okay, it still is Los Angeles but you are second class citizens there. And even if you are cool with that, you knew that they wanted Blake Griffin all along and you knew that that opportunity wouldn't happen.

Here are the next teams selecting: Memphis, Oklahoma City and Sacramento. All those are smaller than Minneapolis. If you really thought you were a top five pick, you probably figured that one of these teams were going to take you. Yet you still put your name in the draft.

Maybe you figured that Washington wanted you. Washington is a cool city that can get you some pub. But did you really think the Wizards would've taken you at that No. 5 spot? They've only spent a gazillion dollars on Agent Zero and actually feel that they have a shot at making some noise this season.

Of course, the Wizards dealt the pick to Minnesota ... all but assuring that Rubio wouldn't last past either of the Wolves' No. 5 or No. 6 picks.

People look at what the Wolves did as dumb. They drafted Rubio despite knowing that he'd pull this crap. They then drafted Jonny Flynn who plays the same position as Rubio. Later, the drafted a third point guard in Ty Lawson. In the second round, they took yet another point guard in Nick Calathas. Both Lawson and Calathas were dealt for future picks.

I like Minnesota's draft. They get Flynn to be their point guard of the future, Rubio as a trading chip, Wayne Ellington as their sharp-shooter and they basically deferred a first round and second round pick until next year ... which will be a much deeper draft.

So I want them to stand firm on Rubio. They'll listen to offers but ... with the selection of Flynn ... they aren't pressured into getting Rubio in camp. Rubio knew that there was a good chance to pull this crap of "I don't wanna go to a small market", but that's not Minnesota's problem. We don't need this to get like baseball and having teams scared to select players that may not want to be there.

Eventually, the Wolves will deal Rubio away to New York or Houston or Dallas for a player and/or some draft picks. But I would hope they'll get very fair value.