Monday, June 15, 2009
Rubio Staying in Draft
Posted by Chris Herrington on Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 2:04 PM
With my power out going on three days now and with production on the paper going on today, I probably won't be able to get into Grizzlies stuff again until tomorrow afternoon, but for now here's a crucial if entirely expected bit of info:
Draft Express is reporting that Ricky Rubio will remain in this year's draft:
-Ricky Rubio will keep his name in the draft, his agent Dan Fegan told DraftExpress. Clearly the rift between Rubio and his Spanish team DKV Joventut is too deep to mend at this point, and with the team strapped for cash and not playing in next year’s Euroleague, that does not appear to be a situation that Rubio is interested in returning to.Rubio lands in Los Angles today and will begin to evaluate his options regarding who he may work out with. At this point, the Sacramento Kings are the only team that are certain to get a visit. Memphis and Oklahoma City are not on the agenda as of now, and it’s not yet clear whether they will be added. Other teams who are looking to move up in the draft may get a chance to visit with Rubio, depending on their interest level and the likelihood of them brokering a deal with a team like the Grizzlies or Thunder.
Comments (17)
Showing 1-17 of 17
I'm souring on Rubio more and more. I really hope the Minn. rumor about Kevin Love and the #6 for the #2 plus something gets some legs behind it and starts RUNNING!
like
dislike
I agree. Kevin Love and the #6 would be great. We could get our PF and then select someone like Derozen.
Agreed. I'd prefer to have a veteran PF, but Kevin Love would do just fine in Beale St. Blue. He was good enough for us to draft last year, after all . . .
Yeah, although Rubio may turn out to be an allstar in a few years, if we can get a 15 and 10 PF and a top 8 pick, that would be it. As long as its not OKC with Rubio brokering a deal, its all good. No matter what happens, the GRIZZLIES should be drafting Rubio.
Yeah, although Rubio may turn out to be an allstar in a few years, if we can get a 15 and 10 PF and a top 8 pick, that would be it. As long as its not OKC with Rubio brokering a deal, its all good. No matter what happens, the GRIZZLIES should be drafting Rubio.
Would Minnesota really give us basically a #5 (Love) and #6 pick for #2 Rubio? I find it hard to believe they would do that, unless we take back a bad contract too (which might still be a good deal for us).
But I would love it if we could do it! I think Love would be a great fit. Then draft some backups at SG/SF and sign a FA point guard for a backup. Then we'd be set.
Is the deal really just Love for #2? Would we do that?
Other rumors have Atlanta shopping J. Smith. I think they want Horford at PF and need a C. What if we traded Darko and Rudy for Josh Smith and the rights to Childress? Lineup:
Conley/Draft #27
O.J./Draft #35 or FA
Childress/Draft #35 or FA
J.Smith/Arthur/Warrick
Gasol/Thabeet #2/Haddadi
I seriously doubt Heisley is willing to pay the $7.2mil trade kicker that J. Smith has on his contract. It is due upon the completion of the trade. We all know Heisley is more of a scrooge than that.
I could see the following trade:
#2, Gay, Darko, Arthur
for
#6, Love, MMiller
Memphis goes with this lineup:
Conley
Mayo
MMiller
Love
Gasol2.0
Then try to nab Curry at #6 to have three good shooters in Curry, Mayo and Miller.
Chris,
Have you been to the workouts the Grizzlies have had? If yes, will you give us an update on Lofton and Brown and how they looked?
Thanks!
I second the inquiry into the workouts, but I'm more interested in hearing about Tskitishvili. Also, anything to the rumors that we might pursue Turkoglu?
C'mon guys. Why would Turkoglu make sense for us? And why would Tskitishvili make sense for anyone?
The Love deal makes sense, partly because they just had a change in regime there, and the new GM may not worry about the success of past deals, or married to the personnel on his team.
A deal surrounding Love and our #2 pick would make sense for both teams. We have alot of perimeter parts, and they have alot of frontcourt parts.
#2, #27, Conley, Arthur
for
#6, #18, Love, *Filler Contract*
Probably the best situation Memphis could get out of that #2 pick imo.
@Matt H,
The Tskitishvili workout is intriguing, if anything. He may not be rotation-player caliber in the NBA - don't know, wasn't at the workout personally, haven't read anything about him in years, haven't seen any tape of him playing in Europe - but I applaud Wallace, Barone and company for taking a look. That's due diligence and it's their job. And I'm interesting in hearing about what he looked like and what the Grizzlies might have thought about him.
Turkoglu would make sense for the Grizzlies, because he's talented. The Grizzlies, I'm afraid to say, are not talented. In case you haven't noticed, our team is essentially comprised of four young, good players and the rest are borderline, if not outright, D-League-ers. The Grizzlies need to add talent at every single position on the depth chart. Turkoglu may not be a perfect fit, but what available free agent out there is? He's at least as talented as every player we have on the roster right now, meaning signing him would constitute a major upgrade in talent for us if it happened (very similarly to when we looked at Josh Smith last summer, who also was not a perfect fit). So, I'm interested in hearing if there are any rumblings in the Grizz front office about him.
I was not at the free-agent camp today, but was at the draft workout afterward. I was told by someone who was there that Tskitishvili looked bad -- disinterested -- and that no-one really stood out.
Will have two posts up later tonight -- hopefully.
@herodotus
There is no reason for Hedo to sign in Memphis. We don't need players like that until we have a solid core established and he could be the 3rd or 4th best player on the floor.
@GrizzleGM,
It's premature to rule out having any interest whatsoever in a player like Turkoglu. The Grizzlies need to be interested in talent, plain and simple, whether that's Turkoglu, Josh Smith, Brandon Bass, Trevor Ariza, Paul Millsap or anyone else. I'm not advocating signing every talented player at any conceivable price, but to flat out not investigate the possibilties with the best free agents on the market this summer would be irresponsible. I have merely posted asking Herrington if he's heard anything re: the rumors that the Grizzlies might be interested in Turkoglu.
Chris, thanks for the report on 'Skita. Not surprised to hear that he wasn't impressive, but "disinterested?" Yikes.
@herodotus
I totally agree that we need to amass talent, because outside of Mayo and Gasol2.0 the Grizzlies do not have the talent necessary to win in the NBA. Hedo at $10mil has to be a guy that is going to put your team over the top. Right now I would rather that $10mil be spent on Millsap or Smith or some other PF that we have never been able to sign here in Memphis. Let's first get a team that has 5 quality NBA starters before acquiring guys like Turk.
THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
SPECIAL ISSUES
