Some of you may or may not know that I am a huge conspiracy theorist. I don’t live and die with it. I simply enjoy conjecture over what’s really going on. Something huge happen in the world? Let me hear what the alternative explanations are or could be. With that in mind, allow me to drop some knowledge. As always, I have no proof whatsoever, I’m just exercising my right to free speech.
The Minnesota Timberwolves selected 4 – count ‘em 4 – point guards in the draft Thursday night. I remember wondering what the hell they were doing when they took Johnny Flynn immediately after they drafted Ricky Rubio. Then they took Ty Lawson with the 18th pick. And again they took Nick Calathes in the second round. Granted they traded Lawson during the draft, so they’re not burdened with too many guys at the one.
The morning after the draft, their GM explained their two lottery picks as such – you don’t take a complimentary guy with the 6th pick just because, you have to get value for that high a pick. They feel Flynn is that dude. At the time, I thought it made sense. Later that same day, word leaked that Rubio doesn’t want to go to Minnesota and may stay in Espana for the foreseeable future.
Then I began to wonder the Wolves strategy. Number one I thought they were in great position because they could use Flynn right now then bring along Rubio next year or the year after. They’re covered and can figure out who to keep or who trade or even see if they can co-exist, though that didn’t work out so well did it Toronto?
Now I’m convinced this was a move made to save face. New management simply couldn’t pass up Rubio. He’s just too good. The fans would not buy the – we’re going with the best young talent to grow our franchise a la Portland – approach if they passed on him. So they took him with a strong notion that he’d never suit up for them.
All of which brings me to Johnny Flynn. Management can point to his season with the Orange and tell their fans, ‘we’re sorry the evil little boy from Espana wouldn’t come play with us, but we have a good alternative. Remember when he played over 50 minutes against UConn? He’ll give total effort for us!’ so they hedged their bets. They did exactly what they had to do. It was a great business decision for them.
They have kind of handcuffed themselves though. Because how do you get value for that Rubio selection? I put my money on the Knicks. Look at some of the recent big trades around the L. Shaq to Cleveland? Kerr and Ferry were teammates in San Antonio. Garnett to Boston? McHale and Ainge were teammates in Boston. Google the new Minnesota GM’s resume – I understand if you have to first Google the new Minnesota GM’s name – note that he worked for Donnie Walsh in Indiana.
You see how this is all coming together? I consider myself a smart man. I possess a simple engineering degree, but I still don’t fully understand the complexities of the NBA trade guidelines as it applies to drafted rookies. I don’t know exactly what would balance out Rubio’s salary.
Strictly from a talent standpoint, I’d think that Nate or Larry Hughes and someone like Joe Crawford might could fit the bill. I’m not saying that it’s fair to Minny, all I’m getting at is they traded both of their 2s and draft a shitload of 1s. So picking up Hughes could help on-court, though he’d be an off-court nightmare for a young team teetering on the brink. Ditto Nate.
I’m sure it won’t work out for a variety of reasons; money, talent, chemistry. So take it all with a grain of salt. But as a wholly biased knicks fan, I’m excited about the prospect of Ricky Rubio playing for Mike D’Antoni. More so than I am about Darko Milicic at least…
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