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And because it’s not going to go away…..

by Andrew Smith on June 26th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Jorge Sierra at HoopsHype has the translations of Ricky Rubio’s quotes to Spanish newspaper, El Pais.

“Right now, I wouldn’t rule out at all returning to Spain.”

“It’s surprising that, aside from me, they chose another point guard at 6, but let’s see what they want.”

“It’s a team that would even wait a year for me, so we’ll see if I come over next year or not.”

David Kahn did an interview on ESPN during the draft last night where he said that he thinks Rubio and Flynn can play together. Good luck with that Dave, that won’t create any mismatches or anything. I think it will be very difficult for them to convince Rubio to sign a contract there. For those of you who are sick of hearing about it, I hear you, but it’s going to be a daily story for the next few weeks…. at least.
  • Magik_Trick

    This is gonna end up being very interesting..

    1 of 4 things are gonna happen..

    Hes gonna suck it up and play in Minnesota anyway
    Go back to Spain
    Get traded somewhere besides New York
    Get traded to New York

    what will it be, nobody knows..

  • Knicks_1974

    He should count himself lucky to be in the situation he is in, he is about to get a great contract, play in the greatest league in the world. If he performs there and shows his talent, then when he is just coming into his own, he will be a FA and can go where he likes. Serious character issues here, and it stinks of a prima dona. Get on with it Ricky, play, prove yourself, then go where ever the hell you want.

    Your right AS, it’s been less than 24 hours, and I’m already sick of it.

  • Mikey

    Keep them coming andrew. Im not gonig to be sick of these articles until Rickys on the knicks.

  • Mikey

    The chances are that Kahn isnt being 100% honest saying that he plans on having both of them play at the same time. If my prediction is correct and he is tryig to trade rubio what other teams might be interested in him?

  • slambam

    If he plays next year it’s going to be basically for free, so why would he play for free when they drafted a guy WHO PLAYS THE SAME POSITION immediately after drafting him. In all honesty i think he would’ve sucked it up if they had taken a wing player second instead of Flynn, but i think Flynn was the last straw for Rubio. You can’t blame him for being pissed

  • slambam

    Yeah i agree i can’t get enough of this story. The draft is supposed to be a night of hope and as long as Ricky appears available i’ll still have some.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Obviously he is not being honest. it is terrible business to admit you are going to trade him. This is what GMs do for a living, they Lie.

    But in my opinion, He had the 5th pick and he could’ve drafted any number of great players, and now he’s pretty much looking at David Lee or Wilson chandler, so maybe he actually is that arrogant, stupid, oblivious, retarded, disrespectful (the list goes on)….

    The kid has to pay 5 mil to come play here, and they think that he is going to do that for a team that A) has no coach B) has been mismanaged for years, and C) blatantly disrespected him by chosing another elite PG right after him? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

    If he is not planning to specifically trade Rubio to either us or some other team that has a young player to offer, than he should be fired immediately…. Sitting there with a fake smile trying to claim that Flynn will play shooting guard… it actually makes me sick. I am so heated right now. There is NO WAY Rubio every comes to play for this team. If there ever was a small chance, that chance is gone now.

    Honestly, if you think about it, unless they are completely stupid and ignorant, they HAVE to be planning on trading him to us. What is the other option? They enjoy giving away their PG and SG for nothing? I just don’t get it. how can a team be so blatantly arrogant, disrespectful, and flat out unprofessional.

    You have to believe they knew this would happen, so you have to believe he’s getting traded. I think he’s ours.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    The fact that he claims they will share the court, is PROOF that he is basically admitting he is full of sh*t. I mean, he knows for a fact Rubio is not going to stay and play under such a ridiculous situation, yet he tries to play it off like everything is Jolly and he’ll share the court with Flynn. Every GM in the league should be laughing in this guys face right now.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    @knicks 1974: Character issues?

    Would you play five million dollars to come play for a team that picked another player who plays the same position as you? Please. Kahn is the one with character issues.

    We are the one’s with character issues if we are arrogant enough to think the world revolves around the USA. Rubio has a great life in spain, and plays in a great league. He has to pay BIG money to come play here, so he shouldn’t do it unless he is given a top notch situation. Getting drafted by a team who has no coach and no brain in the front office, and who took another elite rookie PG right after you IS NOT a top notch situation.

    I’m not usually so argumentative but it is absolutely absurd to say he has character issues.

  • gowrightgo1

    Gotta Agree Jeff…

    The smokescreen put up by Kahn is more like a puff of smoke coming out of a old crappy diesel car…..YOU CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH IT AND KNOW THERE IS SOME SMOKE THERE.

    Rubio and Flynn never step on the court together as teammates…Period! Mark it down.

    This does not mean we are definitely getting Rubio or Flynn from them. Their aggressive stockpiling of pg talent is a strategy and one that they likely discussed ahead of time.

    They have designs on either a player, a group of players or some sort of addl relief to trade one of the two guys they got.

    Then they repeated the strategy later on by taking another very good pg in Lawson at 18 and working out their trade with Denver

    Bottom line is they are moving another pg but for what and to who is unclear.

    If it were us…..I’d consider a Sign and trade of Lee to Minny for Rubio. I’d consider a straight up Chandler for Rubio. But not Chandler and Hill for him.

    Rubio is still enough unproven that it they can not extort too much for the kid. He is not NBA ready and polished like Griffin is

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Lee for rubio makes alot of sense, but they have love and jefferson… Chandler for Rubio could work. from their point of view, if they didn’t take Rubio, who could they have taken besides flynn. Derozan? Curry? Hill?

    They don’t need hill, and i believe chandler is clearly, as of right now, a better prospect than anyone else they could have taken. He is proven.

    I really believe chandler for rubio will go down.

  • gowrightgo1

    And Jeff….while it pisses me off, this guy Kahn has made the NBA world revolve around Minny temporarily. They have 3 pg (really 2 as lawson deal is likely done) that other teams want. They are making the pg starved teams come to them. They gave up a lot to get the 5th pick but that was the strategy all along. They felt they could get Rubio and Flynn and Curry would not make it past 7. They knew teams would come calling for their newly drafted pgs to make a deal and that is exactly what is happening.

    The Suns, Knicks, and others are lining up to call Minny to see what it will take to get one of these kids.

    For what its worth, they own the pg world temporarily. I hate it…it pisses me off but it is an effective strategy if they can pull it off.

    If they get Lee or Chandler and Hill from us for Rubio, its a freakin coup for them

  • bmathews77

    Pairing Ricky Rubio with Johnny Flynn is as dumb as when Isiah Thomas tried pairing Steve Francis with Stephon Marbury. Wolves should do the right thing and just trade Rubio and get something before he decides to go back and stay in Europe.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    In fact, I’m going to call it. Chandler will be traded for Rubio.

    2010 starting lineup.

    Rubio
    (insert defender/3pt shooter of your choice)
    LeBron
    Galo
    Bosh/Hill

  • gowrightgo1

    I hope your right. Plus you make good points. They really do not need Hill and his size at the 4 with what they have now. But Chandler is a nice and developing piece for them. Of course they could end up flipping Love or Jefferson also to address other parts of their team.

    Just get us Rubio dammit!!!!!

  • bob go knicks

    JEFF,why wont the wolves trade RUBIO to the KNICKS? i seem to be missing something about this. did the KNICKS offer something for RUBIO? i heard that minny was gonna let the kid go back to spain,is that right? i thought DONNIE WALSH and this guy KAHN were buddies! whew i must have fell asleep thanx

  • bob go knicks

    jeff<i really like JORDAN HILL and would not want to give him up at this point,if he turns out as good as i think he will ,we wont need to spend money on CHRIS BOSH

  • ChefOak

    Wow, people are sure giving a lot of credit to hill. Ive now seen amare and bosh comparisons. That is crazy to me. Have you guys seen him play? Did I miss something in game action, or even in the draft night highlight reel of him, that you guys are seeing? Im hearing freak athlete, explosive, etc. I’m not seeing it at all. He looks like a Ronny Turiaf to me (and NOT bc of the dreaddies). Except Ronny was a mid 2nd rounder. Ugh. Please keep the rubio chatter alive, if for nothing other than keeping my hope alive. I feel the knicks did nothing to get better last night, except perhaps acquire trade chips.

    I like what I’m hearing about Toney, but you cant just plug in another undersized guy and expect him to be Nate. There’s a reason Nate’s gonna get the full MLE or more – he can flat out score. He gets his shot and get to the rim at will. Very few guys in the L do it as well as him, we cant seriously expect this rook who I’d never heard of prior to last night to come in a be Nate. Nate may never be able to guard the P&R, but he can flat out score, and that’s huge in this league, especially for a team like the knnicks who seem to start everyr game depressingly slowly from a scoring (and defense) standpoint.

    I think I speak for a large majority of knnicks fans when I say that last night was a punch in the stomach. Fingers crossed for La Pistola…

  • bmathews77

    Yeah it’s funny he’s getting these comparisons now. Just a week ago he was being compared to worst case Ronny Turiaf or Mikki Moore and best case a better rebounding Chris Wilcox.

  • dino2008

    it doesnt make any sense for the wolves to trade ricky rubio for david lee when they already have love and al…… we need to get another team involved here to make it happen. i like will but he plays the same position as gallo so if we must trade him so be it… you have to give to get. i am confident enough in donnie to turn this baby around that i would send will and a 2012 1st round pick over to minny.

    pg-rubio
    sg-mcgrady
    sf-gallo
    pf-dlee
    c-hill

    make it work donnie walsh

  • ChefOak

    Seriously Bmat, just drafted a guy with the upside of a guy who could barely crack our mediocre-at-best rotation last year.

    After all the good things DW did last year to right the ship, I’m hoping he has something else in his back o tricks, bc last night was depressing. Would hate to see Nate or Lee go, but for a shot at a guy like Rubio, it seems worth it. He would be a magician in Dantoni’s fun n gun.

  • EQ1217

    I was just wondering, maybe it’s a three way trade, Memphis, Minny & NY

    Lee & Tony Douglas to Memphis
    Thabeet to Minny
    Rubio to NY

  • Bart

    We lost out on the ROY in Curry but if we get Bayless I can recover Tony Douglas *sigh* we need a Dynamic lead guard I believe Bayless is that and if Douglas is to be the next Nate Robinson I hate the pick because I despise undersized back courts. Sign and trade Lee to portland and get Bayless if we can’t get Curry from Golden Dead to Me State who now say Ellis and Jackson will be there starting back court so I guess Curry is coming off the bench Nate for Curry ?? To end David Kahn is a Clown and a league wide joke 4 PG s.

  • bob go knicks

    this guy is gonna be much better than CHRIS WILCOX,ive seen him play 5 -6 times…he avg 18 pts-11 rebs im tellin ya he looks like an un-polished bosh

  • bob go knicks

    Just saw on the NY POST blog,BERMAN says “DONNIE WALSH HASNT spoke to KAHN yet but will enqire as to why he picked so many point guards and also if hes willing to trade RICKY RUBIO WALSH slao said something about his friendship with KAHN doesnt enter into trade talks

  • bob go knicks

    hey CHEF!evryone has JORDAN HILL IN THE TOP 5 PLAYERS IN THE WHOLE DRAFT! well everybody but you…lets give this guy a break and see if he can play first……..then we can boooooo and desttroy all of his confidence lol

  • bob go knicks

    PLEASE MR.WALSH,MAKE THIS HAPPEN……if you make this happen and aquire RUBIO ,without giving up JORDAN HILL,you have a free pass form all critics for the rest of your life .if you come into my bar in the the BRONX, you wont ever have to pay for another drink

  • bob go knicks

    oh and i almost forgot …ANDREW,great bang up job,you can see all of the hard work,you should be on this blog more often THANX

  • The_Guy

    I love Alan Hahn and Tommy Dee, but I think this is just them being coy, trying to get more hits for their blogs by dragging this Rubio thing out as long as they can in the off season.

    As for the school of thought that David Lee and Nate Robinson can be used in a trade for Rubio, let’s just kill that right now.

    I don’t think you guys understand something. Nate and Lee are FREE AGENTS. They have to AGREE to a sign and trade to Minnesota. Does anyone here really believe Lee or Nate are going to agree to be traded to Minnesota?

    Second, even if they did agree by some miracle, neither one of them fits there. You think Minnesota is going to trade for Lee with Kevin Love and Al Jefferson on the roster?

    You think they’re going to trade for 5’9 Nate Robinson, when they just drafted, 5’11 Jonny Flynn? Come on guys I thought you were all smarter than that.

  • ChefOak

    I agree The_Guy, it does not make sense. But neither does drafting 4 point guards! Who the hell knows what Kahn and Minny are thinking. I dont think there’s a single trade scenario out there that is off the table.

  • Bart

    They fit in Golden State they could use Lee they need rebounding.

  • DrMet

    build a package around Will, I like him but he gets no minutes when LBJ comes next year

  • Kid Tarheel

    I don’t think we should look at Douglas as a PG or an SG. He is a solidbasketball player just like D’Antoni wants. He can score and defend. He likely won’t ever be a starting NBA guard, but he could be a dynmic player off the bench. Think Jason Terry or Leandro Barbosa- except he can can also really defend. Dude led the ACC in scoring and was ACC defensive player of the year. He might not fit into a defined role as a starting player, but Knick fans will fall in love with this dudes intensity.

    Buh bye Nate, and don’t let the door hit your annoying antics on the way out…

  • The_Guy

    FINALLY a realistic trade scenario! Congratulations DrMet! Wilson Chandler fits a need in Minnesota, and is still in nis rookie deal, so can be traded whether he likes it or not.

    Chandler and a future pick? Chandler and taking back a bad contract? These are all more realistic than these scenarios that require Nate and Lee agreeing to go to Minnesota.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Hey bob go knicks, u seem to think hill should not be traded for rubio, but than u kind of hated on him. I’m not really sure where u stand. Either way, my idea was Chandler for rubio, not hill.

    @ GoWrightGo: you are absolutely 100% right. I am steaming out the ears over this, but its business, and if it works then it works…. Look at the scum on wall street.

    If they really are refusing to trade Rubio though, and they really do want to keep both of them… Then they truly are idiots and don’t deserve to be running a basketball team. The kid should be in the NBA, and their dumb strategy deprives all basketball fans of him, while at the same time depriving them selves of a top 5 pick.

    So yea, they are doing business, but if they really do keep him than they truly are arrogant and terrible terrible managers.

    They have to know for a fact he will never wear their Jersey, so I am going to assume they are sane and that no matter what they say, they INTEND on shopping him.

    They could use a long athletic young wing man in chandler, who is definitely worth the 6th pick in this draft, so if any sort of logic can prevail in this world, than i really believe we have a huge chance of getting Rubio.

    My hate-posts are over with, i just took a long, well needed nap, and I’m fine now.

  • Jeff Cykiert

    Yea, we’ve been proposing that for a little while now if you scroll up. No thanks to the bad contracts though, it’ll have to be straight up, or for a protected draft pick in the future. I won’t take any bad contracts just for a rookie… If we were willing to do that, we would have taken the wizard’s deal and we’d already have rubio.

  • Jack D

    lol Jeff, can’t agree with you more..im just as angry, and i would say that ARROGANT is the best word to describe that jerkoff. He’s playing chess here. Donnie will get Rubio. Donnie is patient. Rubio is ours

  • Jack D

    Donnie is the master in chess

  • Jack D

    This jerkoff Kahn is trying to be like Vince McMahon

  • bob go knicks

    WHERE DID I HATE ON HILL?i like the pick,

  • bob go knicks

    i didnt say hill shouldnt be traded for rubio,i would like to have both,but with a gun to my head,i think i would let him go for a chance at rubio

  • ChefOak

    Bob, yes it may be early to hate on hill. I just havent seen anything to impress me. If he isn’t traded, I hope like hell he’ll be a beast and make me eat my words. I just really doubt it from his current body of work. Bosh could shoot the ball coming out of school. At 6’11″, he has a great faceup game, a decent hadle and a pretty J. Hill seems to have none of the above. And hill played 3 yrs college ball, Bosh came in as a skinny-ass 19 yr old after 1 yr at Gtech. I dont think there’s any comparison to be made. Bosh had all the tools coming into the league, and he just refined them and got stronger. Hill is lacking on both ends of the court. I know he can block some shots, but that alone does not make for a good defender. Once again, if he’s wearing orange and blue this year, i’ll pull real hard for him.

    But I sure as hell hope DW is pulling strings and making things happen, bc it would be sad to me if this was the team that opened the season. Bring us Ricky!!

  • ScottD

    “Rick the Knick” sounds great, doesn’t it?