Two Top Analysts Reminisce About Ricky Rubio

A conversation between Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo about how the Minnesota Timberwolves botched the 2009 NBA Draft suddenly turned into a discussion about Ricky Rubio. After talking about Stephen Curry’s place in NBA history, Simmons reiterated his stance on the Wolves’ 2009 draft on his Monday podcast.

In case you forgot, the Wolves passed on Curry twice in 2009, and Simmons still feels like it’s the worst draft blunder of this century. But a conversation about the 2009 draft slowly morphed into praise and reminiscing about Rubio and what he could have been.

“I texted this to you,” Simmons told Russillo, “Is Minnesota passing on Curry twice in the same draft, which is a disaster when it happened, is that now the biggest draft mistake of our lifetime?

“Yeah,” responded Russillo. “The Rubio thing, you have to understand how much everyone liked Rubio, okay? It was, shit, were people more excited about Rubio than Luka? Because it was still this was still new. We were reading about Rubio when he was in junior high.”

“I was all-in,” responded Simmons. “I would have emptied my NBA stock account on Rubio.”

“Okay,” acknowledged Russillo.

“Watching him go against those ‘08 guys when he was 17,” remembered Simmons. “I was like, ‘This guy is gonna be transcendent. And he went into the worst situation possible, and he got hurt.”

“And he still ended up having a decent – I mean, look, he was contributing this year,” said Russillo. “The shooting was never what you wanted it to be. But defensively, I actually thought he ended up being a better player than the beginning, where you were like, ‘Wow, how is this guy gonna survive out there defensively?’”

“Also, the league changed,” Simmons added. “He made more sense in the 2000s than he did five years later when shooting became so much more important than it was in 2008 and 2009. I mean, somebody like [Rajon] Rondo could dominate three straight playoff rounds without a jump shot.

“And so Rubio, all of the stuff that he did just made more sense back then than I think it did in 2016.”

“And it was fun as hell to watch,” said Russillo, laughing.

“Oh, it was so good,” echoed Simmons.

“He would have this stuff before the draft where he would drive, and he would know where the trailer always was, and it was this blind behind-the-back thing,” said Russillo.

“The knock was that he was too skinny,” said Simmons, “and even though he was a great shooter, it was tough to imagine him being a big impact guy. I did not believe that knock. I always thought he was special.

“So the uniqueness of this question, though, is who else would have two opportunities to pass on this guy?” asked Russillo.

“Well, also, Rubio and Curry together would have made so much sense, even as it was happening.,” said Simmons, cutting him off. “It was like, this is absolutely what they should do. Ugh.”

“Because you can’t just say, ‘Hey, man, Memphis took Hasheem Thabeet that year, what a whiff,’” said Russillo. “Well, okay, people make bad draft picks. You have to find something that’s along the lines of the uniqueness of epically fucking it up.”

Simmons and Russillo generally get the analysis of the 2009 draft correct, but a lot of that is settled. Most fans, especially in Minnesota, know that David Kahn and the Wolves messed that up.

It’s more interesting that they started reminiscing about Rubio. He was a sensation when he arrived in Minnesota, a Spanish moppet ready to lift the Timberwolves out of their doldrums. It didn’t play out that way, of course. But Simmons and Russillo are right that he was a good pick, especially because he could have played with Curry.

Rubio also suffered a knee injury against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012 that may have altered his career trajectory. It also didn’t benefit Rubio that the league became increasingly more shooter-centric after the Wolves drafted him.

Regardless, he’s still beloved in the Twin Cities, even if his second stint was an odd coda. And fortunately, it seems like the national media appreciates what Rubio brought to the Timberwolves and the league.