If Rubio's shooting never improves he will outperform his contract ,if he becomes league average he will be one of the best contracts in the league.

So it turns out Love was a fraud and it was 3.Rubio all along

1st time I do the draft lottery simulator on ESPN and 3 teams pass us and we end up picking 4. It's just like real life.

Ricky!!!!!

Ricky!!!!

I cringed every time he went down wincing ugh...I will be like that for the rest of his career.

Yeah no kidding. Heart totally stopped like 5 times

I can't believe they didn't call a foul on the one he got hurt too

Timeout with 1:53 left, Memphis leads 87-80

Flip Saunders: "I told our guys down the stretch, we've got to makes stops and score. Ricky said, 'We're not going to lose this game.'"

4Q - 1:47 Ricky Rubio - made 3 87 - 83 Memphis
4Q - 1:23 Courtney Lee - made free throws 89 - 83 Memphis
4Q - 1:08 Andrew Wiggins - made free throws 89 - 85 Memphis
4Q - 0:34 Ricky Rubio - made 3 89 - 88 Memphis
4Q - 0:11 Ricky Rubio steal 89 - 88 Memphis
4Q - 0:10 Ricky Rubio - made free throws 90 - 89 Timberwolves
Timberwolves win 90 - 89

Rubio now 4-3, TWolves 6-37 without him

Yeah, we're not finishing bottom 2 for sure. Ricky too good.

RUBIO!!!

I went to the game last night - so much fun. **** ping pong balls. This is fun to watch and it helps the existing players to develop a winning attitude.

Lavine and Bennett are both as dumb as rocks. They both get lost on both ends of the floor frequently. I hate both of them as players.

Wiggins is going to be a beast if he can add some muscle and work hard. He had a nice game.

PEK forced a few things and got called for some BS fouls early, but came up big in the second half.

Gorgui did a good job vs Gasol. Gorgui has a high BBIQ. I'd love to see him add about 20 lbs of muscle, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. He's in his mid 20s already and doesnt look any bigger than he was last season. He's still a good player though.

Martin is frustrating to watch. When he tries to play defense, its like he's the anti-Rubio. It looks like he's moving in slow motion and everyone else is going full speed. He not only lacks quickness, but he lacks awareness.

Mo is a pretty good backup. His defense is fairly bad, but he's not nearly as bad at it as Martin. On MEM's final possession, Flip sat Martin down and put Mo in as a defensive sub, and I never thought I'd say this, but I think it was a good move.

Thad did a very nice job defending Randolph, and actually got some rebounds for a change, including the big offensive rebound that led to Rubio's big 3. He also initiated that steal before Randolph fouled Ricky for the game winning FTs. GG Thad!

The whole team played nice defense most of the game. Guys were rotating and helping out pretty well (aside from Martin, Lavine and Bennett).

Rubio. He's still not a good shooter, but he might be a little bit improved. He wants to take big shots, and the pressure does not faze him at all. He is definitely a winner. He breathes life into this team and has renewed my interest.

Lavine is significantly smarter than a rock imo. teenage rookie, still has good upside.

Thinking back to when I was a teenager...I was dumb as a rock. Imagine how good you'd be at sports if you could go back to HS but know what you know now

This thread will get really good if cha continues to post after #THERETURN of Shabazz.

yeah, you're kind of right. A 19 year old does have a chance to figure things out. I hope he does, but when I watch him play, he reminds me a lot of a shorter version of Anthony Randolph (with regards to BBIQ).

I'll say Bazz is better now than I ever thought he'd be. He works hard and that's a big deal. He has a lot of holes in his game, and maybe some of them are fixable, but he does have limited ability. He does have a chance to be productive if he keeps working hard.

Best game of the year for Lavine. He actually looked good at point and was clearly better than LoBro. Watching Rubio really good for him?

Bennett was good too. Made 4 terrific passes. Dribbled and attacked instead of shooting midrangers. Rebounded like a man.

Pek dominated Drummond and was a total stud. Super impressive.

I'm gonna be a little annoyed if none of Martin, Thad, or PEK get traded before the deadline.

I wouldn't hate it. Mo would be my priority to trade. I'd trade Thad for a mid-late first I guess. Martin and Pek are important to have a good team while the young guys develop. Plus Martin's contract is not too bad (2yrs@7mil) and I doubt anyone would want Peks contract.

Thumbs down to trading Martin. His contact is pretty great value in the new NBA.

Mo will be traded. He's been pretty terrific lately so somebody should want him.

Pek's contact makes him untradeable most likely

Don't see the point in trading Martin or Thad if you aren't getting something worthwhile back , I'd dump Pek if it didn't cost anything major just because he isn't going to stay on the court enough but don't see that being an option and I wouldn't add anything of value to move him at the moment.

What's the point of keeping Thad? Think you guys are vastly overrating 32yo Kevin Martin.

Trade Thad if you can get something for him. Don't do it for cash or a late second or whatever.

You are vastly under rating him. He's been good

Am I? He's a reasonably efficient bulk scorer who is absolutely awful defensively, but is a decent creator. He's shooting 42% from 3 this year (or was, before tonight) and yet is sporting a pretty meh 17.4 PER for an offense only guy. As I mentioned he is badly on the wrong side of the aging curve for this team.

And far more importantly, he doesn't really do a ton for us given the overlap between him and Wiggins--at least future Wiggins.

The last four seasons (counting this year) he has missed:
26 games
5 games
14 games
35 games

edit: that means he has played in ~71.5% of his team's games over the last four seasons.