Ricky Rubio Joins the Timberwolves; Early Favorite for Rookie of the Year?

After what might be the longest negotiation in the history of professional sports, Ricky Rubio has finally agreed to be a part of the NBA team that drafted him. 706 days after David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Rubio with the 5th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, it appears the two parties have agreed to join forces for the 2011-12 season and beyond.

By Peter Christian

For Timberwolves fans, this is a shining moment. For David Kahn, it has to be a HUGE relief. For Ricky Rubio, it’s a calculated move for the young point guard and is a prime opportunity for the Spaniard to shine.

Since June 25th, 2009 (the day Rubio was drafted) it seemed like his value continually plummeted. Between David Kahn throwing the 18 year old under the bus for his failed attempt to sign him for the 2009-10 season, his lack of playing time and lack of success with FC Barcelona, Rubio no longer appeared to be the young kid that was going to turn the NBA on it’s high top fade.

Now however, this signing could be more about timing than anything else.

When Rubio was drafted he was only an 18 year old kid and he would have been entering a situation that was an absolute train wreck. Oh and he would have been under more pressure than Mt. St. Helens on May 17th, 1980.

Fast forward almost two full years and Rubio is a bit more mature, the Timberwolves have bottomed out (at least I hope so) and the pressure is nowhere near as high as it would have been. Oh and he’ll likely be a favorite to be the NBA Rookie of the Year.

That last fact is much more important than you might think. Rubio’s chances to be ROY during the last two seasons were very slim. Throw in that he would have been playing on the atrocious Timberwolves and those chances would have certainly shrunk to zero. Now, he’s going to be entering the league with one of the worst draft classes of the last 20 years and his ability to be a diamond amongst a bunch of cowpies, bags of charcoal and sacks of dirt is very high.

On the other hand, maybe being the best of 40-50 first year players doesn’t mean anything to Rubio, but it sure would suck to enter the league on a high note and have a good chance to earn some hardware during his first season.

If Rubio were to win the 2011-12 NBA ROY award, he would be the third member of the 2009 draft class to win the award after Tyreke Evans and Blake Griffin won the award in the past two seasons. I don’t feel like actually researching the following fact but I’m going to assume that would be a first time that ever happened.

So, Rubio is now a member of the Timberwolves, David Kahn bought himself a little bit of slack (really, he did) and this could really be the turning point for the team. Or, the NBA lockout could wipe out the season and the team could be stuck in Suckville for eternity. Or something like that…