4th in assists per game in the tournament as a 19 year old is invisible?

7.7 ast/36, 2.5 TO/36, 4.4 reb/36, 2.1 stl/36… not what I would call invisible. He’s been awful scoring the ball, but his peripherals are there. He’s also a full 2 years younger than any US player.

His hype did start at a very young age, and not every prodigy lives up to the hype. For every LeBron there’s a Lenny Cooke or Darius Miles and for every Dirk there’s a Darko. Being incredibly good for a 15 or 16 year old does give you a much better chance of also being incredibly good when you grow up, though. Rubio is one of the best players in the 2nd best national league in the world at 19, so he’s still on about the same track as he was breaking into that league in his mid-teens.

I agree with Brian and Caleb in terms of what makes a very good player. If LeBron or Chris Paul is your standard, you’re going to be disappointed 99% of the time. Rubio’s chances of being as good as Chris Paul are very low, and I would say the same for John Wall, Derrick Rose or any other PG.

I also don’t know why he can’t be as good as Russell Westbrook or Stephen Curry… He’s never be as athletic or good defensively as Westbrook, and he’ll never be the shooter Curry is. Westbrook, though, has had a TS% of .490 both his seasons in the NBA. Curry’s assist rate as a rookie was 24.6.

Rondo’s about as good as Deron Williams and 2 years younger, so I’m not sure why Rubio could be as good as Rondo but not Williams.

While it falls into the typical only comparing guys to their own race thing, I would have to compare Rubio to Nash. Rubio isn’t likely to be as good a shooter or as efficient a scorer as Nash, but his upside is as a great passer who scores efficiently on a lower than average volume… i.e. Nash. What he loses in scoring efficiency to Nash, Rubio is likely to make up for in defense… maybe more than make up for. I don’t know that Rubio will be a 2-time MVP, but I certainly think he has a solid shot at being a top 10 NBA PG.

Kidd comparison also has some merit. First for the passing. I would say Rubio is a better shooter: at 19 Kidd hit 28.6% of his 3s at Cal. Rubio isn’t built like Kidd, but he is a strong rebounder for a guard. He got more boards per minute in Euroleague this season (4.9 per 36) than Manu Ginobili did at 24 in the Euroleague, and Manu is a strong rebounding guard in the NBA. He won’t be Kidd on the glass, but he should be up there with the Manu and Rondo type guards at a reb% around 8-10.

re: Rubio v. Livingston…

I see some parallels, but… Hollinger expects Rubio to horrifically injure himself his first few years in the league? Livingston wasn’t living up to expectations before that point, but his strong 09-10 season suggests that without the injury he might have gotten significantly better. As Caleb points out, Livingston never had the success against high level competition Rubio has enjoyed. He was an freak project taken out of HS. Rubio is a star against the 2nd and 3rd best professional competition in the world and generally holds his own in international competitions against grown men as well (the other day aside).

The bit about Rubio not being able to shoot is overdone. He’s not a plus scorer, but he hits outside shots: he’s hit 40% of his regular season 3s the last 2 seasons in Spain FORTY PERCENT…, and hit 36% of his 3s in Euroleague. 40% 3-pt shooting… horrible. He was 19 and playing against the best competition anywhere outside the NBA. His finishing is worse than his outside shooting in reality.
Shaun Livingston, on the other hand, has hit 6 NBA 3s in 5,000 minutes… Rubio takes about 2 3s per game. Clearly they are really similar. Rubio is also the best playmaker in Europe and clearly one of the best at the World Championships… but, yeah, Shaun Livingston…
Would like to see the article before I actually criticize Hollinger.

I think he has pretty much held up his value as a top-5 pick, maybe top-3. His skills are pretty unusual which makes it hard to find comparisons. Most of the very good or great non-scoring PGs, do it more on fantastic athleticism – thinking of Rondo or Westbrook. Ricky isn’t slow, but he’s not that kind of athlete. He still looks like a skinny teenager so I’m guessing he’ll get stonger and maybe faster.

Then there’s Jason Kidd… awful shooter, unreal playmaker. Very good but not unreal athlete. But Kidd was also like a football safety, and he’s the best PG rebounder in history. Ricky doesn’t match up, but IMO he has a similarly spectacular feel for the game.

@70 – as you can tell from my avatar I am a big fan of the book. The movie, not so much. They took an entertaining, quirky, unapologetic memoir and turned it into a cartoony after-school special.

TDM: This is precisely why the Knicks needed to sign a guy like Barron…Epic fail.  

I agree it’s a colossal display of incompetence, but I’m not quite sure it falls into the “Epic Fail” category. Epic Fail is usually reserved for the true managerial disasters of our lifetime, like when we didn’t match Jackie Butler’s offer from the Spurs, or when we let Randolph Morris walk to the Hawks.

Likely not Williams and almost certainly not CP3, but he could easily be as good as those other three players. It’s not like those three don’t have massive deficiencies in their own games.

Hoosiers is an obvious choice, but if you’re watching LBJ documentaries you’ve probably seen it once or twice :)

I’ve heard that Above the Rim (Tupac, Marlon Wayans, Bernie Mac) is entertaining and has an excellent sound track. Haven’t watched it myself but might check it out.

I also like The Basketball Diaries as it is a good film that explores the effects of drug abuse, sexual trauma, and writing on the development of a young man and also has the unintentional comedy of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg attempting to portray basketball stars.

My last recommendation, the 2009-10 NYK Highlight Tape. Only problem is the runtime…just 9 minutes.

Any others worth checking out?