After the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted superstar international prospect Ricky Rubio, Rubio elected to stay in Spain for at least another season. Many believe that he never intends to play for the Timberwolves, and is waiting for his rights to be traded to a team in a more favorable market before coming to the NBA.
Timberwolves general manager David Kahn spoke with TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott today, and was adamant that Rubio will be coming to the Timberwolves in the future, albeit not for another season and a half. Rubio has a buyout option after next season, and that is when Kahn believes Rubio will make the transition to the NBA.
When Abbott asked where Kahn’s confidence that Rubio is coming over comes from, Kahn said the following:
“I was over there. I saw him play in Serbia a few weeks ago. We have people at most of his games. There’s no reason for us to think otherwise. We developed a very solid relationship with his representatives, and more importantly, perhaps, his family, this past summer. It wasn’t an issue of him having any concern about Minnesota whatsoever. I think at the end of the day he just felt that him having a couple more years in Europe would be the smart and prudent thing for him to do. He had a lot of input from his Spanish National team members, who all think he can play here, but also thought that a few more years of development would help him. I don’t have any reason not to think that’s true, either.”
