I guess you guys haven't watched the wolves much because Smart is about as bad as a fit as you can get for that team. Their number one problem is shooting, and you propose to take their best spot up shooter, Lavine, out of the lineup for a bricklayer named Smart? Yes they had defensive woes last year, but that's what bringing in Thibs is for. You don't bring in a defensive mastermind just to go and get great defensive players, you bring him in to improve your defense and make bad defensive players better. If I coached a team of Rubio/Smart/Wiggins/Dieng/KAT, I would have them in the top 10 of defense.
So there is no way the wolves would do this deal, as they would need the shooting of Murray/Bender/Hield/Chriss much more than they would need the defense of Smart.
Who said anything about replacing Levine? Why wouldn't the two pair up in the Wolves backcourt?
Because Rubio is a better player than both of them. If you wanted to just bench Rubio, the wolves would just take Dunn. This trade just doesn't make sense for them.
Excellent chance Dunn is gone at 5. And if you gave 29 NBA GMs a trade exception big enough for either right now and asked them to choose, I'd wager all but one or two of them would take Levine over Rubio. So I doubt your judgement on this topic.
So many things wrong with this post, so I'll briefly go over over all of your misconceptions. First off, LAVINE. His name is ZACH LAVINE, not LEVINE. If you are going to argue over a player, know how to spell his name correctly. You clearly don't watch timberwolves basketball (I do, I live in Minnesota, so don't doubt my judgement on this topic thanks) and if you did, you would know Lavine is a shooting guard, not a point guard. Not only are the wolves significantly better with Rubio at point than Lavine, but when Lavine tries to play point guard his advanced stats are among the worst in the league. Rubio is a WAY better passer, defender, dribbler, and rebounder than Lavine, all pretty important things for a point guard. So if you want to talk more about this topic, go back and watch some film to better educate yourself. Otherwise, don't get in arguments that you know nothing about and just stick to something you know a little information on. Thanks!
So many things are wrong with my two sentence post? The part about Dunn is wrong? No, it's not. Or the part about which existing Wolves guard GMs would prefer? No, it's not. So you're just grabbing onto the spelling thing because you live in Minnesota 
Who needs to play Levine at PG? He's a guard. If you want to call him a SG, that's fine, but he's not a spot up player. He's a penetrator. He's a ball dominant player.
That said, the point is that he and Rubio are a pretty poor fit together. Rubio, too, needs the ball in his hand a great deal to drive value. If he's not driving and kicking, he's highly limited due to being one of the worst shooters in the history of the NBA.
If you believe that Smart's offensive future as a spot-up shooter (which I do, since it's the lesser of evils for him), then there's a legitimate argument for paring him with Levine over Rubio. He can play "point guard" while the offense runs through Zach, spotting up outside the line as he likes to do. Then take defensive pressure off of him guarding whoever of PG or SG is the toughest assignment. Rubio's a solid defender, but Smart's a better, more tenacious one -- very much in the Thibs mold.
If you live in Minnesota, and you're the celticsblog.com maestro of Wolves basketball, you're aware of these things correct? I mean, do you actually buy for a second that the Wolves consider Ricky a more important long term asset than Zach, and would prefer to form their backcourt as such? But hey, I have no idea what I'm talking about, so I defer to you. I mean, hey.... you live in Minnesota and all.
By the way, since you're new here... a tip for you. Telling people to stop posting because they don't know what they're talking about is sort of like being the hamster running on the wheel. You can do it as hard or fast as you like, and you'll never get anywhere.
Again, reading this post, you clearly haven't watched LAvine play. But that's ok. I wouldn't expect you to, I just find it odd that you would argue about something you clearly know a limited amount of information about. LAvine is NOT a primary ball handler. I don't know how to make you understand that, but he's not. He's an awful playmaker, and if you've watched any wolves basketball, you would see how stagnant the offense gets with LAvine at the helm. Yes he can penetrate at times, but he is much more successful as a secondary ball handler. He's also a great spot up shooter and cutter (wow, maybe he should play off ball!). You also probably haven't see Rubio play much as he is much better than just a "solid defender", as he posted the second best real plus-minus for point guards in the league. That's right, better than our very own Marcus Smart!
So I'm done arguing with you. You don't know anything about this topic, and I hope you know more about other things regarding the NBA, otherwise you wasted a lot of time with those 5907 posts. I hope I educated you well enough so you won't go sticking your nose in business you have no part in debating!
There's some truth in what each of you are saying. Incidentally, I live in Mpls too.
Lavine is basically a heat check 2 guard. He's abysmal as a playmaker / facilitator. In a sense, he
does need the ball, because he gives you nothing otherwise. In another sense, you hate giving him the ball because being a floor general isn't in his wheelhouse. I wouldn't characterize him as a slasher -- he's not very good off the bounce even though he's an all-time high-flyer. He doesn't have much in-between game and his court vision is lacking. Ideally, he becomes a Jamal Crawford instant-offense type of guy and he's shown flashes of that.
As for the relative value of Lavine and Rubio, it's cloudy. The contracts harm Rubio. Rubio is clearly the better player, but his offensive game makes him a "build-around" player. You have to engineer your roster to accommodate Rubio. You just can't put him next to other non-shooters e.g. Coaches are too good and you'll be playing 3 on 5. That's enough to scratch Rubio from a lot of wish lists.
Lavine on the other hand has a very narrow game. Plenty of coaches wouldn't mind having him on the cheap, but you know more or less what you're getting. Basically Marcus Thornton. Once in a while he'll go off and score 14 in a row. Sometimes he disappears. He doesn't add value, tangible or otherwise, when he's not scoring, but there is a place for guys like this. You run him out with the second unit as a 2 guard. Maybe he knocks down a couple shots or has a ridiculous finish that ignites the crowd -- then you ride him for a while. He can give you a lift if the offense stagnates because he's a "tough shot maker" and he can get his shot off. If he doesn't have it, you pull him.
All in all, hard to compare apples to oranges. You could slot Rubio in for Rondo on the 2008 championship team and not miss a beat, but how many teams would that be true of?
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Topic: Would MIN accept Marcus Smart for the #5 pick? (Read 14683 times)