Ricky Rubio and the Spanish Players

[Weiland]

I just want to ask some folks here who are familiar with Spanish basketball and also at least some guys here about Ricky Rubio's skills with respect to other Spanish players. I'm not interersted about your opinions about his greatness or his "bustness" I just want to know if he really has that much skill advantage over players like Jose Calderon and Juan Carlos Navarro. I've been liking Jose Calderon's skill as a point guard and as a shooter and for me is already an above average NBA players but of course not an all star.

My main question is "does Ricky Rubio have that much skill advantage over other European guards and if not do you guys think he will at least be with the same level as them?" (e.g Calderon,Dragic,Navarro etc.)

[xade]

I'm Spanish.

For now, we can say that Rubio is better than Raul Lopez, Sergio Rodriguez and Carlos Cabezas (they've been members of the spanish national team). But I have some doubts about the comparison with José Calderón. Rubio debuted in the Spanish team in 2008, during the Olympics and he did better than Calderón. Last year Calderón didn't go to the Eurobasket because of his injury and Rubio was the starting PG for Spain. We'll see what happens this year in Turkey.

I think, right now, Rubio is better than Calderon. Maybe Calderon shoots better and has more experience but Rubio's court vision, defense and basketball IQ are higher. And actually, no one has been better than Rubio at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19... I mean Navarro was a substitute when he was in Regal FC Barcelona at 19 and Rubio is the starting PG of the team and has led them to win the Euroleague. Right now Rubio is the best spanish young player of history, we'll have to see if he keeps on evolving like this.

Rubio once said that he considered Pau Gasol to be the best european player in history and Gasol answered "well, I was nowhere near Rubio at his age".

[Weiland]

Thanks for the information. I am pleased by the way Calderon finishes during fastbreaks, he was able to use his body intelligently to avoid Lebron James' signature fastbreak block. Oh well, point guards nowadays want to be point guards again which is nice. Point guards need to bring the passing and court vision back to the game.