Passing on Steph Curry (twice) continues to haunt the Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves made two of the worst mistakes in basketball history at the 2009 NBA draft. In need of a point guard, and with Davidson's Steph Curry sitting on the board, they used the fifth and sixth picks to take 18-year-old Ricky Rubio and barely 6-foot-0 Jonny Flynn.
Leave it to the Timberwolves to pick Jonny Flynn AND Ricky Rubio over @StephenCurry30 pic.twitter.com/AbDVpJ7TK0
— Pizza Guy (@TShiff4) March 9, 2016
The decision to pass on Curry obviously wasn't as outrageous then as it is today -- knowing that he's the greatest shooter ever and the best player in the world -- but even at the time people were second guessing Timberwolves general manager David Kahn. Here's what Bill Simmons wrote in his draft diary (via ESPN):
5:10: So much for Minnesota doing the right thing. The Wolves just took Syracuse's Jonny Flynn … whom I really like … but … well … he's a point guard. Didn't they just take Rubio? Did I black out? You're going to have two young ball handlers playing together -- one who's 5-foot-11, the other who's 18 years old and weighs 180 pounds (and 30 of that is his hair), and that's your plan? Who's guarding the Kobes and Vinces out of those two? Why didn't they just take Curry? And why aren't the ESPN guys wondering about a trade here or, at the very least, murdering this pick? THEY JUST TOOK TWO STRAIGHT POINT GUARDS!!!!!!!!!! 5:11: I'm in "Star Trek II" mode right now. "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!!!!!!" So stupid. I'm never trusting a guy who worked as a TV consultant, a sports writer and a stadium campaign organizer to run an NBA team again.
Here we are, seven years later, and the Golden State Warriors are 62-7, looking to bounce back from Saturday night's loss against the San Antonio Spurs with a big win in Minnesota tonight. Curry is the reigning NBA MVP and a virtual lock to grab his second straight trophy a couple months from now. His 30.3 points per game leads the league, and he's arguably the most exciting/popular basketball celebrity since Michael Jordan's second retirement.
As if we could use one statistic to really nail this calamity down, here's a quick comparison between Curry, Rubio and Flynn. If you're from Minnesota, go ahead and set your laptop on fire ... now (via ESPN Now):
Steph Curry will arrive at Target Center tonight with 337 3-pointers for the season. Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn, both drafted by Minnesota ahead of Curry in 2009, have combined to sink 281 3s in their career.
Flynn played a grand total of 3,322 minutes for the Timberwolves before he was traded to the Houston Rockets (along with Donatas Motiejunas and a future draft pick that later became Will Barton) for Brad Miller, Chandler Parsons, Nikola Mirotic and a pick that later became Andre Roberson.
That sounds like a sweet deal for the Timberwolves, but Parsons, Mirotic and Roberson never played a minute in Minnesota, and were immediately shipped out in money-saving transactions. That trade is almost worse than picking Rubio and Flynn over Curry in the first place.
As for Rubio, there's nothing wrong with him outside that faulty jumper. The Timberwolves are better when he's on the floor; he's one of the game's best passers and defends the crap out of his position. But he's never leading a team to the NBA Finals, winning an MVP or getting the green light to pull up from 30 feet with 18 seconds left in the shot clock.
Warriors' Stephen Curry drills a three-pointer from the logo with 18 seconds on shot clock pic.twitter.com/BbU96sQrIJ
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) January 17, 2016
Curry is unprecedented. And, in some very sad ways for the good people of Minneapolis, so was Kahn.
