Report: Thunder trade Ricky Rubio back to Minnesota for draft picks
After spending three seasons away from where his NBA career kicked off, Ricky Rubio is headed back.
The Minnesota Timberwolves — who took Georgia star Anthony Edwards with the No. 1 overall pick — traded the No. 17 overall pick in Wednesday night’s NBA draft to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Rubio and the Nos. 25 and 28 picks in the draft, according to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Chris Hine.
Sources @TheAthleticMIN say that Rubio quickly warmed to the idea of a return to Minnesota when the subject was raised to him. He wants to be a part of making the Wolves a playoff team.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) November 19, 2020
Rubio averaged 13 points and 8.8 assists per game last season with the Phoenix Suns. He was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this week as part of the deal that sent Chris Paul to Phoenix.
Rubio spent his first six seasons in the league with the Timberwolves, averaging 10.3 points and 8.5 assists over that span. They actually used the No. 5 overall pick on him in 2009, but Rubio opted to stay in Spain for two more years before making the jump over to the league for the 2011-12 season. He played for the Utah Jazz for two years before landing in Phoenix, where he signed a three-year, $51 million deal before last season started.
The Thunder then used their newly acquired pick to take Serbian Aleksej Pokusevski. The 18-year-old 7-footer spent the past two seasons with Olympiacos in Greece and was widely considered to be one of the top international prospects in the draft.
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