Source: PHILSTAR.COM


NEW YORK (AP) -- Hasheem Thabeet realizes his offensive game needs work and understands it will be hard for him in the NBA to dominate defensively the way he did in college.

There's just as many questions about Ricky Rubio, starting with one even he can't answer: Will he play in the NBA next season?

And one of these guys could be the No. 2 pick in the league draft on Thursday.

Thabeet, the defensive dynamo from Tanzania, and Rubio, the promising point guard from Spain, have their skeptics, but they might be the best of the rest in an NBA draft with no apparent sure thing beyond expected No. 1 pick Blake Griffin.

"It's different because I think most of the players have some questions about them," New Jersey Nets president Rod Thorn said. "Even the ones that are going to go real high, there are some questions: Can the guy guard? His body? He's got potential, but where is it? Those types of questions, but more so than in a normal draft."

The Los Angeles Clippers have the No. 1 pick and are all but certain to take Griffin, the college player of the year from the University of Oklahoma. Then it's up to the Memphis Grizzlies — unless they trade the pick — and they aren't ready to make any decisions yet, knowing offers could be coming.

"We don't have to take the test until Thursday evening," Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said. "All the options are out there. Not just drafting, but moving back, trading for the right veteran. Everything is still on the table."

Whoever makes the call at No. 2 likely chooses between Thabeet and Rubio.

The 7-foot-3 (2.21-meter) Thabeet was the co-Big East Conference player of the year and was its top defensive player out of the University of Connecticut, but he still struggles to consistently catch the ball and shoot it. He knows people criticize his offensive skills and has been working to improve them, but says none of the teams that he's talked to made them an issue.

"They say if we draft you, we want you to come over and just control the game," Thabeet said. "If you're going to be our guy, we want you to come over, even if you don't score, we want you to be able to control the game."

He did that just fine at Connecticut, averaging 10.8 rebounds and 4.2 blocked shots last season. Yet Thabeet, who switched from football to basketball only seven years ago, is aware the NBA makes it tougher to protect the rim than college rules, because the defensive 3-second rule forces defenders to leave the paint if they aren't guarding someone.

Rubio faces similar doubts about his offensive skills because of an unreliable outside shot, but the questions about the 18-year-old Spaniard go beyond his play on the court.

Rubio has to pay a multimillion dollar buyout to his Spanish club, DKV Joventut Badalona, to get out of his contract. And while his lawyers are working on a deal with the team and he expects an amicable parting, he said there's a chance he would stay in Europe if he isn't drafted high enough to earn a salary that would cover a significant chunk of his debt.

And he hasn't persuaded teams to spend a high pick on him in recent weeks. He worked out only for Sacramento, which has the No. 4 selection, but didn't feel it properly showcased his skills because his strength is in the fullcourt game.

Yet Rubio, who played for Spain in the defeat to the US in the Beijing Olympics gold-medal game, thinks he's still the best in a deep pool of point guards.

"I have the Olympic Games experience," he said. "For me, the difference from the other point guards is that I play against the professional guys, not the young players."

Though he refused to work out for Memphis and said his mother was worried about Minnesota taking him because she dislikes cold weather, Rubio insisted he hasn't ruled out playing for anyone.

"I want to play here, it's my dream," he said. "It's the NBA. For me all the teams are OK."