It's looking like he kinda, sorta did.
Yesterday, I read part one and part two of Bill Simmons' annual "Trade Value Rankings" column. As we've come to expect with Simmons, it was a good and long (!) read. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Simmons take over as GM for an NBA team one day, if that's something he wanted to do. The guy is always wheelin' and dealin' in his mind. And it's just one man's opinion, but most of the trade ideas he has make a considerable amount of sense.
So in part two of his column yesterday, Simmons was talking about Ricky Rubio's trade value (Rubio came in at 23rd overall, by the way), and he wrote the following sentence:
Annnnnnd, jinxed. Just like that. The column was posted yesterday in the early afternoon. Last night, the Lakers and Timberwolves played, and Rubio tore his ACL, after colliding with Kobe Bryant. Hmmm, that's a little eerie if you ask me.
Now obviously, I'm not the first one to make this connection. Simmons is probably getting killed on Twitter by hordes of T-Wolves fans today, but I haven't check the Twitter today. (Update: Simmons admits 2 jinxes from the same column so far.) So now, the T-Wolves aren't looking like such a lock for the playoffs, which Simmons boldly predicted. Which sucks because they were becoming one of the best teams to watch in the entire NBA.
The weird part about Rubio's injury is that it affects the Blazers in two separate and distinct ways. First, it makes the road to the postseason easier, period. Of course, that is not to say that Portland is any sort of "lock" now, even if/when Minnesota slows down a bit. But it should help at least a little bit, right?
(Devil's advocate note: Or it won't help the Blazers postseason chances at all. The Blazers currently look so uninspired that it's likely that two or three teams in front of the Blazers could start sucking it up, and it still wouldn't mean we'd see Portland in the playoffs. That's how bad it seems to be at the moment.)
And on the flip side, with Rubio out for the year, Luke Ridnour will most likely be stepping into the starting PG role for the Timberwolves. So are they even thinking about trading him away still? I wouldn't think so. As you've probably heard, Ridnour has been a centerpiece in the Jamal Crawford trade talks for a few days now. But with Rubio going down, the Timberwolves wouldn't likely benefit at all from trading him away, even with getting Crawford in return. Because if we've learned anything here in Portland, it's that plugging Crawford in at PG doesn't get you a lot of success on the court.
The next 5 days are sure going to be fun to watch in the NBA. And hopefully, the Blazers can make some much needed changes.
