My first two comments (from oregonlive) ever about Rudy Fernandez after seeing Rudy in a game:
Watching Fernandez confirmed what I saw in his Youtube videos. He's as raw as Travis Outlaw was when Outlaw came out of High School. 2 things he has better than Travis is he's almost 21 where Outlaw was 18 at the time, and because of those extra 3 years experience, his shot is 3 years more advanced. Fernandez looked good at two moments last night, when he quickly released a 3-point shot on a catch-and-shoot, and when he drove agressively to the basket from outside the arc. On that play he was able to get to the basket quickly through a narrow lane.
But, every other part of his game was absolutely horrible. He looked like a guy in an adult pick-up game.
Rudy Fernandez will not be good enough to start in an NBA game for at least 4 years after he turns 25 years old. He is by far the worst player on the team and wouldn't even be on the team except the Blazers feared that he was learning horrible habits playing for Spain, and they wanted to get him over here and correct them before it's too late.
10 minutes max playing time each of the next two years for Fernandez. He plays like 14-year olds do in this country.
Posted on Catch Rudy, Spain on TV on August 10, 2008, 11:38AM
--------------------------------------
blazerfancan (what's a fancan?) The announcers said he was 16 when he was in the Olympics 4 years ago, so I just went by what they said. The fact that he's 23 already just means that Rudy Fernandez is a joke. He'll never be any good in the NBA and will never be a starter anywhere in the NBA. He'll never be a 6th man, either.
As far as the YouTube videos go? All they showed were his weaknesses. I needed to see him in a game to see what he could do and as I said in my first post, there were only two things he did well the whole game. There were more bone-headed things he did in just the one game, than "Spanish Chocolate" did the entire season last year. 10 minutes a game max...Nate knows a crappy player when he sees one and he's not putting him on the floor to try to develop him. Rudy will have to earn his playing time in practice and he's way too overmatched.
I've never been wrong about an NBA player before in 30 years so you can take this as fact that Rudy Fernandez is ally European hype. Kevin Pritchard made a mistake on this one. Batum will be much better than Fernandez ever will. "Spanish Chocolate was supposed to be the next "John Stockton", and they were DEAD wrong about that Spaniard, too.
Do yourselves a favor and lower your expectations about Fernandez and forget that he's even a Blazer. Instead, enjoy watching the dynamic combination of Bayless and Roy at Guard for the next 5 years for the Blazers.
Posted on Catch Rudy, Spain on TV on August 11, 2008, 11:36AM