Minnesota Timberwolves will only offer Ricky Rubio $48M deal
By Josh Hill
Minnesota Timberwolves fans have been watching Ricky Rubio’s situation with great interest, and it seems there has been a dollar amount set that the team will not go over.
Ricky Rubio was a wiz-kid coming over from Spain a few years ago as the Wolves drafted him in 2009 but he’s starting to fall back from where the team expected him to be. He stayed in Spain a few years after being drafted, so it’s not as though he’s been slacking off for five years of his career but he hasn’t made much progress in the three that he’s been in Minnesota.
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That’s not stopping Rubio from asking for the max contract which was earmarked for him a few years ago, and it’s a sticking point for both the Wolves and their guard.
According to Sean Deveney from The Sporting News, the Wolves have a ceiling on the offer their willing to make to Ricky Rubio and it’s well below the level he wants.
"Rubio has been after a five-year contract with the Timberwolves, and though he’d like that deal to be a max, there is no doubt Minnesota won’t go that high. In fact, while it has been reported that the two sides are far apart on a number, you can get a sense of just how far — league sources told Sporting News that the Timberwolves’ best offer thus far has been four years in the range of $48 million."
This $48 million figure keeps coming up, which means that Wolves are hellbent on not paying a penny over it to keep Rubio. There was a rumor that the team was prepared to offer then-restricted free agent Eric Beldsoe a max deal which sends a clear message to Rubio.
It’s an absolutely reasonable figure too, and may be overpaying a bit on the part of the Wolves. The market was set by Steph Curry’s bargain deal, which the Wolves are clearly milking as much as they can.