Ricky Rubio: The Right Choice for the Washington Wizards?

When the NBA draft approaches in late June, it's hands down that Okahoma's Blake Griffin will be selected number one by whoever has the pick.

For the Washington Wizards, it's either Blake Griffin or trading the pick. Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-3 center from UConn, will not be in Washington's interests, because they already have Brendan Haywood and are still developing Javale McGe.

So it seems that they will have to deal the pick if Griffin is not on the board.

However, with the injuries to Gilbert Arenas the last couple of seasons, Washington may have to look elsewhere if he is not ready for the 2009-10 season.

Ricky Rubio, a international player from Spain, is expected to be the best point guard in the 2009 NBA draft. Rubio has been compared to Steve Nash and Walt Frazier by most NBA scouts, and may be a good fit for the Washington Wizards who lack any true point guards on their roster.

Rubio wants to enter the draft, But he has a multimillion-dollar contract buyout with his Spanish team, DKV Joventut Barcelonaants.

NBA teams are allowed to contribute a maximum of $500,000 to buy out the contract of a foreign player. That means if Rubio seeks to leave Joventut, he could be forced to use most of the money from his first NBA contract to pay for the buyout.

18-year-old Rubio is draft-eligible because he will turn 19 before the end of 2009.

"I don't care how old he is, he is much more prepared for the NBA than any college player," a general manager said.

Ernie Grunfeld, the Washington Wizards' general manager, was in Europe scouting Rubio—and he may have to take the 18-year-old kid if his $111 million man Gilbert Arenas is not healthy.