Spain - Finding Fernandez

From blog.oregonlive.com
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As the season begins to draw to a close, it's only natural to start looking ahead to next year. And with Greg Oden sitting in waiting, it's hard not to. But while we have a pretty set idea of what Oden will bring to the table next season, there's some intrigue about another 2007 draftee of the Blazers: Rudy Fernandez.

As Blazers fans have been hearing (or reading/seeing) is how athletic and explosive Fernandez is, and how much more dangerous he will make the Blazers. In the most recent Quick Chat, Kevin Pritchard talked about how the future of the Blazers front court will combine All-Star Brandon Roy with Fernandez.

As Jason Quick noted a few months back, the Blazers view Fernandez as an important piece of the puzzle going forward. Joe Freeman sparked more interest with his feature today on Fernandez:

That's exciting news for Blazers fans, who have shifted their focus from the playoffs to the future -- a future that includes injured center Greg Oden and the mystery man from Spain -- Rudy Fernandez.

The 6-foot-6, 172-pound Spaniard is torching European basketball, but the hype started long ago when he played youth club basketball in Spain, and increased by the time he was 17 and playing for the senior team in the Spanish ACB League in 2001.

Since then, Fernandez has developed into an international basketball star. Playing alongside Blazers point guard Sergio Rodriguez, Fernandez helped the Spanish national team win a world title two years ago, and he has won numerous international competition MVP awards, including the 2006 FIBA Eurocup final MVP and the 2004 Spanish Cup final MVP.


In a mailbag session last week, ESPN's own Sports Guy Bill Simmons noted that if the 2007 draft were redone today, Fernandez would go much higher than his actual No. 24 pick, slotting him at No. 8. Pritchard echoed that sentiment in Freeman's article:

"Rudy's been on the radar a long time, and as we went into the draft last year, we had targeted him as a player we wanted," Pritchard said. "I think what scared some teams is that he was going to play another year overseas, and the risk is that he's such a good European player he can make more money overseas than he can in the NBA in the beginning. We feel lucky we got him at 24. We think if he was in this draft, he'd be a lottery pick."

Fernandez's stock has soared in recent months as his game has blossomed in Europe. Last month, playing for DKV Joventut Badalona of the Spanish ACB League, Fernandez became the first player ever to win two Spanish Copa del Rey MVP awards. This season, he leads the ACB, considered by some to have the best basketball outside the NBA, in scoring (20.3 points per game). He also ranks fifth in assists (4.5 per game) and is averaging 3.2 rebounds. He is shooting 47 percent from the field, including 39 percent from three-point range, and 95 percent from the free throw line.

Probably the best part of a Roy-Fernandez backcourt is that Fernandez will be able to relieve some of the scoring load from Roy. Pritchard is looking for Fernandez to be another attacker in compliment to Roy.

The NBADraft.net profile compares Fernandez to San Antonio's Manu Ginobli. Luckily for the Blazers, Fernandez withdrew his name from both the '05 and '06 drafts. DraftExpress.com notes that his greatest asset is "his versatility on the offensive end."

I'm sure most of you have already seen these multiple times, but here is the full Rudy Fernandez video archive from YouTube. Blazer's Edge found a few of the lesser viewed Rudy videos.

Here's a four-minute video someone spent quite a bit of production time on (do yourself a favor and mute the sound) that highlights Rudy's full arsenal.

You gotta love how the guy throws his body around the court with such reckless abandonment.

He even has a flair for the dramatic.

The optimism is there that Fernandez will be in a Blazers uniform next season, now we just have to play the waiting game.