It's kind of ironic that you're saying this because before this season, many people were criticizing Ricky for how little he appeared to have improved over the last two years, and some even accused him of regressing. I thought many of those criticisms were actually fair, but I knew that so much of Rubio's game was being held back because of the way the game is played in Europe. So while I think it's obvious that he's better than he was two years ago, I don't think it's even nearly as much as you apparently think it is. The maturity, the IQ, the decision making, while a little more refined now, were still way ahead of the curve two years ago, especially for a 19 year old. As far as it goes with his IQ, vision, passing, decision making, advanced ball handling, motor, and leadership intangibles, he was a phenom. Those things are either very hard to learn, or almost impossible to learn, the things he needed to get better at were shooting and strength, which was typical for a guard his age. Plus, all those things he had in spades over Evans, and the 19 year old Rubio is better at those things than even present day Evans. I personally think that Rubio would be even further ahead in his game right now if he was developing in the NBA over the last two years instead of in Barca.
I really don't see how pointing out that a 19 year old Rubio wouldn't be as ready as a 21 year old Rubio is really this slam dunk point. How often are rookies really all that ready for the NBA nowadays? Most of them aren't, that's how things are now, and they've been that way for a while. If the worst team in the NBA (which the Kings were in the 2009 draft) in it's first real pick of their rebuild wasn't willing to wait a couple of years for a player to mature, then their priorities were all out of whack. I also find it somewhat of an odd claim since the Kings took Tyreke, who while may had nba ready skill of getting to the basket at the time of the draft, he was still very raw and immature, so that excuse doesn't fly. If the Kings were really looking for the most ready and polished player, they would have taken Stephen Curry, because by that criteria, Curry fit the bill at that time.