For Rubio, now comes the hard part

Less complicated?

Ricky Rubio thought choosing Spain over the Timberwolves would make his world less complicated?

Good one.

If his theory that signing the two-year deal in his native country was a way to avoid tangling his life, when simply withdrawing from the draft if he didn't feel up to the move would have saved everyone a lot of trouble, it officially became a reach Friday as Ramon Sessions joined the Minnesota backcourt and the Rubio quagmire expanded yet again.

All Rubio avoided was a commitment. The Timberwolves, meanwhile, moved forward with an aggressive play for Sessions at four years and $16 million to pair him with lottery pick Jonny Flynn as the updated, late-summer point-guard package. Playing them together, per the original Flynn-Rubio blueprint, or opting for a platoon system is up to new coach Kurt Rambis. But personnel boss David Kahn is collecting assets even if they're not the pressing lineup need, and collecting assets is a good thing for franchises that need to hoist themselves up from the canyon floor.

The way his first few months as president have gone, Kahn will be into triple digits in transactions by the time Rubio is ready to risk complication. There's no way of knowing how any team will look come Fall 2011 and the Wolves in particular are a scattershot, with a greatly unsettled roster, an aggressive decision maker and an owner willing to invest $4 million a year in this economy on a potential backup.

Among the certainties, though, is that Kahn now has two point guards who are in Minnesota this season and one who isn't. The one who isn't will be playing in what is arguably the best league in the world outside the NBA, good enough to be considered better than most every college conference, except that Flynn will be getting a two-year jump in the best. Some teams rated him even or ahead of Rubio on talent alone, without the looming headaches overseas that were proven out, and now Flynn will have the best chance to develop.

That much has been known since September dawned with Rubio's decision to stay in Spain. The Sessions acquisition, once the Bucks decided not to match the offer sheet, is a meaningful update because it puts two young ball handlers with promising futures in Timberwolves camp -- Timberwolves camp 2009.

Sessions is 23 and coming off a summer of receiving considerable attention as a restricted free agent despite one full season in the NBA, an indication of where some teams think he is heading. Flynn is 20, the No. 6 pick and a leader. If either is moving on, it won't be by retirement.

Rubio can get traded, probably his hoped-for outcome, or Flynn or Sessions can get traded, but there is no way around the news of the moment that Rubio has moved himself backward more than the Timberwolves have taken a hit. It's Rubio who is two years farther away from the all-important second contract and the potential for serious Monopoly money, and it is Rubio who will face greater scrutiny than ever the next two years with his team in Barcelona and the Spanish national squad in the 2010 world championships. While the hype is good for his marketing and would have been good for ticket sales on this continent, he's got two years of NBA nit-picking and backlash ahead.

The mess is a setback for the Timberwolves, no question. And if Stephen Curry or DeMar DeRozan become dynamic scorers who could have been paired with Flynn for a backcourt with, you know, a shooting guard and a point guard, Kahn will pay for it with bloody ears. It will make Kevin McHale dealing rookie lottery pick Brandon Roy to the Trail Blazers for rookie lottery pick Randy Foye and cash on draft night 2006 seem like a brief setback, given Kahn's risky call to go point guard-point guard with the fifth and sixth picks and saying Rubio and Flynn could play together. It's just that Rubio made himself, not Kahn, the real target by saying he wanted to come, then apparently backing out of an agreement to come, then saying it would be simpler to not come.

He could get hurt and never make it over. He could never come by choice --the Magic took Fran Vazquez with the 11th pick in 2005, and Vazquez hasn't budged as a wasted lottery pick. Rubio is easily more of a prospect and Rubio said he wants to be here, but the pressures on some international players to stay home can be immense and, oh, yeah, Rubio had also said he wanted to be here this month.

If he does continue to improve and flash even more potential, a real possibility, Minnesota can bring him over or, depending on how Sessions and Flynn are tracking, have a great trade chip. There is still a way to be extricated from this. The only way it goes bad for everyone is if Rubio gets hurt or flames out so bad that it diminishes his trade value, but that would have to be some historical fire. With his poise at 18 years old, his wizardry with the ball on a string, his advanced court presence, Kahn will keep fielding calls even if Rubio shows little progress in Europe. If Rubio gets a shot, Kahn will have to turn off his phone to ever get sleep.

Two young point guards already on board, both with promise, both as major investments, give him options. Options are good for the Timberwolves, while Rubio still has none in the NBA without going through Minnesota. Life just got more complicated.