Lynx Praise New Point Guard's Energy, Defense

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Move over Ricky Rubio: There's another talented Spanish point guard in town. In the same building, actually.

The Lynx made a trade on draft night to bring Anna Cruz to Minnesota.

Nearly three months later, she's finally here.

Cheryl Reeve has coveted Anna Cruz ever since the first time the Lynx played against her, last year when Cruz was with New York.

"Lindsay Whalen is an Olympian, the best point guard in the world, and Anna just gave her fits," Reeve said. "She's unselfish, she's efficient, and she defends."

So the Lynx swung a draft night deal to get her, and now, after missing the first 10 games to help her own national team try to qualify for the Olympics, the talented Spanish point guard has arrived.

"I know this is a good team, and I'm here to try to do my best and help the team," Cruz said. "I know I'm late -- they already played 10 games -- so I'm going to try to adjust as soon as I can."

The Lynx love her energy, her ball-handling, her ability to create for others and, especially, her defense.

"We're most looking forward to that," Reeve said.

Cruz only joined the team on Friday, but she doesn't need any time to get up to speed. She's ready to jump right in.

"If I had a game tomorrow, I'd feel really comfortable to put her in that same spot," Reeve said. "We just threw pretty much 90-plus percent of the playbook at her, and that was before practice, and then we did a little pop quiz during practice to see what she knew, and I think there was only one play that she didn't know. So the first impression for all of us is that she's pretty smart. She studied. So she's obviously a preparer."

Cruz is excited to join the team.

"We have the best players, like Maya, Lindsay, Seimone," she said. "And for me, it's exciting to be here and play and practice with these kinds of players."