Ricky Rubio, when healthy, is one of the craftiest playmakers in the game and he causes terror for opposing point guards with his perimeter defense. However, he hasn’t been the healthiest player, missing 126 games during his first four seasons in the league, and his jump shot is a work in progress that may never materialize into a weapon that he can use on a regular basis.
Rubio has been the subject of trade rumors on occasion during the offseason, although Rubio and the team have done their best to bat them down. Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune knows the situation as well as anyone and he spoke with Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors about the subject earlier today. Zgoda isn’t optimistic about a trade occurring due to a lack of options in Minnesota to immediately replace Rubio, but he speculated that if the Wolves could swing a deal and land someone like Eric Bledsoe, they’d probably pull the trigger.
That leads us to today’s topic: Where does Rubio sit in the league’s point guard ranks? What other point guards are comparable to the 24-year-old?
Back in August, we asked if readers would prefer Bledsoe or Reggie Jackson to lead their team and the majority leaned Bledsoe’s way. Is Rubio a better option to run the point than Bledsoe? Is he better than Jackson? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. Also, be sure to check back later on, as we’ll be responding to readers throughout the evening. We look forward to what you have to say!
I’ll give my take and say that he seems like a middle-of-the-pack point guard. He still has upside if he can stay healthy, and he certainly has the requisite play-making skills. An interesting comparison would be Jrue Holiday. Rubio and Holiday have differing skills, since Holiday’s the better shooter and scorer, but Rubio’s the better playmaker, rebounder and defender. But Holiday has also had trouble staying on the court. They’re only a few months apart in age, too.
I think Rubio’s clearly in the bottom third of point guards in the league. His shooting numbers are atrocious, and he’s not athletic enough to ever be a great finisher at the rim. So he’s destined to have sub-40 percent shooting percentages overall, and sub-30 percent from the three-point arc.
I see him as a less athletic Rajon Rondo. Rondo was very successful at the peak of his athleticism, when surrounded by three Hall of Famers to pass to. Rubio doesn’t have that luxury – his injuries have eroded some of his late teens-early 20s bounce, he still can’t shoot, and his teammates aren’t nearly as good as Rondo’s Celtics teams.
As such, I think he has one of the worst contracts in the league…but I don’t think most of the league feels that way.
I’m a big Reggie Jackson fan. He shoots better with the ball in his hands a lot and was miscast playing off the ball in OKC. I think he’s going to put up 22 and 10 this year with Drummond and three shooters surrounding him at all times. It’ll be a slightly-inefficient 22 points per game, but his contract is going to look just fine over the next five years.
I’d rather have an above-average player on a $90M deal than a guy who is bottom-10 at his position making double figures.
I’m willing to reserve judgment on Bledsoe until this season. I think last year was dysfunctional, but now that one of his good friends is his backcourt mate, and there’s no fight over minutes between three guys, it’s time for him to prove if he can be a top-30 player/borderline All-Star. My hunch is no – I don’t think he can make that leap. I don’t think he shoots or handles well enough to be in that elite group.
I agree with the Holiday comparison. Both players could be major contributors on a good team, but they both have been unreliable in terms of staying on the court. If the NBA were having a fantasy draft, I think both would come off the board around the same time.
Rubio is a guy I would’ve traded away before signing his 4th year, eight-figures-a-year extension. Same as MKG and Tristan Thompson. You can’t afford to lose them for nothing in free agency, but I also don’t think you can pay major money to terrible shooters if you want to be a championship contender…unless that terrible shooter is an elite rim protector.
People mocked the Michael Carter-Williams trade, but I loved it for Philly. Same principle as the three previous guys I listed. If the guy still projects as a terrible shooter after 2 years, you trade him for future assets while he still has value, rather than paying him that big second-contract money.
For what Rubio makes, he could be a third/fourth option on a good team. Rondo is a nice comparision, although before his injury, I believe Rondo could have been a top option on a contender.
The Wolves need to be patient, but they should sniff out deals for Rubio. What kind of return could they get for him?
Rajon Rondo, but less of a scorer.
I agree with the Jrue Holiday comparison, although I think Ricky’s still a work in progress. His shooting, obviously, but I’m thinking more about how many games he’s missed, how long it takes to fully recover from the major injuries he’s had, and the turnover of talent and now the young guys he has to play with. Someone wrote this summer about Ricky maybe getting a chance to relax, to stop trying to do more than he can, to enjoy himself more. Watching him this past two years, he’s not having enough fun out there, especially for a sunny personality like him. I think if he sees he doesn’t have to do this himself, and gets his health back, he can be a top-10 point guard in the NBA. Confidence, chemistry, synergy: these are important parts of success at this level, and hard to measure. One thing that has me hopeful about this team is that Karl-Anthony Towns is a born leader, and as he establishes himself on this team and in the locker room I think he’ll take a lot of pressure off Rubio and Wiggins.
Good point. Hopefully Rubio can just go out and play basketball. With Wiggins and Towns there, he’s in a scenario where he won’t be expected to produce wins right away.
Frajeelay!!! He’s gone. His body can’t take the pounding of an NBA season. He never plays as it is. Out with a “sore quad” now. Its not going to get better as he gets older.
It think he ends up in Dallas or New York or Brooklyn. If not this year, over teh summer when the cap goes up and everybody has a ton of cap space chasing after only a couple good free agents. TWolves can get rid of Peckovic and Rubio at that point.
Tyus Jones looks like the real deal. He was phenomenal last night.
Jones is too small and not strong enough to be a starter in this league. Rubio is flawed but he’s also really good; you don’t just toss guys like that overboard.
Rubio started all 82 games in 2013-14. In those 82 games, he was 1st in DBPM among PGs that played in more that 2 games. He was 4th among PGs in DWS. If you don’t like advanced stats, he was 1st in steals and 3rd in total rebounds among PGs. He was at worst a top 4 defensive PG and that is half of the game.
In those 82 games, he was 2nd in the league in assists. The ability to facilitate the play of the rest of the team is at least as important as the ability to score points individually for PGs. Yes, he is bad as a scorer. Even if we say he is the worst scoring starting PG, that means he averages 16th on the offensive side of the game. If you average his offensive and defensive games, that puts him at about 10th. That seems about right. He was injured last year and I think that makes it easy to forget how good the rest of his game is and concentrate on scoring. I think we will be reminded by the end of the year how much he really brings.
We could very well be looking at a top 10 point guard if he stays healthy. If I was a team like the Mavs or Kings, I would have looked to see what the Wolves wanted for Rubio before I signed a point guard. I believe Rubio is better than D-Will and Rondo at this point.