Rubio against the Thunder

[bleedspeed]

Anyone else notice that Rubio was a little more aggressive at looking for his shot with Love and Pekovic out. I hope gets some swagger doing so and looks for his shot more when they come back.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

I was actually going to start a thread about this because I think it's an important observation that helps explain Rubio's mindset on the offensive end of the court.

Rubio went pro at a young age, thus he was always playing with older players that he deferred to. His job was to set up other players, which he became very good at. He was never asked to attack and try to score. This mindset carried over into his NBA career and he's still a very reluctant shooter.

Last night he had no choice but to force the issue and not surprisingly we saw a different player in that first quarter. The reluctancy was gone and so were the awkward looking shots. He took 10 attempts and only made 4, but many of those misses looked good and rimmed out. Later in the game he came off a pick and drilled a mid-range jump-shot--I almost fell out of my seat. In fact at that point maybe for the first time ever I was hoping he would try to score because I actually thought he could.

This is the mentality Ricky needs to develop, ESPECIALLY in the 4th quarter of close games (of course he needs to be on the court). I honestly believe he has it within him, he just needs to realize it's for the good of the team for him to be selfish.

This would be my offseason plan for Rubio:

1) Get stronger. Get a lot stronger. Hire the best trainer available and hit the weights like never before. He needs to be able to absorb more contact when he takes the ball to the hole. In fact he needs to seek out contact because he shoots well from the line (except for last night, uhg).

2) Hire a few elite athletes to play defense against him every day and make Ricky try to score against them. Shooting is important, yes, but I think he needs to work on his attacking. Have him play 1 on 2 against 2 long athletic defenders with the goal of the drill being trying to score. Work on a floater, work on using the right and left hand to finish. Work on drawing contact.

3) Would hope he might consider taking any national team play off. I don't think it's helping him any, as his role on those teams only reinforces what we don't want him to do here.

I don't think what we saw in the 1st quarter last night was a mirage or an outlier. Ricky has that game in him, but the coaching staff needs to make him realize that not only CAN he play that way, but he NEEDS to if this team is going to take the next step from mediocre to good.

[thedoper]

I like # 2. Just make him drive against Deing all summer. I totally agree with your assessment that it is there. I remember at the game I was at he went up and hit a perfect jumpshot (form and all). The tools are there, it is just there has never been enough pressure on him to make him work on his scoring. He needs that pressure now.

[Porckchop]

Or maybe he just hit some shots tonite. Anyone in the league can go 6-12. Until I see it consistently ( 20 game stretch maybe?) Ill remain skeptical. Just like fans saying his 3pt percantages are clues to his potential as a shooter. I need to see him take and make more than 1 or 2 every two games. Theres just not enough to go off of at this point to be optimistic.
Also , when I was in highschool I had the highest ft percantage on the team but I couldnt shoot worth a lick. The two arent always connected. Shooting with a hand in the face or off thedribble is completely drifferent than gettin to dribble the ball three times, take a couple breathes , maybe wipe your hands on the jersey and focus on form before u shoot. I dont believe the two have any relation actually.. If ur a good shooter than yes ur prolly a decent ft shooter, but if u make some fts dont make u a good shooter.Imo

Im rooting for the guy cuz the team is leaps and bounds better when he takes and makes, but Im past potential. Im in results mode when it comes to everyone on this team. Loves contract is a huge elephant right now.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I remember that last season Ricky had quite a stretch where he was more aggressively looking for his own offense. Love was injured and Pekovic and AK47 were seemingly alternating games missed with nagging injuries of their own. I recall commenting how much I thought that would help with his development, since he never really looked to score up to that point in all his years as a pro.

Well, it turns out it didn't really help him at all. His shooting and finishing abilities have hardly budged from last year and his rookie year. Either he needs an offseason immersion program in shooting and finishing, as Mstermisty suggests above, or the guy simply lacks the touch to ever shoot competently while on the move, no matter how much he works at it.

So yeah, it's fun to watch when he's aggressive and he gets some shots to fall, but let's not kid ourselves - he should be a 5th option offensively until he starts improving his efficiency on the few shots he normally takes. He could have just as easily gone 2-12 yesterday......

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

All good points made in the above posts, but I do believe a big part of his problem is mental. I think he has the tools to be a much better offensive player than we are seeing, and more consistent. When he has the mindset of attacking TO SCORE (not just to pass), like we saw last night, you can see the belief in his shot. In the first quarter he made 4 of 10 last night and another 3 or 4 barely rimmed out. Then his last two shots were a beautiful take to the hole and a crisp looking mid-range jump-shot off a pick. These were shots taken by a guy who was looking to score, believed he could score, and wanted to score to help the team. How often is he thinking like this? More than not this is how I see Rubio's thought process on the offensive end:

1) "The shot clock is running out, I have the ball and need to shoot!" (results in an awkward shot that usually has no chance of going in)

2) "I'm open and I'm supposed to take this shot...wait is anybody else open? No? Okay I will shoot it." (results in a lot of flat, half-hearted shots that have very little chance to go in)

Notice Ricky has actually become a (close to) decent 3 point shooter. I'd say this is partly a result of him feeling OK with taking these shots. Also he is getting straight to the bucket more often. Again, I think he feels like he can do this. Last night he had no choice, so he attacked without reservation, knowing somebody had to step up. All of a sudden the reluctance was gone and his overall mechanics looked much better. If I'm a Wolves coach I would show him that 1st quarter before every game the rest of the season, and remind him of what he is capable of doing when he gets a little greedy in looking for his own.

[Lipoli390]

I think Q captured it, pointing out Ricky's inability to shoot on the move. That's the issue. Ricky is an excellent free throw shooter with a lifetime percentage over 80%. And he's hot a horrible 3-point shooter with a lifetime stat of 32.3%. Ricky has actually improved this season in both of these categories, hitting 84% of his free throws and nearly 34% of his threes. Yet, Ricky has a hard time hitting 2-pointers and he all too often misses layups.

Both free throws and three-point shots are largely stationary. In contrast, 2-point shots, including layups, usually come on the move. The question raised by Q is whether Ricky can learn to shoot reasonably well on the move. That remains an open question. I happen to think he will if he puts in the work on that aspect of his game over the summer. In the meantime, Ricky needs to take more set threes and that means the offense needs to be designed to make that happen although I wouldn't go overboard with it. I'm not worried about his missed layups long term. He's generally close on them. As others have mentioned, he needs to get stronger and at age 23 there is no doubt he will. Getting stronger plus lots of work on finishing at the rim will definitely pay dividends. So ultimately Ricky will be a better shooter than he is now as he finishes better in the paint and continues to improve his set three point shooting. How good he becomes as a shooter will depend on the extent to which he can develop his mid-range shot -- shooting on the move.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I only saw the 1st quarter of the game, but Rubio looked like a different player. It was good to see the aggressiveness.

He was dynamite in the 1st quarter the previous game, too... but in his traditional facilitator role.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Yep, Ricky's not perferct. We should definitely trade him for a ball hogging Westbrook type who will take away shots from Love, Pek, Martin and others. Again, offense is not the problem for this team.

And to those who think Ricky should bulk up to finish around the rim, Tony Parker would disagree with that idea.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Yep, Ricky's not perferct. We should definitely trade him for a ball hogging Westbrook type who will take away shots from Love, Pek, Martin and others. Again, offense is not the problem for this team.

And to those who think Ricky should bulk up to finish around the rim, Tony Parker would disagree with that idea.

Are you claiming Rubio is better than Westbrook?
Or that the offense couldn't be even better... especially late in games when defenders tend to try a bit harder with execution?