What Ricky Rubio needs to fix

[bleedspeed]

ESPN Insider had this article.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10250496/nba-ricky-rubio-needs-fix

I won't post the whole article, but they say it is finishing at the rim. Below is the break down.

[bleedspeed]

Why he struggles at the rim

Rubio's biggest issue is that he doesn't finish over length; in other words, he is terrible at completing contested layups in traffic. For a player who doesn't get a whole lot of uncontested layups (he usually passes ahead in transition rather than keeping for himself), that's a death knell to his rim FG%. Digging deeper, we find several factors that contribute to this:

PHYSICAL: While a good athlete, Rubio has never had an explosive first step or verticality. Tearing his left ACL during his rookie season sapped some of that physical ability, so he has to find ways to gain separation and finish before the contest comes. Also, he has a tendency to get easily knocked off course on drives, which I suspect can be attributed to poor core strength.

SKILL: Despite being right-hand dominant, Rubio wants to go left. This problem is that he's not particularly adept at finishing with his left hand, and would actually prefer to finish with his right hand on the left side, leading to awkward layup attempts like this:

[bleedspeed]

Although he takes off from his right foot, Rubio switches back to his right hand, something that is actually a lot harder to do that it appears at first blush (it's a technique Nash uses often to throw shot-blockers off). He still attempts mostly righty layups jumping off his left foot on the left side and converts at a higher percentage than any other form.

When he does go right, he has a nasty habit of drifting away from the basket on his attempts rather than closing in on the rim.

[bleedspeed]

While the screenshot above makes it seem like he's turned the corner and is getting to the rim, his body is actually floating away, in the direction of the gold arrow, toward the baseline.

Another bad habit he has is going up for layups without gathering the ball when going into his attempt (another Nash staple designed to help get the shot off quicker).

[bleedspeed]

This can lead to ball bobbles on the way up, reducing the effectiveness of his attempt.

MENTAL: There is an undeniable mental aspect that rears its ugly head on some Rubio layup attempts where he blows wide open, uncontested shots at the rim (see below). In essence, he appears to experience (at times) the same anxiety a poor free throw shooter might feel when he steps to the line.

[bleedspeed]

How can he fix it?

There's probably a good chance that some of Rubio's struggles to finish at the rim can be attributed to his recovery from his torn ACL (it's worth noting that his best rim FG% of 48 percent happened in his rookie year, even though that still isn't good). One has to wonder if part of the problem is an over-focus on working on his more publicized flaw of a perimeter shot and lack of attention to finishing. There are two particular areas of skill development that might need work as well:

POST-UPS: According to Synergy, Rubio has one post-up that resulted in a shot attempt...in his NBA career. In three years, he's tried to score on the block once! Rick Adelman's offense does not feature a lot of post-up options for point guards, but it is still staggering how little a player with his size advantage exploits it (by the way, a big part of Kidd's efficiency around the rim early in his career came from post-ups).

IN-BETWEEN GAME: Rubio has no repertoire of "giant killer" shots (floaters, runners, teardrops) to speak of, something that is usually a staple of smaller guards because they are incapable of finishing at the rim over length regularly. It's also a feature of guards who are poor at shooting off the dribble, as an alternative to pulling up for a midrange jumper.

For Rubio's full potential to be realized, he must find a way to solve his struggles to score in basketball's hottest hot zone.

[Porckchop]

Other than that....;)

[quincy33 [enjin:7934959]]

worst shooter in the entire nba. dude misses wide open layups its laughable sometimes but i try to hold it. lol

[thedoper]

If Rubio can get 3 layups a game he will be fine. But this is a great article because it seems to highlight what is apparent with his game, that he doesn't lack an ability to get to the hoop. Just some of the technical consistency to finish when he gets there.

[Porckchop]

Rondo has a floater and he also has that nifty lil move where he stops on a dime , and does that up and under move.
Its not just Rondo being able to make those layups. Its the lil jukes and body control that allows those layups to happen.