Minnesota Sports Forum

lipoli390 wrote:Those suggesting that Ricky isn't a good one-on-one defender haven't been watching him very closely. He's a very good on-ball defender. And he actually gets a lot if not most of his steals from on-ball defense, not from jumping passing lanes. Corey is the guy who gets nearly all his steals from jumping passing lanes. Ricky is an excellent defender. He also contributes substantially on the offensive end through his assists and rebounding as he is one of the better rebounders at his position. Is his shooting deficient? Yes. But he's been far more of a net positive than Love the past 8 games. I know that's a pretty low bar, but ...

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Maybe. We can check out Love's stats above. We can see he has struggled mightily with his shot recently.

But I cringe just a little when Rubio repeatedly gets credit for contributing substantially on offense... no matter what. For all the good Rubio does on offense, he takes quite a bit off the table too. With his shooting woes, that's just the reality.

Scoring wise... he's closer to Chris Duhon than we might want to believe. And, this hurts the offense. Martin adds spacing with his perimeter shooting. And Love is used to create spacing for the team... but he's proving to be a slightly below average 3 point shooter.

I love Rubio on defense even when he struggles to get through picks on the PnR. But offensively, I love passing and creative passing especially. But the Wolves need more from their PG offensively right now.

Rubio past 8 games:

7.6 ppg
7.6 ast
36.7% fg
2.0 fta

The team, collectively, is in a funk and look overmatched. From the star PF. To the bunny-missing, rebound fumbling center, to the goofy shooting wing, to the whirling dervish other wing to the craptastic bench... to even the head coach. It's been ugly.

And the team currently sits 12th in the Western conference.

WorldK, nice take, and I agree that Love should move his shots a bit closer until he figures out how to sink his shots again.

Lip, your perspective seems way of.

Obviously over the past 8 games Love's shooting has been an OFFENSIVE LIABILITY.

As long as our "Star" is an OFFENSIVE LIABILITY when he is shooting the ball the wolves are going to suck.

Of course you shouldn't blame "Ricky, Martin, Brewer or Pekovic. And I won't blame JJ, Hummel, Price or anyone else who comes in off the bench" for Love's substandard play.

Teams that rely on a Star, need that player to score efficiently, if that player doesn't, the team loses frequently more frequently than they win.

Guys, this isn't hard to figure out. Love's shooting is "leading" us down the tubes. I hope that he figures out a way to "lead" this team in a different direction, otherwise we need to find different leadership or accept being a sub .500 team.