Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:

thedoper wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Was it Mitchell or Rubio that was embarrassed by Harden for 50+ tonight? I bet he would have only gotten 40 on Teague

Harden is great, but no way can you be a guard, have a reputation as a great defender, and get torched for 56. Your post is funny and for the record, I'm not trying to argue that Teague is a great defender. From what I've seen I do think he is a more capable man defender than Rubio though, and potentially a better team defender than Ricky too.

Im guessing this is in jest but Really what PG is gonna be able to guard Harden? Heck wings have a tough time defending him. Lol

it was pretty bad tonight though....54 points, 18/21 FG, 7/7 3FG, 13 assists

and that was at the end of the 3rd quarter lol

I hope Ricky's as terrible defensively as some here suggest because that should pretty much assure us a win at Utah a week from Monday. :)

Also Gobert got benched in favor of Udoh. I guess also his best role would be as a backup big. :P

Mikkeman wrote:Also Gobert got benched in favor of Udoh. I guess also his best role would be as a backup big. :P

Lol. Good one, Mikkeman!

It's fun (predictable) to see Rubio still as polarizing here as ever.

We would have lost that game with Rubio last night. He would have been throwing up bricks against a sagging kemba.

BizarroJerry wrote:We would have lost that game with Rubio last night. He would have been throwing up bricks against a sagging kemba.

Kemba would have made him look foolish like every other quick PG Rubio faced, Ty Lawson would look HOF worthy whenever he played us

lipoli390 wrote:I hope Ricky's as terrible defensively as some here suggest because that should pretty much assure us a win at Utah a week from Monday. :)

No one said terrible. Somehow here and other places he got a reputation of being a good to elite defender, which isn't reality. Last year the stats and his play on the floor showed that Ricky was an average to below average defender. Especially when the matchup is with with athletic guards. There was a reason Thibs repeatedly had Wiggins cover the more athletic PGs last year. You just could always write in certain guards for 30 against Ricky. Walker was one of those guards.

Rubio has never been an elite one-on-one defender. There are very few "stoppers" that play PG because of the pick and roll game and how hard it is to defend. Beverley might be the closest thing. I actually think Dunn some day has the ability to be an elite PG/SG defender.

But Rubio is an elite team defender. While last year wasn't his greatest on the stat front, his total body of work puts him right in that 2nd tier of PG defenders IMO, after Beverley and Chris Paul.

By the way, Rubio won us a game last year in Charlotte with his end-of-game defense on guess who....Kemba Walker! Mmmm, let's see if we can drag up the play-by-play......

:39 - Minnesota down 100-104 after a LaVine 3-pointer.
:38 - Kemba steps out of bounds on the ensuing in bound (guess who was pressuring him?).
:32 - Rubio makes a 3-point shot to make the game 103-104
:15 - Walker makes 2-point shot to take a 106-103 lead
:09 - Wiggins makes a 3-pointer to tie it up
:02 - Walker misses a 2-point shot, with Rubio right in his face

Overtime synopsis: Kemba 0-3 from the field with a turnover. Wolves win.

But remember, Ricky can't play defense and never performs in the clutch.

Q12543 wrote:Rubio has never been an elite one-on-one defender. There are very few "stoppers" that play PG because of the pick and roll game and how hard it is to defend. Beverley might be the closest thing. I actually think Dunn some day has the ability to be an elite PG/SG defender.

But Rubio is an elite team defender. While last year wasn't his greatest on the stat front, his total body of work puts him right in that 2nd tier of PG defenders IMO, after Beverley and Chris Paul.

By the way, Rubio won us a game last year in Charlotte with his end-of-game defense on guess who....Kemba Walker! Mmmm, let's see if we can drag up the play-by-play......

:39 - Minnesota down 100-104 after a LaVine 3-pointer.
:38 - Kemba steps out of bounds on the ensuing in bound (guess who was pressuring him?).
:32 - Rubio makes a 3-point shot to make the game 103-104
:15 - Walker makes 2-point shot to take a 106-103 lead
:09 - Wiggins makes a 3-pointer to tie it up
:02 - Walker misses a 2-point shot, with Rubio right in his face

Overtime synopsis: Kemba 0-3 from the field with a turnover. Wolves win.

But remember, Ricky can't play defense and never performs in the clutch.

You can't throw away one on one huge area of D (one on one defense) and still call a player elite. Man defense on the primary ball handler is a huge part of team D. I just don't see how someone can be so bad at man D then be elite without some creative analysis of how a pg is supposed to defend. And why does last year not count? And why did our defense-minded coach want to get rid of this "elite" defender? Rubio's total body of work has him on some mediocre to horrible defensive teams. He has great instincts and plays above his athleticism, but he is not even in the 2nd tier of defensive PGs.