Minnesota Sports Forum

lipoli390 wrote: Is it enough to be a championship contender? Not sure. Is he better than our other two PGs right now. Yes, but I'm keeping my eye on Dunn.

Rondo was able to do it, but h was playing with HoF at near their peak.

Brooklyn_Wolves wrote:

Duke13 wrote:LST, in theory that sounds great, Ricky asssiting to the scorers and being selfless in doing so. But the debate is, how his inability to score and the defenses not defending Rubio actually makes the game tougher for our scorers. If you watch the game it's very easy to see this happening. I didn't see all of last nights game. But I saw a couple play where Rubio made a post enter pass to Kat and Rubio's guy wasn't guarding him at all instead choosing to save of Rubio effectively doubling Kat. That's not making the game easier for Kat.

Meh, maybe he hurts a little in some plays but helps a lot in others. KAT had sensational FG% eFG% & TS% as a rookie last year playing off of Rubio. This season the offense has been changed with more Wiggins or even LaVine making plays for KAT and his percentages went down. So there's no factual evidence that Rubio makes makes KAT's life harder. There was a table graph circulating around wolves message boards last year on Rubio's effect on teammates play, almost all players outside of Wiggins benefited.

Yeah, having 3 guys under the age of 21 averaging over 20 PPG is pretty good evidence that Ricky is helpful to their careers. After all, none of our Big 3 were even close to averaging 20 PPG before they met Ricky.

longstrangetrip wrote:

Brooklyn_Wolves wrote:

Duke13 wrote:LST, in theory that sounds great, Ricky asssiting to the scorers and being selfless in doing so. But the debate is, how his inability to score and the defenses not defending Rubio actually makes the game tougher for our scorers. If you watch the game it's very easy to see this happening. I didn't see all of last nights game. But I saw a couple play where Rubio made a post enter pass to Kat and Rubio's guy wasn't guarding him at all instead choosing to save of Rubio effectively doubling Kat. That's not making the game easier for Kat.

Meh, maybe he hurts a little in some plays but helps a lot in others. KAT had sensational FG% eFG% & TS% as a rookie last year playing off of Rubio. This season the offense has been changed with more Wiggins or even LaVine making plays for KAT and his percentages went down. So there's no factual evidence that Rubio makes makes KAT's life harder. There was a table graph circulating around wolves message boards last year on Rubio's effect on teammates play, almost all players outside of Wiggins benefited.

Yeah, having 3 guys under the age of 21 averaging over 20 PPG is pretty good evidence that Ricky is helpful to their careers. After all, none of our Big 3 were even close to averaging 20 PPG before they met Ricky.

While I'm on the (semi-) pro-Rubio side of this debate, your last statement sounds like you're saying Towns, LaVine, and Wiggins wouldn't be 20-PPG scorers without Rubio, which is a fallacy, in my opinion. Rubio at his norm does provide good opportunities for his teammates and he is affective, but those three are skilled enough to "get theirs" with or without him. Even with an inadequate facilitator like Kris Dunn is right now, they'd still be pumping out ridiculous numbers. We just wouldn't be as competitive overall.

I'm nitpicking at your response and I do realize that. The way it came off to me probably wasn't your intent either as I know how you feel about the core guys. Just wanted to be fair to the ultra-talented 21-year olds who are doing something this league hasn't seen in a while. Ricky Rubio did not make them, and they do not necessarily make him either.

Remember Mike Conley is making 30 million. So if we're saving money for the big 3 and keeping a strong bench , then a big upgrade at PG seems implausible.

Getting 8-10 assists per game would be impressive if you weren't always passing the ball. Ricky getting 8-10 isn't the same as Westbrook or Harden getting 8-10. He's almost at 50% of his possessions either ending in an assist or turnover (32% assist, 22% turnover) and he has an abysmal 12.4 usage rate. I guess I don't see it as much of a feat considering how much he passes the ball relative to drawing fouls or shooting the ball. When you pass as much as he does you'd think he averaged more per game just based on the volume of passes he makes. Having a pass first PG is nice, but I think a PG who can pressure the defense with penetration and make the right passes could have just as many assists as Ricky and chip in double digit points every night. That's why Rondo worked for Boston. He could get to the rim and finish and make the right pass out of that penetration when the shot wasn't there. As soon as he lost his quickness with the surgeries he was done because he couldn't do that anymore. Ricky never learned how to finish at the rim so here we are.