Rubio by the numbers
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:50 pm
Stats per basketball-reference.com
Wolves PG on-court per 100 possessions numbers since Rubio was drafted...
I'm going to start with Johnny Flynn and his rookie year (where I said he stunk, but some people suggest he was solid prior to injury):
2009-10 (15-67)
Flynn: -13.2
Sessions: -6.5
2010-11 (17-65)
Flynn: -9.5
Ridnour: -5.8
Telfair: -6.0
2011-12 (26-40)
Rubio: +2.0 (41 games played)
Ridnour: -2.2
Barea: -4.2
2012-13 (31-51)
Rubio: -2.2 (57 games played)
Ridnour: -2.7
Barea: -1.7
2013-14 (40-42)
Rubio: +6.6 (82 games played)
Barea: -3.4
2014-15 (16-66)
Rubio: -0.6 (22 games played)
Mo Williams: -5.7
Lavine: -14.8
Brown: -8.6
2015-16 (29-53)
Rubio: +0.1 (76 games played)
Jones: -9.8
A. Miller: -.9 (contrast this to when he joined the Spurs and was +13.0 in the same year)
Lavine: -6.2 (this includes his SG on-court numbers which skews it positive)
So of the 5 seasons Rubio's been in a Timberwolves uniform, they've outscored the opponents in 3 of them...which means if the bench is holding up their end of the bargain, or even played even basketball, you end up with a +.500 record. As you can see, the two seasons with Flynn were a disaster and it reflected on the team's record. We also got a glimpse just a year ago (2014-15) of what life without Ricky (22 games played, 16 win season, 7-15 with Rubio, 9-51 without). We've seen Ricky earn bloated contracts for guys like Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, and Derrick Williams (okay, he didn't earn a bloated contract for Williams, but he made him look like a player who could at least show flashes).
Of the 21 PG performances on this team (not even including Alexei Shved's horrible turn at PG), the team has 3 total PG performances which had net positive on-floor numbers. Every one of those 3 was marked by Rubio. He's been our one consistently solid->good performer throughout the years since he's been drafted. And two of the past 3 seasons he's been virtually injury-free.
He's regularly good to elite in the following categories: assists, steals, rebounds, A/T ratio, and he's a very good free throw shooter
But because he scores only 10.1 ppg on 8.6 shots per game and can't score, we should dump him the minute we get a rookie with promise. Amazing.
Some people suggest it's difficult to judge his worth because he's not like most score-first minded point guards, but for me it's pretty simple, all you have to do is compare him to what others produced with the same team Ricky had to measure.
The one season Ricky played 82 games (team record 40-42), the Wolves had a 30+ point lead in like 14 of those games, which was a NBA record I believe (or right on the record). Most of those leads were given back the moment the backups hit the floor.
....But he can't shoot
Wolves PG on-court per 100 possessions numbers since Rubio was drafted...
I'm going to start with Johnny Flynn and his rookie year (where I said he stunk, but some people suggest he was solid prior to injury):
2009-10 (15-67)
Flynn: -13.2
Sessions: -6.5
2010-11 (17-65)
Flynn: -9.5
Ridnour: -5.8
Telfair: -6.0
2011-12 (26-40)
Rubio: +2.0 (41 games played)
Ridnour: -2.2
Barea: -4.2
2012-13 (31-51)
Rubio: -2.2 (57 games played)
Ridnour: -2.7
Barea: -1.7
2013-14 (40-42)
Rubio: +6.6 (82 games played)
Barea: -3.4
2014-15 (16-66)
Rubio: -0.6 (22 games played)
Mo Williams: -5.7
Lavine: -14.8
Brown: -8.6
2015-16 (29-53)
Rubio: +0.1 (76 games played)
Jones: -9.8
A. Miller: -.9 (contrast this to when he joined the Spurs and was +13.0 in the same year)
Lavine: -6.2 (this includes his SG on-court numbers which skews it positive)
So of the 5 seasons Rubio's been in a Timberwolves uniform, they've outscored the opponents in 3 of them...which means if the bench is holding up their end of the bargain, or even played even basketball, you end up with a +.500 record. As you can see, the two seasons with Flynn were a disaster and it reflected on the team's record. We also got a glimpse just a year ago (2014-15) of what life without Ricky (22 games played, 16 win season, 7-15 with Rubio, 9-51 without). We've seen Ricky earn bloated contracts for guys like Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, and Derrick Williams (okay, he didn't earn a bloated contract for Williams, but he made him look like a player who could at least show flashes).
Of the 21 PG performances on this team (not even including Alexei Shved's horrible turn at PG), the team has 3 total PG performances which had net positive on-floor numbers. Every one of those 3 was marked by Rubio. He's been our one consistently solid->good performer throughout the years since he's been drafted. And two of the past 3 seasons he's been virtually injury-free.
He's regularly good to elite in the following categories: assists, steals, rebounds, A/T ratio, and he's a very good free throw shooter
But because he scores only 10.1 ppg on 8.6 shots per game and can't score, we should dump him the minute we get a rookie with promise. Amazing.
Some people suggest it's difficult to judge his worth because he's not like most score-first minded point guards, but for me it's pretty simple, all you have to do is compare him to what others produced with the same team Ricky had to measure.
The one season Ricky played 82 games (team record 40-42), the Wolves had a 30+ point lead in like 14 of those games, which was a NBA record I believe (or right on the record). Most of those leads were given back the moment the backups hit the floor.
....But he can't shoot