Souhan: Rubio hasn't proven worthy of leading Wolves' resurgence

[bleedspeed]

http://www.startribune.com/ricky-rubio-hasn-t-proven-worthy-of-leading-wolves-resurgence/384406891/

Not sure who else read this, but I think Jim is off base. I think Rubio helped LaVine, Wiggins, and Towns a great deal last year like he helped Love and Pek in the past. I am guessing he comes back next year and shots 40% from the field and 40% from 3. I can live with that from him.

[Carlos Danger]

I just read that a little bit ago. Yeah, I thought it was a bad write up. I mean, it's okay to debate Rubio's worth. We all know that's been beat to death on here. But to use the "But he only led them to 29 wins" argument is weak IMO. Would anyone use that same argument when referring to KAT? He was also part of that 29 win team. The reality is you can be a good player on a bad team. It's up to the organization to mesh talent into a cohesive unit that actually wins. I think you can win with Rubio as a starting point guard. But you better surround him with a bunch of scorers. By the same token, you can win with a Bizarro Rubio. But you better have above average defenders/rebounders/facilitators at other spots. It's all about assembling a unit that plays to each others strengths and covers for each others' weaknesses.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I generally like Souhan, but I found this to be one of his worst columns. Other than Ricky, the 3 players with the most minutes on the Wolves last season were 20 years old, and Souhan needs to know you don't win in the NBA with 3 20-year-olds getting the most minutes. The Wolves didn't lose 53 games last year because of Ricky...they lost because 3 of their most important players were just learning the game. Jim needs to go back and look at Ricky's on/off numbers and the Wolves' improvement after the break to gain a better understanding of their season.

[Monster]

I couldn't finish the article it was too annoying. I had heard his take on his little morning after the draft podcast. I wonder if Jon K is a little annoyed with him about this one.

Also If Rubio doesn't "deserve" to lead this group then Dunn doesn't either because he has proved nothing. I'll mention this here I guess. With all the injuries Rubio has had and even if he still has some issues staying healthy the rest of his career he still projects to be a top 20 guy all time in steals and assists when his career ends. Not bad.

[60WinTim]

Yeah, it was a bullshit article. And does anyone else have a problem with the Star Tribune website freezing up with all their ads, videos, etc?

[Lipoli390]

Maybe Souhan is really Porkchop. :). It's a shallow, uninformed column. But even worse for Souhan to make A value judgment of Ricky's "worthiness" based on such a shallow, faulty analysis -- if you can even call it an analysis.

Souhan is obviously completely unaware of Rubio's on/off numbers. He blithely ignores the fact that Ricky was leading a team of 20 year old first and second year players. He ignores the fact that Ricky and these 20-year olds were playing under a head coach who couldn't and can't get a head coaching position with any other NBA team and who handed the back-up PG duties to a 19/20 year old who had no early business playing that position. He ignores the fact that this team had absolutely no bench "worthy" of mention. He ignores the fact that the team was 12 games better than the season before when Ricky went down early in the season and that the team performed well in that previous season before he went down. He also seems to assume that Dunn is going to a better starting PG before Dunn has played a single NBA game, obviously ignoring all of Dunn's many faults that anyone can see just watching the Draftexpress video profile.

Finally, Souhan reveals his shallow understanding of basketball by pinning a poor winning percentage on one player. Before he wrote this, he should have gone back and listened to Thibs, someone who actually understands the game. When asked at the Wolves pre-draft press conference if this team can win with Ricky as PG, Thibs said you don't win with one player, reminding the questioner that basketball is a team game. Ricky isn't a transformative future hall of fame player who can single-handidly carry his team on his shoulders to an entirely different level. Very few players historically have been able to do that. Just ask Knick fans who watched their team win 32 games last season in the Eastern Conference with multi-time allstar Melo and runner-up ROY Porz.

It may make sense to trade Ricky next summer or perhaps even around the February trade deadline. Then again, maybe not. Dunn may end up among the minority of #3 picks who become very good starters at their positions within a year. Then again, maybe not. But to say that Ricky isn't worthy of leading the Wolves going forward is simply idiotic.

[Monster]

After watching that article breaking down the difference between Lebron passing to Love and Rubio passing to Love if made me reflect on the easy looks Rubio gets for guys even Towns. We take for granted sometimes how easy he sets up guys all over the floor. No he isn't going to will a team to the playoffs by himself but there are how many guys in the league capable of doing that 30? 40? Is it even that high?

I think the question of whether Rubio is a winning basketball player or impact player is fine but going so far to close the book and say he absolutely doesn't deserve to be the PG of this group went too far. Drafting Dunn has certainly got people overthinking a lot of things the last couple days IMO.

[Papalrep]

Lip-- It's a shallow, uninformed column.

Be a shallow, uninformed writer. He mailed it in. I think he wanted to be provocative, comes off as uninformed.

[Lipoli390]

The reaction to drafting Dunn has gone way, way overboard. Ok for fans to do that I guess, but we should be able to expect more from sport writers who do this for a living. But then again.... I like Dunn and hope for the best. He could be great or more likely use good. He could even be a bust, but I don't think so. Ricky is a very good player, but not the iconic transformative player David Kahn and a few others thought he'd be. That's the reality.

I just hope we're done with the Ricky talk for a while.

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

The reaction to drafting Dunn has gone way, way overboard. Ok for fans to do that I guess, but we should be able to expect more from sport writers who do this for a living. But then again.... I like Dunn and hope for the best. He could be great or more likely use good. He could even be a bust, but I don't think so. Ricky is a very good player, but not the iconic transformative player David Kahn and a few others thought he'd be. That's the reality.

I just hope we're done with the Ricky talk for a while.

I'd rather discuss BlondeRicky than Nerlans Noel.

I was a little put off by Ricky's trade request, but I got over it. I think Souhan is off base.

I've worked at some sad places, but the S/T sports department must take the cake of the saddest place ever. You either have to watch Grandpa Sports drool on himself or you have to listen to Reusse and Souhan try to out-negative each other. Great fun.