Rubio's development... from an NBA "insider"...

[AbeVigodaLive]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10070788/the-young-nba-players-looking-make-leap-greatness

This will merit a deeper treatment at some point, but it's time to have a serious discussion about Rubio's shooting. The honeymoon has to end sometime -- might as well be now. Rubio is shooting 36.9 percent, and through three partial seasons and 3,700 minutes, he's a career 36 percent shooter.

Let me stop here. Rubio is a gifted player, a great kid, and in many ways a basketball genius. He sees passes others don't, imagines passes that otherwise wouldn't exist, and conjures passing angles by dribbling in ways that warp the floor to his liking. He's a dynamite entry passer. He plays within a system that, to at least some degree, marginalizes the pick-and-roll in favor of having Kevin Love facilitate from the elbow area. He's been a decent low-volume 3-point shooter, especially this season, and he tore his ACL halfway through his rookie year.

Mitigating circumstances all. But his shooting is a problem. Rubio is on pace to be the worst shooter in the modern history of the NBA. Since the inception of the league, 61 total players have logged at least 5,000 career minutes and finished with a field goal mark of 38 percent or worse. Fifty-nine of those guys began their careers in 1965 or earlier; the other two are Eddie Griffin and Daequan Cook, who did not make it far beyond the 5,000-minute threshold.

Rubio's poor shooting has real consequences, and they go beyond the obvious "guys go way under screens on the pick-and-roll" stuff. In a broad sense, teams can overplay the pass when Rubio has the ball. On a pick-and-roll with Love or Nikola Pekovic, for instance, the guard defending Rubio might hang back in the passing lane between Rubio and Love/Pekovic instead of scampering hard after Rubio -- as Jameer Nelson does here, on a play that ends with a panicky pass and ugly turnover:

Rubio shoots in the mid-40s on attempts in the restricted area, a terrible mark, and he's not a willing shooter even from close range. There's a reason Rubio so often dribbles down one side of the floor, under the basket, and back out the other side: He can't find a clean passing lane and he's reluctant to shoot.

And when Rubio doesn't have the ball, his man can crash into the lane to muck up other stuff.

Rubio's a clear net positive for Minnesota -- a savant passer who moves his feet beautifully on defense, drawing charges and snagging steals without over-gambling. He's so good he can squeeze passes through tighter spaces than most guys can manage. But I've talked to a lot of league executives who are very curious to see how Rubio and the Wolves would fare in a playoff series, against a defense and scouting army devoted entirely to stopping Minnesota.

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I know a few people think anything related to Bill Simmons unfairly rips anything Wolves related. But I don't believe Lowe mentions anything here that isn't fair. In fact, it's pretty standard stuff we've discussed a lot.


[Note: Maybe I'm just posting it to support my claims that Rubio is on pace to be the worst fg shooter (statistically) in modern NBA history. But, I wouldn't stoop that low would I... don't answer that. It's also important to note that Lowe sees some of the same strengths in Rubio's game that makes him so much more than a guy who can't shoot.]

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

Why do people concentrate so much on Eddie Griffin's shooting? "Deuce Bigalow II" was a much worse crime against the American consumer. Not even eviscerating Courtney Love at the Pam Anderson Roast can make up for it.

I have to admit, I drank the Koolaid. I thought this was the year Blonde Ricky made the leap into Maravich-land. I guess there is still time.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Why do people concentrate so much on Eddie Griffin's shooting? "Deuce Bigalow II" was a much worse crime against the American consumer. Not even eviscerating Courtney Love at the Pam Anderson Roast can make up for it.

I have to admit, I drank the Koolaid. I thought this was the year Blonde Ricky made the leap into Maravich-land. I guess there is still time.

I still don't understand the Maravich comparisons. One was an unabashed, TO-prone gunner who didn't dig defense. The other is a pass-first, savvy ball-stealing PG.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Why do people concentrate so much on Eddie Griffin's shooting? "Deuce Bigalow II" was a much worse crime against the American consumer. Not even eviscerating Courtney Love at the Pam Anderson Roast can make up for it.

I have to admit, I drank the Koolaid. I thought this was the year Blonde Ricky made the leap into Maravich-land. I guess there is still time.

I still don't understand the Maravich comparisons. One was an unabashed, TO-prone gunner who didn't dig defense. The other is a pass-first, savvy ball-stealing PG.

Yep. Long hair and flashy passes. After that, the comparison dies.

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

....and one is one of the 50 best players of all time, while the other is getting articles written about him about how his poor shooting is hurting his team. As of now, THAT is where the comparison dies.

[markkbu [enjin:6588958]]

Nice, post Abe. And yes, it seems like pretty standard stuff that we have been over on this board numerous times.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Each of our starters is blessed with at least one or two elite level skills and cursed with one or two major liabilities.

Rubio - Passing and defensive savant; historically poor shooter/finisher
Brewer - Unbelievable energy; poor outside shooter that fires away anyway.
Love - Top 10 NBA player overall, but lacks the length to stop shots at the rim.
Pekovic - Top 10 NBA Center, but his glaring weakness overlaps with Love's. He can't protect the rim.
Martin - Very efficient scorer; struggles on defense.

All of that being said, this group of mis-fits are playing winning basketball as a unit because they mostly compliment each other (not withstanding the interior length deficit with Love/Pek). They consistently outperform their counterpart starting 5s. Portland, Indiana, Golden State, and San Antonio might be the only teams with a better starting 5.

Our biggest problem is a bench that universally can't shoot and score efficiently. Literally none of them can do this. So that leaves us with 3 players - Love, Pek, and Martin - that can be banked on for efficient scoring. Brewer is having a good year efficiency-wise, but that could go south at any time, as his career numbers indicate a regression to the mean is in order.

As for Rubio, he's actually the 5th most efficient player on our team right now. He should be the 10th or 11th most efficient player. That's how bad our bench has been.

[shahidi124 [enjin:6591729]]

I don't know when Rubio is supposed to develop his jumper. The regular season has very limited practice time and what time there is is devoted to the team. During the summer he has basketball tournaments seemingly every year. I'm pretty sure there is bball this upcoming summer too. He almost never has time to develop his shot. I'm not making excuses, I'm just saying that the situation kind of sucks.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Players are made during the off-season. Teams are made during the regular season. If Rubio wants to get a reliable jumpshot, it's going to come from long, hard hours in the gym during the summer. No tourneys. No distractions. Just him taking hundreds and hundreds of shots a day with a shooting coach.

[Phenom]

Glen needs to pony up and buy Ricky the IC3 basketball shot trainer. Send him off by himself during practice and let him shoot all day.