Minnesota Sports Forum

I saw this on hoopshype. It is from Chris Broussard -

Overrated

Ricky Rubio, PG, Minnesota Timberwolves

Western conference scout: "Part of why he's overrated is the 'Rubio thing.' If he was Ricky Rubio from Wichita State, there'd be no conversation about him. But since he came over with so much hype, he gets scrutinized more than he otherwise would. If you watch Minnesota closely, you'll see that he doesn't even finish games. It's one of the biggest contentions within that organization -- the fact that Rubio doesn't finish the games. It drives management crazy because he's their guy. He's supposed to be their future. They tried like crazy to trade [backup] J.J. Barea at the trade deadline, and that's one of the reasons why, because Barea's been finishing games.

"I like the way he passes and runs a team, but his lack of shooting ability is really an issue. If you've got four capable scorers on the floor, you can kind of get away with him, but if not, Rubio gets exposed. Guys back off of Rubio. He shot an air ball 3-pointer the other night, missing it by 3 feet. It landed in the paint. He's good in transition and he can make plays in the open court, but in the playoffs, when the game gets slower and compressed, you don't have to guard that guy and he becomes a liability."


It's blurbs like this that make me laugh hysterically when some suggests that a coach or GM necessarily knows more than fans because of their position. What this shows me is that they based just as much on message board fodder and local articles as anything else. How many times has Rubio not finished the game. It is between 5-10% by my estimation.

Why would being over scrutinized cause you to be overrated? Wouldn't that make it more likely that your game would be rated accurately?

I saw Durrant air ball a three about a week ago. Does that make him bad? Love completely missed the rim the other night, does that make him a bad shooter? Rubio is shooting around 35% from 3 on the season. That is pretty solid, but I suppose it is better to characterize his shooting based on one air ball.

The only time I see Rubio left alone defensively is when he is positioned on the perimeter on the weak side. That happens to all players due to the defensive schemes employed by teams.

How can Rubio be overrated when everyone is already criticizing his shooting. It is his only flaw on the court.

While I partially agree with your angle, I always try to look at our players from another fans view. My question is always....if this guy (Rubio in this instance) was playing for Toronto, would I have wanted him at the deadline? My answer on Rubio would honestly have been "I don't care either way". I certainly wouldn't give up a bunch to get him.

I also read your answer and think it fits into the exact framework of what Chris Broussard is saying. You were very quick to deflect his shooting problems, and compare to absolute stars in today's game, and then go on to say that shooting is is only flaw on the court. Even if this statement is true, which I don't believe it is, his fundamental shooting issues are detrimental to the team on frequent occasions.....as Broussard states And I would have to agree with his late game commentary as well. I can probably sift back through posts over the past 3-4 weeks where many on the board were livid with Adelman's decision to play Barea at the end of games. Even if Rubio technically finished the last couple minutes in some of those instances, it has been Barea getting the bulk of the minutes in the 4th. Even if minutes are close, this is especially damning for Rubio considering how poorly Barea has played in most of those key situations.

You can disagree with me if you want, but I have watched probably 2/3 of the games this year, and I would certainly agree that by and large, Rubio has always gotten more exposure than he deserves (based on his play) because of his stellar youth play internationally. He is correct, if he was a home grow product, while still solid, he would not have gotten near the following and hype based solely on his play.

Hicks you just said yourself that if Ricky was on Toronto you wouldn't care about picking him up. That makes me think that you understand Ricky's value, so how is he overrated. My point on the shooting is just to show that the scout really hasn't studied the situation or he wouldn't be using one weak example (3pt shooting) as his evidence. It might be the strongest part of Rubio's shooting game, and all players shoot air balls.

Ricky generally plays the entire 1st and 3rd quarters, which leads to him sitting for parts of the 2nd and 4th so it is logical that JJ would get more minutes in the 4th. Late 4th is a different story, and fans have been upset when he doesn't finish games, but how many times has that occurred? 5 times?

If Rubio is such a liability why is a .500 ball club outscoring its counterparts on a nightly basis by a significant margin when he is on the floor? You can say because he plays with Love and Pek, but I'm sure that same scout will tell you how bad those two are on the other end of the floor. I think most considered Rubio to be in the 13-20 range in starting PG's. I don't think that is overrating him at all.

Yeah, I don't think on balance he's overrated. His shooting woes have been the subject of numerous articles both locally and nationally. Everyone knows it's a problem, and not an insignificant one at that.

Also, Broussard might be mistaking "fun to watch" for "overrated". Rubio is a hell of a lot of fun to watch because of his passing and ball-handling wizardry. And that scout is dead wrong. If he was a freshman PG at Wichita State throwing the type of passes he did while at Joventut, I can guarantee you that there would be a ton of hype, youtube compilations, and press around it. Wichita State would be on ESPN or CBS every week. In fact, he probably would have had more freedom to create in the U.S. college game versus the European League.

Hicks123 wrote:While I partially agree with your angle, I always try to look at our players from another fans view. My question is always....if this guy (Rubio in this instance) was playing for Toronto, would I have wanted him at the deadline? My answer on Rubio would honestly have been "I don't care either way". I certainly wouldn't give up a bunch to get him.

I also read your answer and think it fits into the exact framework of what Chris Broussard is saying. You were very quick to deflect his shooting problems, and compare to absolute stars in today's game, and then go on to say that shooting is is only flaw on the court. Even if this statement is true, which I don't believe it is, his fundamental shooting issues are detrimental to the team on frequent occasions.....as Broussard states And I would have to agree with his late game commentary as well. I can probably sift back through posts over the past 3-4 weeks where many on the board were livid with Adelman's decision to play Barea at the end of games. Even if Rubio technically finished the last couple minutes in some of those instances, it has been Barea getting the bulk of the minutes in the 4th. Even if minutes are close, this is especially damning for Rubio considering how poorly Barea has played in most of those key situations.

You can disagree with me if you want, but I have watched probably 2/3 of the games this year, and I would certainly agree that by and large, Rubio has always gotten more exposure than he deserves (based on his play) because of his stellar youth play internationally. He is correct, if he was a home grow product, while still solid, he would not have gotten near the following and hype based solely on his play.

What flaws do you see in Rubio besides his shooting? For PG's he's top 5 in assists, leads the league in steals, leads the league in rebounds, solid FT%, and average 3 PT%, he also has an above average feel for the game.

I don't think having a bad coach is something you can use against Rubio. Just because Adelman isn't smart enough to put Rubio in doesn't mean he's not the better option. The reason people were livid about Rubio not playing is because Rubio is clearly the better option, the fact that the people who watch wolves games the most wanted Rubio in should tell you something.

The hype around Rubio and the following he has is almost entirely due to his play. He's fun to watch, he's different no one else really plays with his style, and he makes the highlight plays. I remember back to to rookie year, NBA.com would have assist of the night highlight and about half of them were Rubio.