Timberwolves Player Review: Ricky Rubio

Still seemingly one of the more polarizing players in the NBA, Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio steadily improved his game in 2015-16.

Here’s the book on Ricky Rubio, according to casual NBA fans: He can’t shoot, but he’s a good passer. Also, he isn’t very good defensively, either, and he’s hurt all the time. If he could shoot jumpers he’d be a good player, though.

Except, that isn’t the whole story. Many Wolves fans seem to grasp the value of Rubio, but it cannot be overstated just how valuable he is.

Let’s address the Rubio myths one by one, and address what his biggest shortcomings truly are, as well as the areas in which he’s improved drastically and/or has always been an above-average contributor.

1. Rubio can’t shoot.

This is at least partially true, if that makes any sense. There are only a handful of players that saw regular minutes in 2015-16 that shot worse than Rubio’s 37.4 percent clip from the field. He only managed to hit on 32.6 percent of his three-pointers. And to make matters worse, he’s shot 38.1 percent or worse in each of his five seasons, and his career field goal percentage is just 36.8.

However, Rubio was just below middle-of-the-pack among all NBA players in true shooting percentage, which sat at 52.9 percent this year — easily a career-high. Also consider that in his only two completely healthy, full NBA seasons, Rubio shot .381/.331/.802 (2013-14) and .374/.326/.847. Not great, of course, but much better than in his shortened rookie year, his ACL recovery year, or the severely-injured ankle season of 2014-15 in which he only played in 22 games.

More from Dunking with Wolves

• The dream starting 5 for Minnesota Timberwolves 5 years from now
• Anthony Edwards’ latest accolade is a great sign of things to come
• In an OT thriller, Team Canada snatches Bronze from Team USA
• Timberwolves start, bench, cut: Mike Conley, Shake Milton, Jordan McLaughlin
• Which Timberwolves roster additions have upgraded the bench?

The 81.5 percent career free-throw shooting mark and decent catch-and-shoot ability suggest that Rubio isn’t a terrible shooter. He’s a below-average shooter that has had terrible injury luck. Does his shooting need to improve? Yes. But this issue is generally overstated when it comes to analyzing Rubio’s all-around game.

2. Rubio is a good passer.

Yep. We don’t need to spend a ton of time on this one.

Rubio ended his 22-game campaign in 2014-15 with a 43.5 percent assist rate, and managed a crazy 41.4 percent mark in 76 games during the 2015-16 season, behind only Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, and John Wall.

He was also on pace for a career-low turnover rate until late in the season when the Wolves decided to try and push the pace to a breakneck speed that incuded Rubio as not just a point guard but also the outlet man, slinging passes the length of the court to the likes of Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine.

In conclusion, Rubio is not only one of the top-two or three passers in the entire NBA, he also does a good job taking care of the basketball.

3. Rubio is not a good defender.

This is perhaps the most frustrating misnomer regarding Rubio’s on-court abilities. The European stereotype seems to exist to a maddening degree, with an astonishing number of folks assuming that Rubio is Jose Calderon, or something. (For an example of how far this misinformed opinion exists, witness Brian Windhorst call Rubio a top-three point guard defender and Tracy McGrady essentially laugh in response.)

But Rubio is, in fact, a top-flight defender. ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus ranks him 2nd among point guards with a 1.94 Defensive RPM behind only Chris Paul’s league-best mark of 2.26. If you want to pull raw steal numbers, he tied for the league lead at 2.1 per game along with Paul, Stephen Curry, and Kyle Lowry. In steal percentage, Rubio tied with Memphis’ Tony Allen among players who played in at least 25 games with a crazy 3.5 mark.

More from Timberwolves News

• The dream starting 5 for Minnesota Timberwolves 5 years from now
• Anthony Edwards’ latest accolade is a great sign of things to come
• In an OT thriller, Team Canada snatches Bronze from Team USA
• Timberwolves start, bench, cut: Mike Conley, Shake Milton, Jordan McLaughlin
• Which Timberwolves roster additions have upgraded the bench?

Or you can pull some of the one-on-one match-ups that Rubio dominated throughout the year. Those are, for the most part, favorable as well.

Yes, he struggles to get around screens at times with his lanky body, and occasionally is prone to gambling in the back court, although he’s generally curbed his passing-lane-gambling in the half court. But generally speaking, Rubio is a clearly above-average one-on-one defender at the point, and he’s an exceptional team defender and quarterback of the defense.

His length and ability to play his man and the passing lane and pick-pocket his opponents without usually getting too far out of position are simply the cherry on top.

4. Rubio is hurt all the time.

Rubio entered the league during the lockout season of 2011-12 as a 21 year-old rookie from Spain. He began starting just 10 games into the season and teamed with Kevin Love to have the Timberwolves hovering around the .500-mark and a playoff spot before tearing his ACL on March 9th of 2012.

He made his 2012-13 debut on December 15th and played in 57 of the 62 games the rest of the way while still working to fully recover from surgery.

The 2013-14 season was Rubio’s healthiest year, although he wasn’t quite at 100 percent. He played in all 82 games and finally looked like the rust was completely knocked off towards the end of the season.

In just the fifth game of 2014-15, however, Rubio severely sprained his ankle in a game in Orlando and wasn’t the same the rest of the year, ultimately being shutdown in the spring and only playing in 22 games before undergoing surgery to remove scar tissue in the off-season.

This past season, Rubio only missed six games early in the season due to soreness in his ankle, but played the rest of the way and started in 76 contests — another largely healthy season.

All in all, Rubio has played in 70.5 percent of possible games since entering the league. Not great, of course, but far from “always injured”. And none of his injuries appear to be chronic; they’ve just simply been to his knee and ankle and have stunted his growth and development over the summer in restricting how much time he’s been able to spend working on his jump shot.

Rubio had a very good year in 2015-16, and he only figures to improve as the players around him grow and get better and the new regime adds new weapons with which to surround the pass-first point guard.

Next: Zach LaVine Player Review

He’s easily a top-four or five point guard defender, and probably falls in the top-ten or eleven overall at the position. How far can the Wolves go with him quarterbacking the squad? We should be able to find out in the next year or two with Tom Thibodeau in the fold.