Everyone is talking about Timberwolves’ point guard Ricky Rubio, and we took some time to compile the various takes from around the blogosphere.
In light of Jim Souhan’s horrendous piece over at the Star Tribune focused on the idea that Ricky Rubio should not be leading the young, up-and-coming Timberwolves into the future, we wrote our own response here at Dunking With Wolves.
And no, we weren’t the only ones to take Souhan and his terrible analysis down this weekend.
Over at FanSided’s own Hoops Habit, Aaron Mah correctly identifies the divisiveness of Rubio as a player. He also goes a step further than we did in our Souhan response on Sunday afternoon by bringing up Rubio’s shooting improvements in the latter portions of this season.
"For those who knock his outside shooting and interior finishing, Rubio — who was fully healthy for the first time since his rookie season this past year — has improved dramatically in both areas.In fact, according to NBA.com, Ricky converted on 36.9 percent of his 3-point attempts post-All-Star break, with most of them coming in the form of catching-and-shooting.Likewise, he also shot at a 51.3 percent clip at the rim this past season, which marked a dramatic improvement when compared to his first four years (33.9)."
Elsewhere, Tim Faklis at A Wolf Among Wolves recapped the draft night happenings, rehashing the NBA landscape-wide Twitter war that vaulted back and forth from the thinking that a Jimmy Butler trade was imminent to the claim that talks were never close.
Faklis also calls for patience from Tom Thibodeau and Scott Layden when it comes to the handling of the Rubio-Kris Dunn tandem, and he closes with the following…
"None of this is to say that Dunn can’t become a superstar point guard. It’s entirely possible that he figures out his shot in the NBA, learns how to dominate opposing teams with his great size and athleticism, and fits perfectly with Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. It’s possible he’ll end up fitting perfectly in Tom Thibodeau’s plans for this team’s future.But going off what’s possible isn’t good enough when you haven’t seen him play a second in the NBA. In the meantime, the Wolves have a fantastic starting point guard to have around, just in case things don’t go as planned with their highly coveted commodity. If things go perfectly with Dunn, Rubio’s value will still be there. He’ll still be who he is, all under a convenient contract.There’s no reason to rush this. See what’s there before doing something that could end up being a bad decision. Thibodeau and Layden showed patience in the war room on draft night. They still have time. The should keep using it."
Patience will be key, no doubt. It would be easy to sell Rubio off to the highest bidder now if Thibs and Layden truly believe that Dunn is their point guard of the future. Of course, leaving Rubio to quarterback the team for at least one more season makes the most sense, and Thibodeau will no doubt realize this in full when he gets on the floor in training camp.
Next: On Ricky Rubio's Value To The Timberwolves
Unless a move comes swiftly and unexpectedly, we’ll have an entire off-season (and likely, more) of this talk. Settle in and prepare yourselves, Wolves fans.