Ricky Rubio appreciation thread

[hollywood6964]

Great read by Rubio.

I usually don't listen to Doug and Wolf but today I had an appointment so listened. Doug is an idiot. He was talking about Rubio in MN and UT and he thought Booker was inspiring Rubio to play better defense. I mean, how stupid is that . He didn't think Rubio was more than Kendal Marshall. A good PG that passes is smart but nothing else. He said thats why Utah upgraded from him. Well they upgraded to a better player (though Conley is struggling) - but Rubio has been a good solid pro for many years. The shot is the shot.

Moral of the story - there is a reason I don't listen to Douglice and Wolf and its not Wolf or Calvisi.

Doug n Wolfe sucks. So does Bickley n Marrotta. So does Burns n Gambo to a somewhat lesser extent. Bunch of nerds.

[Saberestar]

Watch on YouTube

[Medall21]

That's the issue. What you're saying is your subjective opinion. Poor shooting might be a minor flaw when you consider the rest of his skill set but I can see why others (including myself) don't think of it as just a minor flaw. He's able to make up for the poor shooting somewhat by being above average to great in other categories but in today's NBA, a guard that can't shoot is almost as exploitable as a big that can't guard the PnR. There will be times when it's not an issue because he'll have a hot shooting night and on those nights he'll certainly look like a top 10 PG. But that's the reason why Rubio hasn't been a top PG in this league; those hot shooting nights are kind of few and far in between. He's a top passing PG and a solid leader which is exactly what we need right now but he's never made an all-star team, he's never made an all-NBA team, hell he's never even made a player of the week.

I don't think he'll be in the Suns way if we make playoffs this season but certainly if we are looking at higher than just a first or 2nd round exit in the near future, I do think he'll be a potential roadblock. Exploitable players become more exploitable in the playoffs.

I can understand your concerns but this is probably because you were not able to see him in last two Utah Jazz playoff runs or in National Team. He was arguably (subjective) the best player of his team increasing a lot his production (objective) from regular season both seasons and, for exemple, he completely outplayed Westbrook in the first one.

You must not be worried about him in playoffs, he will give Suns much better chance to win than other PG's who score 25 per night.

And btw after this night he's shooting threes at 40% XD

I watched the first round of the past two seasons of the Jazz. Just not consistent enough and they could've really used his shooting to open the floor up for Mitchell. Their failure is not all on him but he certainly could've helped if he could shoot. I watched the world cup too and he did impress me there

Yeah he had a good shooting night and if he was consistent, I wouldn't be worried at all. Do we think we win tonight if he didn't have a great shooting night?

Tough to answer, because I believe in team sports as a holistic games. Everything afects everything, so I can't just say we win by 5 if Ricky misses 2 extra threes we would loose by 1.

Maybe if he was missing threes, he made an extra pass to a teammate who get hotter and more confident or were a time out here or there that changes the dynamic or he would be more focus on defensive end and avoid the miscomunication between him and Bridges who let a Korkmaz open three... You never know.

About last playoffs you suggest a good game book option (leave Mitchell 1 vs 1 and spread the floor with outside shooters), but there are a lot more ways to score, not just that. As one very good poster explains here, from a good shooting night (3P 2/5 40%) to one bad (3P 1/5 20%) there are just three points of gap. You can match that with one charge, one offensive rebound...

At the end is get buckets and avoid buckets as a team. So if we aren't hot enough from outside, we must try to find solutions to score in another way. I don't know if Suns would find it if Ricky had a bad shooting night. But after this great start, I'm becoming more and more optimistic with this team.

[SkyhookinUrMom]

Suns havent made the playoffs for 10 years and people worrying about Rubio potentially being a problem for a Championship run

lel

[MathiasPW]

Suns havent made the playoffs for 10 years and people worrying about Rubio potentially being a problem for a Championship run

lel

Thank you for the wonderful addition to our forum, kind sir.

[lilfishi22]

I can understand your concerns but this is probably because you were not able to see him in last two Utah Jazz playoff runs or in National Team. He was arguably (subjective) the best player of his team increasing a lot his production (objective) from regular season both seasons and, for exemple, he completely outplayed Westbrook in the first one.

You must not be worried about him in playoffs, he will give Suns much better chance to win than other PG's who score 25 per night.

And btw after this night he's shooting threes at 40% XD

I watched the first round of the past two seasons of the Jazz. Just not consistent enough and they could've really used his shooting to open the floor up for Mitchell. Their failure is not all on him but he certainly could've helped if he could shoot. I watched the world cup too and he did impress me there

Yeah he had a good shooting night and if he was consistent, I wouldn't be worried at all. Do we think we win tonight if he didn't have a great shooting night?

Tough to answer, because I believe in team sports as a holistic games. Everything afects everything, so I can't just say we win by 5 if Ricky misses 2 extra threes we would loose by 1.

Maybe if he was missing threes, he made an extra pass to a teammate who get hotter and more confident or were a time out here or there that changes the dynamic or he would be more focus on defensive end and avoid the miscomunication between him and Bridges who let a Korkmaz open three... You never know.

About last playoffs you suggest a good game book option (leave Mitchell 1 vs 1 and spread the floor with outside shooters), but there are a lot more ways to score, not just that. As one very good poster explains here, from a good shooting night (3P 2/5 40%) to one bad (3P 1/5 20%) there are just three points of gap. You can match that with one charge, one offensive rebound...

At the end is get buckets and avoid buckets as a team. So if we aren't hot enough from outside, we must try to find solutions to score in another way. I don't know if Suns would find it if Ricky had a bad shooting night. But after this great start, I'm becoming more and more optimistic with this team.

Again, I'm not suggesting he was the reason the Jazz lost. He was solid for them throughout the two seasons and even had a couple of good playoff games. I'm saying if we wanted to look past the first or second round of the playoffs (perhaps in a couple of seasons), he's probably not my pick for a starting PG. And aside from the Conley gamble which thus far hasn't paid off, I was in agreement with the Jazz about moving on from Rubio if they wanted to aim higher than a 1st or 2nd round playoff exit.

I'm happy with where we are right now, having him as our starting PG and his play so far in this young season but he's not immune to criticism when he has a poor shooting night just as he should be commended for when he shoots well. I just don't get why some fans here just seems to think because he passes well, defends well and is a good leader that the poor shooting doesn't matter and he shouldn't be criticized for it

[Dual]

"Ricky Rubio is averaging 8.5 assists per game with only 2.5 turnovers per game. He is the ONLY player in the NBA this season with over 8 assists per game and less than 3 turnovers"
From here:
https://www.nba.com/suns/features/between-baselines-numbers-behind-suns-hot-start

[Dual]

Lot of articles and videos today about the Suns(in Spain too), this one is specifically about Ricky:
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/platform/amp/2019/11/6/20952435/quiet-brilliance-ricky-rubio-key-phoenix-suns-early-chemistry

[LesGrossman]

I remember shortly after the last playoffs, even the some of the notoriously critical fans admitted that most of the games, Rubio was very visibly the best player of the Jazz - not by scoring, but it is OBVIOUS that he is the trigger that turns the game around nontheless. He was the one to hustle, he brought the first playoff triple double since Stockton (true story, no exaggeration - in his first or second playoff game in the NBA, against Westbrook). He beat prime Westbrook in their face to face matchup over the whole series, resulting first in Westbrook promising he’ll “shut that down”, then “i dont want to talk about it any more”. But all the media was talking about was Gobert, Mitchell, sometimes Ingles. I wrote in the same forum (on this site), that i find it great that people changed their opinion but that within two or three weeks, they'll forget what they saw with their own eyes and start talking about stats and shooting numbers again. And that is what happened, and so they traded him despite being very satisfied. I think we are all used to this and have learned to deal with it in one way or another.

[KqWIN]

Again, I'm not suggesting he was the reason the Jazz lost. He was solid for them throughout the two seasons and even had a couple of good playoff games. I'm saying if we wanted to look past the first or second round of the playoffs (perhaps in a couple of seasons), he's probably not my pick for a starting PG. And aside from the Conley gamble which thus far hasn't paid off, I was in agreement with the Jazz about moving on from Rubio if they wanted to aim higher than a 1st or 2nd round playoff exit.

I'm happy with where we are right now, having him as our starting PG and his play so far in this young season but he's not immune to criticism when he has a poor shooting night just as he should be commended for when he shoots well. I just don't get why some fans here just seems to think because he passes well, defends well and is a good leader that the poor shooting doesn't matter and he shouldn't be criticized for it

Just a heads up...if the Suns ever have a rough stretch during the season, it's going to be hard to have a rational discussion about anything related to your PG. All discussions about your team might also turn into discussions about your PG. Rubio is an easy guy to appreciate, but the nature of his following leads to exhausting circular discussions.

[cojayar]

The only stat that counts is the one below the "W".
The NBA game is becoming a statistical competition between players to shine on the numbers.
Good so if you still remember that this is about winning. Team getting the victory.
And for this is not just about who puts the nicest numbers individually.

[NTB]

Read on Twitter

[tcheco]

Read on Twitter

AMAZING performance.

It was amazing how everything he did looked effortless.

Not counting the amazing defense he was playing.

[Dual]

This was before yesterday's game(the second tweet with stats):

Read on Twitter

[BobbieL]

He is better than I thought he would be. And I have been wanting the guy a long time as you all know . But he is better than I realized. So much better for this team than Rozier

[RunDogGun]

I am really glad we signed Rubio. I still wish we grabbed Faried as well, to see if my thought last season of picking up the pair would work out. We still need a rebounding specialist. It would have been nice to have drafted Clarke.

[Fo-Real]

Clearly playing the best ball of his career in this system with these teammates. He has pulled a Steve Nash on us, come in here and been the exact lynchpin we need him to be. They had no answer for him last night, I'm sure he wont shoot that efficiently most games but last night was dinner AND A SHOW!!!

[LesGrossman]

This was not really a great game of Ricky tbh. Theres plenty of room for more. Good game Shooting wise though.

[NTB]

This was not really a great game of Ricky tbh. Theres plenty of room for more. Good game Shooting wise though.

Just curious what did you not like? or feel missing

[LesGrossman]

This was not really a great game of Ricky tbh. Theres plenty of room for more. Good game Shooting wise though.

Just curious what did you not like? or feel missing

It wasnt a bad game dont get me wrong. But it was under control and there was no need to do something special, no challenge. For those who say it was a “career game” for him, they clearly have no idea what they are talking about. Its not so hard to look up some of his highlights, in much more meaningful games, agaisnt much stronger opponents, often in direct matchups with all star PG’s. Just wait and see. I believe he will have a 20 assist game at some point in this season.