Ricky Rubio appreciation thread

[Saberestar]

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.

I don't care if his name is Rubio, Pondexter, Harden or whoever.... if a player puts 22 points, 12 assists, 0 TOs and excellent defense that is a great game for that player.

He probably has had better performances and hopefully he will have even better ones in the future, but this last game was a great game from him. 22 points on nice percentages and no TOs (giving 12 assists) are really special for him. I think that's a fact.

[Saberestar]

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[suns12345]

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Yikes that 42% is his career high FG%... still a big rubio fan

[cberry78]

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Yikes that 42% is his career high FG%... still a big rubio fan

Wonder if we could hire Nash strictly to work with Rubio.....

[bwgood77]

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.

I don't care if his name is Rubio, Pondexter, Harden or whoever.... if a player puts 22 points, 12 assists, 0 TOs and excellent defense that is a great game for that player.

He probably has had better performances and hopefully he will have even better ones in the future, but this last game was a great game from him. 22 points on nice percentages and no TOs (giving 12 assists) are really special for him. I think that's a fact.

Yeah, I mean jus the 12 assists to 0 turnovers is remarkable, but his shooting was something that is abnormal. I'd love to see if he has ever achieved 12 assists, 0 turnovers and those points on those percentages.

Now I could see one arguing that as an entire game he has been more impressive, because much of his phenomenal play came in the 1st quarter, or even first five minutes...like maybe half his assists, but seems he shot well the whole game.

Sure maybe he had more impressive games, but I doubt he had many, if any, with those particular stat lines.

[bwgood77]

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Yikes that 42% is his career high FG%... still a big rubio fan

Wonder if we could hire Nash strictly to work with Rubio.....

Why? I am sure he has had plenty of shooting coaches. It would be nice if he could get David West's brother, but he is already a great free throw shooter, but is just a weird anomaly where he is great from the line but not great otherwise.

It is also very interesting that he is such a great passer with great court vision but his so bad with lobs, but perfect with the bounce passes, which may be more effective because they may be less expected, and are easier in traffic.

Maybe he is so used to watching everything unfold on the court that it impacts him while shooting in the flow of the game somewhat, as opposed to being stopped at the free throw line where there is no impact on his vision with floor movement.

Anyway, I always admired Rubio and his impact, though I was never sure of his fit and have a hard time liking PGs who can't shoot. But I knew he had enormous impact with the Wolves looking at on/off #s.

But I will say I am more impressed than I thought I would be and his fit is much better than I expected, and Booker has adjusted very well to playing off ball. I was a little worried he wouldn't be as accepting as that but knew if he was it would have a huge impact on his %s, and he obviously can see that, so he ought to embrace it. It is somewhat similar to Curry playing so much off ball, and Klay as well, because Draymond has been their top assist guy the last few years.

And on top of all this, Rubio seems like a great human being. Those visits to homeless shelters are really touching, especially since they are not team events where they are probably required or encouraged to go...seems like something that is genuinely important to him.

[lilfishi22]

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.

Can you tell me which game he was considered great in?

[Revived]

Yeah, I mean jus the 12 assists to 0 turnovers is remarkable, but his shooting was something that is abnormal.

Yeah I can't imagine there has been many players who had 12 assists and 0 turnovers in a single game in the past 5 years or so.

In this era of fast paced offenses, turnovers are a constant issue for most teams so having that type of ball security from your lead playmaker is just incredible.

[Sugarless]

I understand where Les is coming from. Ricky was excellent in terms of executing and he made some shots which is always great to see, but everything was so organic, so smooth both individually and team-wise that it didn't really stand out as one of his best performances. There have been many times where Rubio has put the team on his shoulders through sheer effort, great passing or even scoring the ball from time to time in tougher situations, making those performances more impressive.

Regarding his fantastic AST/TO ratio against Brooklyn, Ricky's logged 10 or more assists and 1 or less TOs 24 times in his career. About once every 21 games. For instance, Steve Nash did it once in slightly under 17 games before retiring. It tells you a lot about Rubio considering he's done that through the younger, less careful years of his career, but moreso when you think about the rosters he's been on for most of these years, and the era in which he's played.

PS: Not sure how Rubio got a reputation of being bad at throwing lobs so fast in his time in Utah. It couldn't be farther from the truth. Lobs have been one of his trademarks for most of his career and guys like Derrick Williams or Anthony Randolph will tell you just how good he is at that, even though he's more careful now and doesn't throw them as often. He just never got perfect synch with Gobert, and yet he still assisted him in 35 alley-oop dunks just last season.

[avempace]

Can you tell me which game he was considered great in?

I will go for this one, just because it was a more meaningful game:

https://www.sbnation.com/2018/4/22/17267376/ricky-rubio-triple-double-game-3-jazz-vs-okc-thunder

[LesGrossman]

He owned westbrook in his mvp season in their playoff battle. He stopped curry so often taht steph and igoudala went to the media complsinign about his „dirty“ defense (i think thst despite plaxing on the bottom feeding wolves he has a positive record vs. steph but thats just a feeling). When mitchell was hurt vs the spurs as utahs top scorer rubio took over and hit eight or nine strsight shots until pop changed his defense, scored 34 or so and 9 assists. Its not a fluke he did it often and not in meaningless games so maybe its easier to understand why his followship gets annoyed when the player is summarized as „pass firdt, cant shoot“.

[PharmD]

Ricky has 22 assists and 1 turnover in the last 2 games. Here is his 1 turnover:

Spoiler:

[Saberestar]

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[PharmD]

Playing around with Aron Baynes' stats. Baynes has been assisted by Rubio 27 times in 214 minutes on the floor together. Meaning Baynes is getting 4.6 assists/36 from Ricky Rubio. Baynes has 60 field goals total, so 45% of Baynes baskets have been assisted just by Ricky Rubio. Both of those are bonkers.

[Dual]

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Lets hope he will wake up with the right foot as we say here in Spain.

[sunsbg]

I hope the back spasms are not something chronic for Rubio, that we need to become used to going forward.

[Dual]

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[Ranger]

Love Rubio.

[Dual]

https://fansided.com/2019/11/29/ricky-rubio-overpay-paying-off-phoenix-suns/

[Sugarless]

Through 16 games, Ricky is averaging 12.6 points, 8.7 assists and 1.8 TOs per game (an insane 4.8 AST/TO ratio). The list of players who've been able to average at least 12 points and 8 assists with less than 2 TOs in a season through history is... empty.

It's going to be extremely hard to keep his TOs under 2 per game, but man he's having a great season so far despite his injuries and the lack of a true C in so many games.