Ricky Rubio in Action
*first half
Rubio is amazing. He's pushing the ball, creating for teammates and getting the fans excited. The Timberwolves are a better team when he's on the court, and (I'm sure the franchise appreciates this) he's making Kahn look less stupid.
Standing by my 2009 prediction that he averages around six points and six assists a game.
They really need to find a backup C who can defend the paint when Darko is sitting, because they are giving up a tonne of layups right now.
Williams is doing well isolating he's just missing open shots, but once he finds a rhythm and they start dropping he'll be a very nice player for the Wolves.
That's funny. Rubio is my favorite non-Jazz player in the league.
The Timberwolves have been my third favorite team in the NBA ever since Kevin Garnett held Karl Malone's hand up in the middle of a game, and got the Minnesota crowd to applaud him after he passed Chamberlin on the all-time scoring list. Thought that was a classy move.
Wish they would dump Beasley, Milicic and Randolph though.
i normally defend westbrook, but i agree with the critics tonight. He has played a dumb basketball game. I dont care what his stats are, he needs to become a smarter player. But his positives still outweigh his negatives. Without him the thunder would be 4 guys watching durant and letssee how sucesful they would be that way.
^ 17 points is pretty easy to get when you shoot 20 times a game. He's just not a team player and I feel like he's going to stunt the growth of this Wolves team.
Also Rubio looks like a really vocal leader, he takes charge and tells people what to do, I like it.
Rubio has crazy court vision. He's not a scorer and he is currently pretty weak, but he is a high level passer. I don't see him being higher than a 40% guy unless he really continues to show that he will only look to score very easy baskets.
Is it just me or could the Wolves have won that game if Beasely took the shot from 3 that he passed up to drive to the hoop? Rubio gave him a perfect pass right in the shooters pocket on the perimeter and KD was slow to close out. If he were the Wolves "go-to" guy like so many people are convinced he is, he would've taken that shot with no hesitation. I feel like the Wolves this year will make a lot of noise but by the end of the year will be on the outside of the playoffs looking in because of games like this. Should coulda woulda... but just can't win games down the stretch.
Ahh, where are the "Rubio BUST" posts now? The people that doubted Rubio are starting to see the hype, granted i suspect a good percentage of them probably never seen him play but some of the stuff i've been reading has been simply incredible and to think i took negatives eventhough i was breaking down his game in a fair and constructive way. I know humble pie isn't nice.
Anyway, Rubio needs to start, with Ricky at the helm, the T'Wolves are exciting and most of all unpredictable, once again, his production was highly impressive, his passes are out of this world, they're flashy but the weight is perfect everytime. Rubio also didn't commit a turnover, if he continues to produce like this, he'll leapfrog Ridnour very quickly.
You look at the players in his draft, Griffin, Evans, Jennings and Curry apart from Griffin because he's already there, could be playing at an all-star level this season, they're around the same age as Rubio, which leads me to believe Rubio's general ability is close to theirs, i think playing in Europe just didn't give him as much exposure as Evans, Jennings and Curry but he's been working as hard as those guys and i don't see any reason why he can't average 10 assists this season.
Already, he looks like one of the best rookie playmakers in a while, he was flashy in Europe but when you put even more athletic and talented players around him, the result is a very fun basketball team, winning isn't the objective for Minnesota but making people interested in them probably is.
I don't know about a lot of people, but Rubio is who I thought he was. A young point guard with great vision, passing and poise due to playing professionally since he was 14.
He's going to be a very good point guard, but it's just one game. He has a lot of work to do before he's anywhere near elite.
“Sometimes when you lose, you actually really win.” – Poet Laureate, Rosie Perez.
If I told you the Wolves had a fourth quarter lead and eventually lost it, you’d probably first make a joke about how there was no way they’d ever lead in the fourth quarter. After I showed you how many times they blew fourth quarter leads under the reign of Kurt Rambis on the sidelines, you’d feel a bit sheepish, but still feel valid in knowing it’s ridiculous to think about the Wolves having a chance to win games, especially against good teams.
To watch what happened with the Minnesota Timberwolves on opening night is to understand just how important this loss was toward a change in the culture of basketball in the city of Minneapolis. Sure, they had a lead late in the fourth quarter and ended up losing out on upsetting the Oklahoma City Thunder. Nobody really expected them to win coming into the game. It was a new team with a new coach and very little time to implement schemes and comfort. As the game progressed and we saw a dissemination of hope filling the stuffy Target Center atmosphere, the expectations grew.
Each drive into the lane by J.J. Barea was an assumption of production. Each time Kevin Love crashed the offensive boards for mop-up duty scoring, we bowed to our historic leader. And the Ricky Rubio era went from hoping he can make a couple of plays to expecting him to negotiate a victory with basketball fortune.
To say Ricky Rubio had a nice debut is to pretend that crispy bacon can be part of an slightly enjoyable breakfast. Rubio’s false advertising was a myth. He controlled the game in ways you can’t really expect of a rookie point guard in his first game. Hell, he controlled the game in ways you can’t expect some veterans to do. He knew when to excite the crowd with bounce passes that immaculately conceptualized squeals of bewilderment. He knew when to slow down the game to ensure the Wolves weren’t just recklessly bounding from highlight to highlight in an attempt to seem relevant.
What we expected from Rubio came to fruition. His passing is some Third Kind, Richard Dreyfuss in a pick-up truck type of stuff. It’s not that they’re flashy. It’s that they’re flashy with a purpose. Some people throw a behind the back pass because it makes them look good. Rubio’s threads were to make the team look good. When you can inspire your teammates by giving them the ball, that’s a special quality. Everything had flair, but it didn’t have the minimum of 15 pieces of flair. Even Chotchkies would ask him to tone it down a bit.
While Rubio was busy exciting the crowd with remarkable bounce passes, he was also figuring out that he belonged on the court.
Russell Westbrook didn’t respect Ricky Rubio’s presence on the court. He didn’t respect his presence as someone to talk about. He was upset when asked questions about Rubio. He was upset when the crowd cheered for Rubio. He wanted to make sure everybody knew that HE was the All-Star and RUBIO wasn’t. He burned Ricky on backdoor cuts. He powered through Ricky in transition for buckets and fouls. With every score, he glared in Ricky’s direction. With every bit of success the Wolves enjoyed during the competitive fourth quarter, Westbrook made sure to dismiss Rubio’s contribution by smiling when Ricky dare accept his assignment and defend Russ.
And I get it. I don’t fault Russell for these tactics. He waged psychological warfare on Rubio like he was opening up a nice Chianti and slow-cooking some fava beans. He wanted to intimidate and frustrate the rookie. He was hazing him without giving him a Hello Kitty backpack. The beautiful thing about the entire situation was Ricky didn’t bend or break. In fact, it brought out a competitive streak I wasn’t sure he had.
Rubio turned Westbrook into an iso player, and it briefly took the Thunder out of their sets. With 3:30 left in the game and the Thunder up one, Westbrook drove the right side of the lane against Rubio. Despite being presumed to be too slow to stay with guys like Westbrook, Wall, and Rose, Ricky slid his feet, stayed in front of Russ and sold a charge to the ref for the turnover. Next play down, he ran a quick pick-and-pop on the left side of the floor. Dribbled to the middle and pulled up for a 17-footer. The kid can’t shoot a lick, but he dropped a go-ahead basket with just over three minutes remaining like it was something he just does to do it.
An All-Star point guard, who turns ankles into dust, couldn’t put away a team trusting an allegedly over-matched rookie. He tried to break him. He tried to embarrass him. He tried to make him wish he never left Barcelona. Like a puppy learning the boundaries between playfully biting and being in full attack mode, Rubio kept coming back for more. He kept testing the boundaries of stuff he’s not supposed to do and did it.
Is it possible I’m overrating a 6-point, 6-assist, 5-rebound, zero-turnover effort? Is it possible I’m jumping the gun on one game when I should be pacing myself for the ups and downs of a oddly condensed season? Absolutely.
But all I’ve heard for the past two-and-a-half years is how Ricky Rubio couldn’t play in the league. All I’ve heard about is how overrated, over-hyped, under-talented, overestimated he is and that he has no place in the NBA. His passing isn’t going to be that good. His defense is going to be terrible because he’s slow and European. He can’t shoot and won’t be able to score at all in the NBA. He’s just not good and he’s already a bust before he plays a minute in the league. I’ve defended Rubio and said we needed to give him a chance to play before we could make such absolute accusations. I and my fellow Wolves fans have been laughed at for thinking he could help this team. We’ve been chastised for holding out hope that he could make a difference.
After one game? It all looks like a congealed, steaming slab of malarkey.
Rubio can play and he sure as hell belongs in this league. Is he going to have bad nights? Absolutely. He’s also going to have nights better than this modest and yet crucial debut. He’s going to push back at the top point guards he has no business being on the court against and he’s going to win some of these battles. He’s going to help Rick Adelman, Kevin Love, and all of his teammates fix this organization.
Yeah, the Wolves ended up losing tonight. But it kind of feels like they won.
I was always a huge Rubio fan going back maybe 5 years but when he didn't come over, I wondered if he was the real deal. We cannot judge a career on one game but if Ricky continues to mature then he certainly has the scorers on the roster to help the T-Wolves put serious points on the board. Also Coach Adelman will be a huge asset in tight games as he knows how to help close out wins. I don't see the T-Wolves being a play off team yet in any form but the future might just be brighter than at any time since the KG era.
anyone watching this game with their free League Pass? Rubio has 4 amazing assists already and the 1st quarter isn't even over. He really is fun to watch and makes his teammates better.
He's even making Anthony Randolph look have decent.