Minnesota Timberwolves: A final farewell to Ricky Rubio
The Minnesota Timberwolves sent Ricky Rubio to the Utah Jazz in a trade for a 2018 first round pick. Rubio was loyal to Minnesota through six tough seasons.
Ricky Rubio went through a lot of ups and downs with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Since his rookie season in 2009, Rubio has played in six seasons where the Wolves fell short of making the playoffs.
Rubio was the only player left on the Wolves roster that was on the team since the 2011-12 NBA season. The departure of Ricky Rubio is the final sign that head coach Tom Thibodeau has started a new era with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rubio provided Minnesota with stability at point guard the last six seasons despite constant trade rumors and heavy criticism of his game. Rubio’s pros are his passing ability and how well he runs the offense. He averaged 8.5 assists per game during the last six seasons. Critics of Rubio mainly do not like how poorly he shoots the ball only. For example, Rubio has only made 31.5 percent of his three-point attempts in his career.
From 2011-14, Ricky Rubio was a part of a three-man core that looked very promising. The other two players were Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic. The closest they came to making the playoffs was during the 2013-14 season. The Wolves won 40 games that year. That is the most they won in a season since 2004-05 when they won 44 games.
After falling short of the playoffs in 2014 Minnesota broke up its core by sending All-Star Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange to Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. The trade was forced by Kevin Love.
Rubio fought for Love
Through all the Kevin Love trade rumors, Rubio wanted Love to stay in Minnesota because he knew how close they were to making the playoffs. He tried to convince him that they were improving and almost there. Rubio said the following to NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper:
"“Of course I want him to stay…“I don’t want to convince him if he doesn’t want to stay. But I want him to stay and I’m going to tell him what I think, which is we’ve been improving every year and he’s a great player, he helps us a lot. I think we need to make the next step. … The media says it’s pretty settled, but I don’t know what he thinks. What I’ve been hearing is from the media, not from him, so I don’t trust that. It can be an opinion from you guys. I just really want to talk to him as a teammate.”"
After Love left for Cleveland, Rubio suffered a major setback during the 2014-15 season. He severely injured his ankle and only participated in 22 games. Because of that and an injury to Nikola Pekovic, the Timberwolves only won 16 games during Flip Saunders’ last season coaching in the NBA.
Things spiraled downhill quickly, but Rubio did not give up. He came back at the start of the 2015-16 ready to play with two very exciting young players in Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Rubio played in 76 games that season, averaging 10.1 points and 8.7 assists a game. They improved from a 16 win team to a 29-win team. They showed signs of life that year during Towns’ rookie campaign.
Coming off his best season
This past season Ricky Rubio was a stable leader on a very young Timberwolves team that was starting to look like it could turn the corner with another piece. Furthermore, Rubio had the best season of his career, posting career highs in points, assists and field goal percentage. He improved his heavily criticized shot and also improved the best part of his game — passing the ball.
Rubio did his best to show how valuable he was to Minnesota. He struggled a little bit before the All-Star break, averaging 8.9 points and 8.4 assists per game and shooting only 28.1 percent from three. It was a completely different story after the All-Star break. Rubio averaged 15.4 points and 10.6 assists per game while shooting 40.5 percent from beyond the arc.
That was the best stretch Rubio ever played during his career. The Timberwolves fell short of the playoffs, but there was a lot of optimism about adding another piece in the offseason and finally being a good enough team to make the playoffs.
The Minnesota Timberwolves added that missing piece during the 2017 NBA Draft. They traded Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and their No. 7 pick to the Chicago Bulls for All-Star Jimmy Butler and the No. 16 pick. After years of patience, Rubio’s loyalty finally looked to have paid off.
Good, but not good enough
Despite playing the best basketball of his career last season, Minnesota traded Ricky Rubio to the Utah Jazz for a 2018 first round pick. This move allowed them to clear cap space for players that coach Thibodeau felt a better fit. The Minnesota Timberwolves agreed to sign point guard Jeff Teague as Rubio’s replacement soon after trading Rubio.
It is hard not to feel bad for Ricky Rubio. He stuck it out with the Wolves during some seasons that were painful to watch. Rubio gave the team his best every night despite taking part in two attempts to rebuild. The current roster is finally promising, but Rubio will not be a part of it. At the end of the day it is a business.
The following post on Rubio’s Instagram was an emotional post for Minnesota Timberwolves fans that have watched Ricky Rubio grow over the past six seasons.
Ricky Rubio is a good floor general that has a lot to offer the Utah Jazz. He is a true pass-first point guard that makes the players around him better. If he improves his shot next season, the Minnesota Timberwolves may regret their decision to trade him.
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After seeing how many Wolves fans were moved by his Instagram post, Ricky Rubio will have extra fans rooting for him next season. Unless the Timberwolves and Jazz meet in the playoffs, that is.