Phoenix Suns: 5 expectations for Ricky Rubio

3. Making life easier for Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton

For years now, the looming fear over the Phoenix Suns has been the face of the franchise getting fed up with all the losing and wanting out. Even after inking a five-year max extension, Booker wants to win in this league and has the talent to do so elsewhere if the Suns can’t get their act together.

We’ve seen everyone from LeBron James to Kevin Durant to Anthony Davis to Carmelo Anthony leave the team that drafted them to compete elsewhere. The Suns have never won 30 games in Booker’s tenure, and incompetence doesn’t deserve to be rewarded with lifelong loyalty from players who want to win. To that end, finding the right complementary players to make his life easier would not only appease the team’s star, but also help give this clunky rebuild the traction it needs to start moving forward.

In that frame of mind, Rubio checks off two of the three necessary boxes when it comes to the idyllic backcourt partner for Booker. He may not provide the off-ball shooting that Book’s creation calls for, but he is a competent defender, and most importantly, facilitator/floor general. None of the additions the Suns made this summer stand out on their own merit (especially the way assets were so mismanaged), but they do seem to fit a particular mold:

Rubio may not be able to shoot, but surrounding him with shooters is a good way to maximize the spacing on offense and hopefully, open up the pick-and-roll. Devin Booker (32.6 percent) and Mikal Bridges (33.5 percent) will need to be much better from 3, but they have the tools and the reputation to do so, especially with a penetrator and facilitator like Rubio setting them up for better looks.

Last year, 234 of Devin Booker’s 414 3-point attempts were pull-ups, while only 173 were of the catch-and-shoot variety. Book only made 29.1 percent of his pull-up 3s, but knocked down 37.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot looks from deep. Tyler Johnson — a combo guard, not known for his playmaking — helped unlock that element of his game:

• Booker before Tyler Johnson: 42 GP, 3.8 pull-up 3s per game, 2.6 catch-and-shoot 3s per game
• Booker with Tyler Johnson: 22 GP, 3.4 pull-up 3s per game, 3.0 catch-and-shoot 3s per game

That difference may not seem like much, but as much as Booker is capable of getting his own 3-point shot off the dribble, he wasn’t very efficient in doing so. Giving him a ball-handler who can create easier looks would be a big plus to get him going from 3 earlier in games, at which point more of those pull-ups may start falling.

However, the biggest boon of the Rubio addition is not for Booker at all, since he’ll still handle the ball plenty and will be relied upon heavily in the scoring column. No, the biggest advantage of this move is for Deandre Ayton, who, let’s just say, fans are sick of hearing about how he doesn’t get the ball enough.

While Rubio’s assist numbers took a slight hit in Utah playing alongside a playmaking 2-guard in Donovan Mitchell, he still averaged 6.1 dimes per game last season, as well as 7.7 per game for his career. He won’t be the primary creator all the time like he was in Minnesota, especially playing alongside another playmaking 2-guard like Booker, but he can help on this front.

Last year, Ayton showed regular flashes of brilliance, but would either get tired and subbed out, defenses would adjust, or the Suns would simply have trouble feeding him the ball down low. It’s usually more complicated than “Get the big man the rock!” but there were plenty of instances where even throwing Ayton a solid entry pass was problematic.

Rubio, Johnson and more growth from Booker in the passing department should negate that problem in year two. Rubio also ranked eighth in the entire league in secondary assists (68), as well as 26th in assist points created (1,022) and 27th in potential assists (744), so he’s fully capable of making the right pass, even when he’s not the primary ball-handler.

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The Suns now have a legitimate starter at every position, which hasn’t been the case for years. Where fans’ optimism might need to be reined in, however, is with the Rubio-Ayton pick-and-roll.

According to NBA.com, Rubio was in the 39th percentile among pick-and-roll ball-handlers last season, ranking 70th out of 81 players with at least 200 such possessions. This was mostly due to his absurdly high turnover frequency of 22.8 percent, which ranked 80th out of those 81 players. Devin Booker committed a high number of turnovers in these sets too (18.3 percent), but still fared much better overall, ranking in the 74th percentile.

Rubio is a nifty dribbler and passer, but he’ll need to take care of the ball, and his lack of a threat from the perimeter will allow defenses to sag off him and cover Ayton’s dives to the basket off screens. How Monty Williams prepares for this remains to be seen, but having competent shooters to space the floor will help.

Even if he’s not the pick-and-roll maestro fans are envisioning for their blossoming big man, Rubio’s ability to drive and dish will be a big help. Among the 26 players with at least 800 drives last year, Rubio ranked third in assist percentage (15.0 percent). That dump-off ability, or at the very least, the ability to throw a competent entry pass, will help Deandre Ayton feed.