Cavs: Young backcourt duo should be excited about Ricky Rubio add

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a nice young backcourt in Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, both of whom had encouraging seasons in 2020-21. Garland, while having a fairly underwhelming Year 1, because of a number of factors, bounced back in Year 2, having 17.4 points and 6.1 assists per contest.

In Sexton’s case, he continued to show further growth as a three-level scorer, and had 24.3 points per outing. He made strides as a playmaker, and particularly as more so a secondary playmaker, was more than fine with an assist rate of 22.2 percent.

While there have been Sexton trade rumors, and it appeared as if he could potentially be moved before or during the 2021 NBA Draft, it does seem as if he could be sticking around. We’ll have to see about a potential move still before next season or during, but with the Cavs’ selection of Evan Mobley, and Cleveland looking to get in the postseason mix, maybe Sexton will stick/be re-signed next offseason.

On the subject of the Cavs’ young starting backcourt though, even with those two coming on, it was apparent that Cleveland needed to address the backup point guard spot. Rumored potential free agent targets were said to be T.J. McConnell and Alex Caruso, for instance, and I’d have been on-board with either and/or a few others.

The Cavs could’ve seemingly addressed that via trade too, and it turned out that’s what they did, ahead of free agency. The Cavaliers in a deal before the draft on Thursday traded Taurean Prince, a 2022 second-round pick via the Washington Wizards and cash to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Ricky Rubio.

Even with Rubio not the cheapest guard out there, with him set to make $17.8 million next season, I thought this was a sensible move by Cavs general manager Koby Altman and company. Rubio should provide a meaningful veteran presence game-to-game, and take pressure off Garland.

And the young backcourt should be pumped about this in general.

The Cavs young backcourt should be excited about this Rubio trade acquisition.

Clearly, Rubio’s not likely going to be in a starting role, aside from some spot starts due to injuries, but he will provide stability to the backup point guard position.

The 30-year-old is not going to be a key shooting presence when he’s out there from three-point land, as he’s a career 32.5 percent shooter from there, however, he is a gifted passer and he should be able to open up his share of good looks for others. While D’Angelo Russell injury troubles did play into it somewhat, Rubio did have 6.4 assists per outing last season, and has had 7.6 helpers per game for his career in 10 seasons.

With his passing abilities, even with me not expecting him to be playing over say, 19 minutes per game regularly with Garland in mind, his vision and feel in pick-and-roll operation from a passing standpoint should help out Sexton and Garland some.

And unlike Matthew Dellavedova before, though he had great vision/feel and did reportedly help the young guys as a mentor, Rubio is simply a more talented player that has had been more respectable as a scorer at least via floaters and some pull-ups in the mid-range.

Anyway, from just an overall standpoint, with what Rubio has been able to show in his career as a high level playmaking guard, even while he’s bounced around in recent years, his presence I believe should be invaluable for Garland and Sexton. With how he could lessen the burden on Garland, and with how he could help Sexton as a passer and also get him his share of quality shots in stretches of games, I’d think both are and should be pumped about this Rubio trade acquisition.

He still can contribute a good deal in his minutes off the bench for Cleveland, and even with him on an expiring deal, I do think that if he can give the Cavs a meaningful lift this season, he could potentially be a player they could look to bring back on a fairly reasonable deal.

I could foresee the young backcourt duo being plenty on-board with that, with Rubio feasibly providing a leadership boost for the squad, too, and his defense should help the Cavs out as well.