Ricky Rubio was a quality trade acquisition from the Minnesota Timberwolves by the Cleveland Cavaliers via deal shortly before the 2021 NBA Draft, as he should stabilize the backup point guard position.
In stretches when Darius Garland can take a breather, Rubio should be able to run offense effectively for Cleveland off the bench as a capable veteran primary playmaker, and can take some burden off Garland.
Rubio has averaged 7.6 assists per outing throughout 10 seasons in his career, and even with him bouncing around the past three seasons, he still was able to get shooters, cutters and rollers involved at a high level. So for Cleveland, I would imagine he should be able to do the same, albeit off the bench in most occasions, I’d think.
And in some spurts/stretches with him on the floor, one would assume that Rubio should be able to get Collin Sexton good looks in the process. I’d think with Rubio’s vision/feel and with his presence as a talented playmaker, he should be able to help Sexton in the off-ball aspect, to that point.
Rubio should be able to help Sexton in his off-ball development for the Cavs.
Rubio is a gifted passer, and while Darius Garland and Sexton’s chemistry improved last season leaps and bounds I thought, with Rubio’s experience level and what he’s proven running offenses, he should be invaluable to Sexton’s off-ball growth.
Sexton showed growth as a cutter in his second season’s later stages, and last season, his timing as a cutting presence and feel for manipulating off-ball screens as a shooter improved.
I’m sure Matthew Dellavedova in recent seasons aided Sexton behind the scenes in that way, with Dellavedova’s passing abilities and basketball IQ.
But in Rubio’s case, he could help Sexton further I believe off-ball, with Rubio at least being far more of a scoring and pick-and-roll threat and helping to create more seams for Sexton with defenses reacting to Rubio penetration far more.
Sexton did receive more cutting baseline feeds from Darius Garland as last season progressed, and even with that playing out more in their third season together I would think next year, Rubio at this point, with his track record, is still a better passer in that realm than Garland.
And I’d imagine as Rubio becomes more familiar with Sexton when the two share the floor for stretches, that backdoor feeds to Sexton to counter reactions to Rubio penetrating or threatening with floaters could occur more. Rubio’s had 9.1 assists per-36 minutes for his career, for what it’s worth.
From there, as we touched on earlier, I’d expect Sexton to potentially improve his approach in being able to manufacture more off-screen looks in the shooting sense when Rubio’s in there with him. That’d be from coming off screens from Jarrett Allen, Dean Wade and others.
In instances with Rubio on with him, with his ability to hit precise dishes over-the-top, thanks in large part to his feel for hitting passes precisely to shooters’ shooting pockets off a variety of angles and with both hands, that could free up Collin more.
With those possibilities, particularly if Rubio establishes some pick-and-pop chemistry with Dean Wade, who is a capable shooter as well, help defenders could end up reacting to those sequences, firstly. And as a counter, that could open up Sexton as a spot-up threat via ball-reversals, too, and last season, he hit 40.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot three attempts, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
Plus, Rubio’s abilities in secondary transition could also enable Sexton, who improved his feel filling lanes as a cutter in those situations last season, to get more easy ones in unsettled situations as well.
Rubio is a solid defensive rebounder for a lead guard, and can both thread the needle in transition to hit floor runners, such as the speedy Sexton, and Rubio’s lead passes along with that, could help generate more assisted looks to Collin from there.
Anyway, although I’m not discounting Garland’s passing abilities, and he’s a guard on the rise, Rubio’s wide-ranging passing and ample experience running offense could help Sexton’s continued off-ball growth immensely. That could realistically be in relation to Ricky aiding Collin behind the scenes even too, such as was reportedly the case with Dellavedova.
But in Year 4 for Sexton, in the event he sticks around, and with Rubio being simply a much better ball handler than Dellavedova, by comparison, I’d think he could play a key role in Sexton’s off-ball feel leveling up some in 2021-22.
That’s with me believing Rubio himself, while expiring, could potentially stick through next season and maybe the to-be-31-year-old in October and Cleveland could agree to terms on a reasonable deal next offseason.