Cavs: Ranking every offseason move from worst to best
Cavs: Ranking every offseason move from worst to best – 2. Trade for Ricky Rubio
Deal: Cleveland trades Taurean Prince, 2022 second-round pick and case to Minnesota for Ricky Rubio
TRADE: The Cleveland Cavaliers are acquiring Minnesota Timberwolves G Ricky Rubio, a 2022 second-round pick and cash for Taurean Prince, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 29, 2021
Taurean Prince was acquired by Cleveland in the Jarrett Allen trade (more accurately the James Harden trade), necessary salary-matching for Brooklyn and part of the cost for the Cavs to bring in Allen. On a team loaded with power forwards Prince’s role would be minimal at best. Seeing a need at backup point guard, the Cavs flipped Prince’s expiring salary for another expiring contract, this one belonging to Ricky Rubio.
The 30 year-old point guard had a poor season back in Minnesota last year, at times starting due to De’Angelo Russell’s injury absence and other times relegated to spot minutes as Russell and Anthony Edwards ran the show. He will make $17.8 million next season, and by trading him the Timberwolves opened up space below the luxury tax line to reconfigure their bench.
Cleveland gains a veteran who has been in rebuilds and on strong playoff squads, so he can speak from experience to the young players on the roster. For Spain’s National Team he has become something of a go-to scorer, even if he hasn’t shown that in his last couple of NBA seasons. The Cavs are hoping that Rubio brings that combination of veteran leadership and impact play, that he simply had a down year playing on a bad team.
If he truly is on the downslope of his career, $17.8 million is a lot of money to play for a mediocre backup point guard. Bringing him in feels like an expensive (in dollars, not trade assets or opportunity cost) way to push the team a win or two closer to the postseason. At this point in their team’s life cycle, they should probably be using their books and their rotation minutes on younger players who better fit the timeline.
Since they had to pay Prince anyway they did not give up a ton to bring in Rubio, and he could truly help Darius Garland and Collin Sexton develop. The Cavs don’t actually need him to play very well, but simply having a savvy veteran point guard running with bench units can help the development of players such as Lauri Markkanen and Dylan Windler on the court. This was a fine move, one with little upside but not much downside.