Cavs: Ricky Rubio seems to be getting comfortable with new teammates

Ricky Rubio was a quality trade acquisition by the Cleveland Cavaliers from the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason, as he’ll be able to lessen the burden on Darius Garland, and Rubio is still a very capable defender.

Rubio is not a player that will be playing over Garland normally, aside from potential injury absences, but he’ll have a significant role still as Garland’s backup at the 1, and he’ll run his share of offense. Rubio is a playmaker with great timing, vision and can help out in pick-and-roll operation in minutes Garland’s taking a breather.

The veteran trade acquisition, who has had 9.1 assists per-36 minutes for his career, is also starting to build some nice chemistry with other Cavs in preseason.

We’ve seen him have some good deliveries inside to players such as Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley as rollers/interior threats, and he’s gotten his former Minnesota teammate, Kevin Love, some timely perimeter looks. As KJG’s own Billy Beebe suggested shortly after Rubio’s acquisition, in a bench sense for both, him and Love could be a duo to watch this season, and that’s shown some in preseason as well.

Generally, though, while it has been just preseason, it’s been meaningful to see him establish some chemistry with other Cavs, too.

Cavs: Rubio seems to be getting comfortable with his new teammates.

Rubio’s approach in his first preseason game for the Cavaliers, which was a complete dud for the team, anyhow in a blowout L to the Chicago Bulls, was not one I was a fan of. Rubio did contribute in other ways, but him hoisting up a bunch of threes, with him not being much of a threat from there, was puzzling.

Overall, though, Rubio has looked to be getting a better feel of playing off his other Cavs teammates in the last few preseason outings, and even with it not being regular season play yet, that’s been a good sign.

As we noted, Mobley and Allen have gotten quality feeds from Rubio as a pick-and-roll operator, of which they should with Garland, too, as an aside. This play was an example of that, and in time he’s in there with Mobley off the bench, this can give the Cavs energy, even with Myles Turner seemingly getting a bit of it initially.

Just that polish from Rubio should help the likes of Garland with his progression in that area, though, and Rubio’s finishing savvy playing off that threat of the lobs can give Garland some pointers there as well.

From there, Rubio seems to be getting his timing down, to an extent, at finding shooters coming off dribble handoffs, too, which even with it not always leading to assists, obviously, has been a welcomed sight. There have been some instances where Rubio has forced it to try to penetrate and make the extra pass off of it, but I’d expect those to be cut down fairly early on in the regular season.

Additionally, there have been some great lead passes from Rubio to guys running the floor in secondary transition and/or after run-outs, and with his timing and precision, that’s led to easy buckets. This one to Lauri Markkanen on Friday, even after a made bucket the other way, was a beaut.

Needless to say, while I know it hasn’t been the best preseason for Garland, he’s the clear starting 1, and he’ll be just fine. But it’s encouraging to have seen Rubio seemingly get more comfortable in the past few preseason outings with his new Cavs teammates, and with his defense and playmaking abilities, he should be a rock solid backup to have.

He’s not much of a shooting presence, not even reading into him going 4-of-13 on Sunday in a close L to the Bulls, however, he can still affect games in other ways, which should impact games off the bench.

Rubio did have a whopping nine assists in 17 minutes on Sunday in a spot start with both Collin Sexton out due to precaution involving a right shoulder sprain, which seems pretty minor, and with Garland reportedly out because of a non-COVID-19-related illness.

Anyway, to reiterate, it’s apparent that Rubio, who is set to turn 31 soon, can still make a difference for these Cavs, and him getting run in a variety of lineups in preseason will pay off in bench stretches. That’s the same for a number of other guys, too, though.