Cavs: It’s early, but Ricky Rubio is proving his worth

The Cleveland Cavaliers, along with the rest of the NBA, are in the very, very early stages of the 2021-22 season. Cleveland had its season begin on Wednesday at the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Cavaliers had their home opener on Friday against the Charlotte Hornets. They then had the second leg of their first back-to-back of the season versus the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

In that Memphis game, the Cavs did fight back on a few occasions to get themselves back into it, and were down by just one point with under two minutes left, but Ja Morant and Memphis were ultimately too much down the stretch. But there were positives from that, objectively, such as Evan Mobley’s impressive rookie debut, Darius Garland helping the team get back into it after a rough three quarters as a shooter, and the team in general having 38 assists.

In the Charlotte contest, it was a back-and-forth contest, for the most part, through three quarters. LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and the Hornets pulled away in the fourth quarter, though, thanks in large part to Cleveland’s turnovers in the early stages of that period, of which Ricky Rubio was the main culprit. Rubio had four turnovers in that stanza, and they came in rapid succession; the Cavs would eventually lose 123-112.

He did take ownership of that Charlotte L, fortunately, as a veteran leader, as Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com highlighted, and Rubio responded.

From there, Cleveland got their first W of the season in a hard-fought victory over the Hawks on Saturday 101-95, which was awesome to see. They came up with timely stops, moved it well, and were better on the glass.

That said, even with the tough moments against Charlotte, by and large, on a positive note for an early takeaway, Rubio has done a quality job of getting his teammates involved, as he’s done throughout his 10-plus-year career. Rubio is not realistically a player that Cleveland should be relying on to score in bunches when he’s in games, mostly off the bench in a general sense, however, his passing jumped out.

I’d again expect him to mostly be a bench contributor for the vast majority of the time, but he’s started the past two games with Garland dealing with an ankle sprain. I wouldn’t think injury should cause Garland to miss a significant stretch of games, for what it’s worth; we’ll have to see about reports from here involving the swelling, anyhow.

And while I wouldn’t expect him to unseat Garland, frankly, Rubio can clearly be a capable fill-in starter for Garland, and that’s nice to know on the Rubio front. This is not a shocker, though, as he’s been a quality playmaker for a long time, even with him having been bounced around via trade in recent seasons.

Cavs: Far more often than not, Rubio has been proving his worth.

Heading into the season, we knew that Rubio would provide, and Bally Sports Cleveland Cavaliers play-by-play announcer Austin Carr articulates it well in calling the Spanish-born lead guard the “stabilizer.” He gets guys typically in their preferred spots, initiates productive ball movement and can hit shooters, bigs/rollers and cutters.

Rubio has demonstrated throughout his career, of which he’s had 9.1 assists per-36 minutes, that he has it as a passer, putting it simply.

Thus far, when he’s been in there, Rubio has proven his worth for Cleveland on the floor as a lead initiator/facilitator with 9.3 assists per outing, and in doing so, he’s been an on-floor leadership presence. Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Evan Mobley and others have benefited from Rubio’s playmaking abilities, and I’d imagine at times in upcoming games, we could see Rubio’s transition lead passing more on display for those players as recipients as well.

Along with the playmaking, while I know he’s not going to keep hitting 45.0 percent of his three-point attempts, Rubio has made some nifty plays from getting into the lane, and can make some pull-ups at times. That’s played into him having 16.7 points per outing so far, including a 23-point, eight-assist and six-rebound stat line versus Atlanta.

Now, I again get Garland will be starting when he’s back, however, as compared to last season, it’s encouraging to know that Rubio is essentially another starting lead guard option if needed. And he’s a veteran with plenty left in the tank, even at 31, I believe.

Moreover, it’s been great to see Rubio get it done for the Cavaliers, and his leadership on the floor, and I’d think off it/behind the scenes has been invaluable for this young Cavs team.

I get that he’s on an expiring deal, but Rubio could be a player I could very well foresee sticking around past the deadline, and if the Cavs and him agreed on a reasonable deal next offseason, it’d be a cause I could definitely get behind.