Cavs: Ricky Rubio has exceeded expectations thus far

Cavs: Rubio’s offensive contributions

From a playmaking standpoint, Rubio and Garland have been the key reasons why the Cavaliers are eighth in the NBA in assists per game with 24.4 and fourth in the league in assist rate at 62.9 percent.

As we noted, Rubio has had 6.8 assists per outing in his playing time, and while he has had 3.1 turnovers per contest and has forced it at times, his ability to throw guys open and his pick-and-roll feel has far outweighed the turnovers.

I’ll take those abilities as a passer, honestly, and that has led to plenty of open looks for other guys, such as Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and others.

The shots from the outside I believe for others as passers, including Garland and Sexton, for example, will go down at a higher clip the more they make those right plays, too. I’d expect Garland and Sexton, given their shooting abilities, to hit more deep balls as they continue to get the looks as well, which the Cavs do need, to echo what our own Justin Brownlow expressed.

In addition, while the shooting from Rubio in the mid-range and at times from three (35.7 percent on 5.3 attempts per game) will come down to Earth, his craftiness has helped him provide a scoring boost. Granted, at times I would like to see Rubio reign in the deep shooting a bit on-ball, but some catch-and-shoot looks are fine.

Also, he has come up with some transition baskets in stretches in games as well, which has been nice to see in reserve minutes for him.