The Cavs’ Ricky Rubio question: Trade, keep or extend?

The Cavs’  Ricky Rubio question: Extend him

Pros: The second option for the Cavs is to extend Ricky Rubio. He will be eligible to add multiple seasons onto his contract ahead of the trade deadline, and honestly right through until the end of the season. Signing it in January means Rubio would still be eligible to be traded this summer, or the team can keep him in-house to maintain strength at point guard.

The Cavs have clearly captured something special here, and few teams in the league have played better than them over the past week. They have won their last four games by an average margin of 18 points, three of them over winning teams. They have the league’s third-best defensive rating and are second in points allowed per game. This Cavs team has an identity, and Rubio helped to set that.

Young up-and-coming teams don’t need all young players; look at the young teams that “made it” and they almost always have a veteran presence or two playing their part. The Golden State Warriors had Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala. The Milwaukee Bucks had Brook Lopez. The Phoenix Suns have Chris Paul, and before that Rubio.

Extending Rubio keeps his veteran presence in the locker room, it keeps his steady hand on the tiller, and it maintains the asset past the trade deadline.

Cons: The Cavs have their point guard of the future in Darius Garland, who is having a breakout season of his own. He is deservedly playing 34.6 minutes per game for the Cavs, and while he and Rubio have survived playing alongside one another, at the end of the day extending Rubio would be committing significant money to a backup point guard, just before the summer where they likely hand Garland a maximum contract extension.

Especially with the mountain of money committed to their frontcourt right now, that would be an awful lot of money committed to either end of the roster, and continued neglect of the middle. When will this team get serious about investing in wings? They are frequently closing games with two point guards and three 7-footers (Allen is 6’11”, but you get the point). It’s working right now, but good teams have lineup versatility, and the Cavs are severely lacking in that department. Extending Rubio only exacerbates that issue.