The Cleveland Cavaliers had a busy offseason last summer, adding a number of key players and retaining others to make up the foundation for their breakout season. The team’s towering frontcourt additions certainly grabbed the headlines, but there was another deal that proved key to their hot start.
A few hours before the 2021 NBA Draft, where the Cavs drafted defensive phenom Evan Mobley, they pulled off a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Taurean Prince, salary ballast in the January trade that brought Jarrett Allen to town, was sent to the Twin Cities along with a second-round pick, and veteran point guard Ricky Rubio became a Cleveland Cavalier.
Last summer the Cavs traded with the Timberwolves to add veteran point guard Ricky Rubio. How does that deal look with the benefit of hindsight?
It wasn’t a deal of the same magnitude as the Lauri Markkanen trade, nor did it yield a future All-Star like the Allen deal or the drafting of Mobley. Yet the “Ricky Rubio trade” was absolutely crucial for how the Cavs played early in the season.
A season later, how does that deal hold up? Was it a good move for the Cavaliers, or should they have looked elsewhere to fill that need on their roster? Let’s evaluate how things went and decide a new grade for the deal with the benefit of hindsight.
Regrading Cavs’ trade for Ricky Rubio: What we thought then
Ricky Rubio was once an elite point guard prospect out of Spain, but multiple injuries marred an up-and-down start to his career. He had some elite seasons interspersed with difficult seasons, going from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, and eventually back to Minnesota. Then came the trade to bring him to Cleveland and the Eastern Conference for the first time.
A number of question marks came to Cleveland along with Rubio. He made $17.8 million, a large number for any backup guard but especially one with Rubio’s injury history. He was coming off of a very poor season in Minnesota where he averaged a career-low 8.6 points per game. To give up even a middling second-round pick for an overpaid injury-prone was absolutely a question mark.
On the other hand, there was plenty of be excited about. The point guard position was a major weakness on this roster the year before, and in the games when Darius Garland was out the Cavs struggled to field 48 minutes of point guard play, let alone good play. Rubio, if healthy, represented the steadiest hand the position had seen in years.
Rubio was also a great teammate by all accounts, a veteran guard who could be a mentor to the likes of Garland and Collin Sexton. He was a ball-mover, not a ball-hog, and overall his play on the court was expected to be a positive for a team that needed the help at the position. Major question marks, but also a lot of excitement.
Regrading Cavs’ trade for Ricky Rubio: How it went
The Cavs began the season and immediately demonstrated they were a team to be reckoned with, pulling off impressive road victories and hanging close even with the very best teams. A huge part of that early success was due to Ricky Rubio, who was elite in his backup role behind Darius Garland.
Rubio had his best shooting season, hitting a career-high 1.7 3-pointers per game and averaging 13.1 points, also the highest of his career. That offensive versatility allowed the Cavs to start playing both Rubio and Garland at the same time, maximizing their collective impact, especially after Collin Sexton went down with a knee injury after 11 games.
The 2-man combination of Ricky Rubio and Darius Garland was the best on the team (minimum 20 games played), with a +16.1 net rating in 512 minutes. Not only was the offense humming but Rubio’s size and ability defensively alongside Garland helped elevate the defense to opponent-crushing levels. Overall that pairing was the 18th-best in the entire league.
Just when the pairing was at its best, disaster struck. Rubio went down with a torn ACL after 34 games, ending prematurely the dynamic combo. The Cavs, looking to maximize their play down the stretch, used his contract as matching salary at the NBA Trade Deadline to bring in Caris LeVert.
Even coming off of the bench Rubio was among the Top 20 leaguewide in assists per game, and his on-court impact was one of the best marks of his career. It’s just unfortunate for Rubio and the Cavs that impact could only last for 34 games.
Regrading Cavs’ trade for Ricky Rubio: Final Grade
Was Rubio worth his salary and what the Cavs gave up to bring him on board? When he played, the answer was a resouding yes. From his actual play to the way he unlocked the best in the Cavs around him, Rubio was the very peak of what the Cavs could have expected from a backup point guard.
Yet Rubio came in with a long history of injuries, so while his ACL tear was horrible and technically unpredictable, his track record suggested even at the time of the trade last summer that injuries would be a part of his story. I even wrote a few games before the injury that the Cavs might want to trade Rubio while he was playing well before another injury struck.
In the end the Cavs sent a useful veteran forward in Taurean Prince and what became the 40th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft for just 34 games of high-level point guard play and then the salary needed to trade for Caris LeVert, a move that may be a long-term negative for the team. That’s not a lot of return.
Yet those 34 games were of vital importance for a franchise learning how to win with this group for the first time. Rubio’s presence on-and-off the court seems to have been critical to helping Cleveland get off to a good start and think of itself as something more than a tanking team. His 34 games seem to have been more valuable than most in helping the Cavs then and moving forward. It’s hard to quantify, but it was ultimately probably worth what the Cavs gave up.
Final Re-grade: B
The Cavs could entertain bringing Ricky Rubio back next season or beyond, the relationship already established and valued. Rubio’s time in Cleveland was an absolute success, and thus the trade to bring him to the Cavs in the first place has to be viewed as a positive overall, if not a resounding one.