Ricky Rubio’s return should pay huge dividends for Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in nice shape right now, as they’re sitting at third in the Eastern Conference at 21-11 on the year, and have won four of their last five contests. Cleveland will be wrapping up their latest homestand on Friday against the Toronto Raptors, before heading on the road for their last two games of the calendar year 2022.

The stellar backcourt for the Cavaliers is one of the league’s best backcourts, as Donovan Mitchell has been a dynamite offseason trade acquisition and Darius Garland is the straw that stirs the drink for Cleveland.

Mitchell has been even better than one could’ve anticipated as a trade acquisition from the Utah Jazz, with career-best marks with his overall scoring and three-point shooting splits. He’s had 29.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds per outing, and has connected on 42.8 percent of his three-point attempts.

Garland has had some inconsistencies, partly because of injuries he’s dealt with so far this season, and in his last 12 games, he’s connected on 34.4 percent of his three-point attempts, which has not been quite at the level of his overall deep shooting clip, at 38.2 percent. He needs to sharpen some things up in the scoring sense, and at times, turnovers can be a key issue with him. Despite that, he’s still had 20.7 points and 7.8 assists per game, and his playmaking for others is invaluable for Cleveland.

That said, it’s understandable for Cavaliers fans to be pumped that Ricky Rubio seems to be nearing his return from an ACL injury suffered in late December last season, which cut his season to 34 appearances. In that time, Rubio was one of the driving forces behind the Cavs’ resurgence, as he turned out to be a terrific offseason trade acquisition in his own right from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Rubio had 13.1 points, 6.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game, in which he was mostly in a supersub-type role for the Cavaliers, and his leadership was crucial for the team, and played some into Garland’s rise to All-Star-level play. It’s been a lengthy recovery for the 32-year-old Rubio, but he’s reportedly participated in practice of late, after having been cleared for 5-on-5 work, and hopefully, it’d seem to be relatively soon that he’s back in game action with Cleveland.

For what he provided for the team last season, and with how he’s been able to help countless teammates throughout his career, including Mitchell back with the Jazz, one could assume the Cavs are beyond thrilled to almost have him back. Furthermore, on a recent of the Hoop Collective Podcast featuring Brian Windhorst of ESPN, Marc J. Spears of Andscape said that the Cavaliers are “ecstatic” about Rubio coming back.

He added the following in the conversation with Windhorst, as h/t Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report, around where the pod is 40 minutes in:

"“He means much more to that franchise as a leader and as a guard coming off the bench than I think a lot of people know.”"

On the aforementioned podcast episode, Windhorst stated how Rubio is “targeting around the first of the year,” to come back. So it’s on the horizon, Cavs fans.

Rubio close to returning should pay huge dividends for the Cavs.

Rubio was outstanding for the Cavaliers in his time with them last season, and it was hardly shocking when the team and him agreed to him coming back in the offseason. Rubio’s playmaking abilities, steady play in setting others up for success and his on and off-floor leadership all helped the group take a noticeable step forward last year in the seasons’ first half, in particular.

Granted, Rubio is going to need some time upon when he’s back to re-establish himself when he’s in games, and this was the second time he tore his ACL in his left knee. So one should temper expectations a bit, given the circumstances.

How long it takes him to get comfortable is tough to forecast, with the factors at play here, and there will still be some re-adjustment for him playing alongside others, such as Garland, Mitchell and Mobley. There’s going to have to be some recalibration as well from a rotational standpoint, too.

However, when Rubio is back for the Cavaliers, from depth, ball movement and game management perspectives, his return should pay huge dividends.

This isn’t Rubio’s show, in the sense that is Garland/Mitchell’s, but with Rubio’s experience, guidance and with the energy he can still provide on both ends, he’ll make the Cavaliers that much better, and he could give them an extra gear.

As Spears’ report emphasized, It’s not hard to have seen why the team is “ecstatic” about Ricky nearly being back.