Over the offseason, there were plenty of Cleveland Cavaliers fans who were overjoyed when the team and Ricky Rubio agreed to a return. Rubio was signed via three-year deal for $18.4 million, with the third season partially-guaranteed.
Cavs fans were excited to have Rubio back with the Wine and Gold based on how he performed last season, when he was a driving force behind the team’s hot start, and his leadership was invaluable. Rubio had 13.1 points, 6.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per contest in his 34 appearances for Cleveland in 2021-22, following his trade acquisition in the 2021 offseason from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rubio was a significant piece to the Cavalier puzzle, even while mostly coming off the bench in his appearances. His elite passing timing, vision, pick-and-roll play and defensive playmaking were crucial in his time on the floor, and the team fed off energy he provides.
Unfortunately, it was a crushing blow when Rubio went down with a torn ACL in his left knee in late December of 2021, which was the same one he initially tore in 2012, back in his first stint with Minnesota. Realistically, some skepticism about how he’ll be this season upon his return would be understandable, given that Rubio is 32 and will be set to begin his 12th NBA season.
On the plus side, Rubio is reportedly close to a return, and is targeting around the first of the year for coming back, and his presence can still be a big lift for this Cleveland team.
With that in mind, brainstorming potential lineup ideas involving him wouldn’t be an unfounded exercise. We’ll examine that further here.
With that in mind, here, we’ll suggest three possible lineups the Cavs could deploy with Rubio when he’s back.
Getting things underway, next we’ll start with the first potential lineup featuring Rubio.
Potential Rubio lineup No. 1: Rubio-Donovan Mitchell-Caris LeVert-Evan Mobley-Jarrett Allen
In this lineup, there’s the shot creation of Mitchell and LeVert on the perimeter, and with those two, combined with Rubio and Mobley, there’s a plethora of capable playmakers, with Rubio initiating things plenty of the time still.
Something to watch here is how the pairing of Rubio and Mitchell mesh so well with one another, with their Utah days in mind there, and the others can play off that, too. In this lineup, both Rubio and Mitchell, and LeVert seemingly himself, are quality pick-and-roll options in tandem with Allen, which could lead to quality looks and/or dumpoff feeds at the cup.
Cleveland could look to push pace as well with Rubio’s lead passing, and with the drivers in Mitchell and LeVert being dynamic in transition.
From there, this lineup could be plenty functional enough on the defensive end, with Rubio, Mobley and Allen all being defensive distributors, and Mitchell and LeVert could be a bit more aggressive in trying to cut off driving angles here with the others in the grouping.
Rubio will take some time to get himself right on both ends, clearly, but with his length and feel in combination with check mate-type defensive pieces in Mobley and Allen, this group could be just fine on that end of the floor. And offensively, the driving and supplemental playmaking could make this an intriguing lineup for Cleveland to utilize for stretches to come.
Potential Rubio lineup No. 2: Rubio-Darius Garland-Cedi Osman-Kevin Love-Mobley
This lineup features the Garland-Rubio backcourt that was a great pairing last season for stretches pre-Rubio injury. That enabled Garland to be able to play off-ball more, where he was able to be a movement shooter at times, and to hunt shots a bit more it seemed coming off screens in that realm.
Regarding the other elements to this lineup, Osman and Love can both benefit greatly from the playmaking tandem of Rubio and Garland, Cleveland’s best passers, with how those first two are two key bench shooters for Cleveland.
Plus, with Love’s chemistry as a longtime teammate of Rubio’s in Minnesota, it could pay off for a plethora of other Cavs, too, with how those two play off each other so well. That relates to handoff scenarios, transition play, pick-and-pops and/or with Rubio knowing how to be in the right spots from Love mid-post initiation.
As for how Mobley can mesh in this five-man grouping, Cleveland could also run some offense through him, feature him at the elbows, and enable him to function as a go-to dunker spot player, where he’s continually gotten better.
Now, on the other end of the floor, the Cavaliers would need Osman and Garland to be especially active off-ball, and perhaps the Cavs could zone up a bit here and there, with Mobley and Rubio’s abilities. On the plus side, Osman and Garland are guys that are very active as rotators, and with the transition possibilities with this lineup, it could be another one Cleveland could go to for stretches upon Rubio’s return.
Potential Rubio lineup No. 3: Rubio-Mitchell-Dean Wade-Mobley-Allen
This lineup involves the Rubio-Mitchell backcourt, the Mobley-Allen frontcourt and Dean Wade, when he’s back from an AC joint sprain, would be involved at the 3.
Rubio and Mitchell are the initiators here from the perimeter, which could result in a plethora of quality two-man games between them and Allen, who has shown growth with his passing in 4-on-3 situations. That could lead to over the top feeds to Mobley via big-to-big passes, too.
With the front and backcourt pairings in this lineup, when he’s back from injury, Wade could be a great player to slot in as a quality perimeter shooter as well. Wade has connected on 41.1 percent of his threes this year thus far, albeit in 17 games, as he’s dealt with multiple injuries.
However, what stood out from this potential lineup was how Cleveland could utilize four impact defenders with length here in Rubio, Wade, Mobley and Allen, and those players all can thrive in secondary transition capitalizing on their defense. That’s an area where the Cavs’ disruption could definitely ignite the team in games, and of course, Mitchell’s always a great threat in transition on-ball, as a trailing shooter or situational cutter.
There’s tons of possible lineups where Rubio could slot in and make a big difference in his minutes for Cleveland looking onward, but J.B. Bickerstaff and company will have to find ways to get Rubio comfortable in a rotational sense. It’s going to be a storyline to pay close attention to, anyways.
Regardless, it’s great that Rubio is close to a return for the Cavaliers.