By the sounds of it from J.B. Bickerstaff, and via reports of late, it seems that we’re close to seeing Ricky Rubio back in there for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s been a bit over a year removed from Rubio’s ACL tear back in December of 2021, and he’s been ramping up his training to get back into game shape.
Cleveland should reportedly have Rubio back in the fold in early January, which should be a meaningful playmaking bump for the Cavs, which should help Darius Garland, for one. Along with that, Rubio’s vision regularly aided players such as Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, and he worked well in tandem with Garland for stretches last season pre-injury. Plus, Rubio had prior experience playing with Donovan Mitchell on the Utah Jazz, which should pay off.
Now, it will take Rubio time to get re-acclimated, and Cleveland will have some things to recalibrate upon his return, feasibly in a supersub-esque role again.
What’s evident, though, is a number of Cavaliers players stand to benefit both directly, and indirectly, from Rubio close to being back.
Here, we’ll highlight two Cavs that should greatly benefit from that playmaking boost from Rubio, in this case.
The first has had plenty of work with the veteran playmaker.
No. 1: Kevin Love
The first Cav that came to mind in this regard was Kevin Love. Love and Rubio were longtime teammates back with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and last season, their connection was on display once again, often leading to quality looks for Cleveland.
Love has dealt with some injuries thus far this season which have disrupted his rhythm to some extent, but he’s still given the Cavaliers a notable lift at times when he’s been more comfortable. He was a bright spot for the Cavs on offense in Thursday night’s loss at the Indiana Pacers, with 12 points and two threes, too, and Rubio being back should lead to meaningful pick-and-pop plays, and Rubio’s timing for hitting skip feeds to Love should pay off.
Last season, Love shot 40.0 percent from three off of Rubio passes, per NBA.com’s pass tracking data, and of his teammates, Love’s second-most passes per game thrown to him were from Rubio last season, for what it’s worth. Rubio’s feel for finding Love as a trailer can make a difference for Kevin, too, and if and when mid-post mismatches come for Love, or if he secures a cross-match, Rubio will find him.
While both aren’t going to have the volume of touches of some other Cavs duos, the threat of that Rubio-Love connection can aid others, too.
Next up, Jarrett Allen is the other key Cavalier that should benefit immensely from Rubio’s return as a playmaking jolt.
No. 2: Jarrett Allen
Allen of course is a go-to lob target for the likes of Garland, and receives his share of feeds as a diver and in the dunker spot from Garland and others. Allen did plenty of damage inside in Thursday’s loss to the Pacers, to that point, as has throughout the season.
However, despite their relatively brief time together, Allen and Rubio developed a great connection as well, with Rubio’s pick-and-roll passing timing, unselfish play and with Allen’s improvements with his offensive game.
One should expect to see those two pick up where they left off in that aspect when Rubio is back. And whether or not Garland does end up missing time, given how he was clearly affected in the fourth quarter after getting hit in the thumb and later having his hand wrapped, Rubio’s chemistry with Allen could lead to quality possessions.
Allen has shown the propensity to hit cutters at times in games after receiving passes near the foul line, too, and perhaps Rubio could have some great catch-and-shoot looks in those instances, also.
To reiterate, we’ll have to see if Garland does potentially miss time, which could reportedly occur, but it’s clear that Rubio’s playmaking abilities can definitely give the Cavaliers a jolt in his minutes. Love and Allen are two guys that could really get a number of great looks from Rubio’s dimes, especially, however, a number of others should mesh well with Ricky throughout games.