Help from Cavs’ Rubio in this area might be flying under the radar a bit

Ricky Rubio has not played for the Cleveland Cavaliers yet this season, as he’s been rehabbing after tearing the ACL in his left knee near the end of the calendar year 2021. Rubio was later traded to the Indiana Pacers near last years’ deadline as part of the deal for Caris LeVert, but Rubio last offseason signed back with the Cavaliers in free agency.

It’s been over a year for Rubio to make his way back in recovery, which wasn’t necessarily unexpected, though. Fortunately, the long-awaited return of Rubio appears to be here, as he is reportedly set to likely return on Thursday night at the Portland Trail Blazers, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Barring a setback, we should see the veteran lead guard back in there for the Cavs for some burn.

One has to temper expectations for some time with the return of the vet, in fairness, as Rubio is in his 12th season, and earlier on in his career, he tore that same ACL in his left knee. It’s difficult to foresee exactly what one should expect to see from him for some stretch of games in which he’s initially back, at least in coming weeks.

Per a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Rubio won’t likely appear in back-to-backs, for further context, until “possibly after the All-Star break.” Cleveland will have three sets of those until then, as Fedor noted.

Anticipating the same or near-similar production this season from Rubio as in his last seasons’ appearances with Cleveland, as Fedor also expressed, isn’t realistic, and early on, Fedor hit on Rubio “will likely play around 12-15 minutes,” which isn’t necessarily surprising. As a reminder, Rubio had 13.1 points (which tied a career-high), 6.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 28.5 minutes per contest with the Cavs last season.

That said, he still can be impactful, and as he gets more comfortable, the playmaking and vision from the vet should make a difference for the Cavaliers, and alleviate some pressure on Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell.

Rubio has long been one of the NBA’s most gifted and creative passers, has had 7.6 assists per game in his career, most of which was with the Minnesota Timberwolves (who he had two stints with). And in 34 appearances with Cleveland last season following his offseason trade acquisition from Minnesota, Rubio again averaged 6.6 assists per game in a supersub role.

However, one area that might be a bit overlooked with Rubio is his defensive playmaking, too.

Help from Rubio as a defensive disruptor for the Cavs, with his feel and length, might be flying under the radar a bit.

To reiterate, fans should temper their expectations for some stretch of games in relation to Rubio, considering he’s got to re-establish a rhythm, and have that familiarity with game speed and game shape again. The dude is also 32, so it’s going to take a chunk of games, one would assume, for his engine to be operating at at least near-full capacity, or near where it was last year pre-injury.

That stipulation aside, Rubio’s still a player that should generate quality looks for other Cavs, and on defense, his elite feel, positional awareness and active hands can help cause more turnovers and in turn, transition opportunities for others, feasibly in spurts. Last season, when Rubio was on the floor, Cleveland’s opponents turned the ball over 3.0 percent more of the time, which placed in the 96th percentile in that swing metric, per Cleaning The Glass.

Rubio is not in his prime anymore, but he has averaged 1.8 steals per contest in his career, and last year with Cleveland, still had 1.4 per contest. Similarly to Raul Neto, one of his former teammates on the Utah Jazz (just like Donovan Mitchell), Rubio is especially active off-ball.

Although the 6-foot-3 Rubio, conversely, has a 6-foot-9 wingspan, which can still enable him to blow up pick-and-roll plays for opposing ball-handlers, and his length can allow him to hold his own against opposing wings.

Even still, Rubio, to drive it home, is a player that can be especially impactful against opposing primary playmakers or score-first guards, and Cleveland should deploy him there as he gets comfortable. But even with some time before he’s nearly himself on the floor, one shouldn’t discount the veterans’ defensive feel and playmaking instincts as a rotator off-ball and in digging into drivers from the strong side, or from erasing passes to opposing diving threats from the weak side.

Rubio’s passing, underrated rebounding, crafty play on-ball as a tertiary creator will get the oohs and ahhs from the Cavs Twitterverse from the jump, as they should, provided there’s no setbacks. However, don’t gloss over the defensive playmaking and active hands from the vet, folks.