3 Cavaliers players who might hardly see court time next season

Ricky Rubio might be on the way out of the Cavs’ rotation

Lastly, Ricky Rubio‘s rotational outlook might be up in the air, to some extent. Rubio had problems finding his footing last season, because of him coming back from an ACL tear he suffered in December of 2021 before he ultimately returned to the Cavs last offseason in free agency.

Rubio came back from injury in January, and there were flashes of him getting back into rhythm as an impact bench contributor, but by and large, it was a forgettable campaign, involving the games he was in.

Rubio appeared in 33 regular season games, and due to the injury maintenance, he had only 5.2 points in 17.2 minutes per outing. Both of those were career-lows, and Rubio connected on just 25.6 percent of his three-point attempts.

His passing expertise was still on display at times, and, given the circumstances, him having 3.5 assists per contest in that time was decent. His defense was not quite all the way there, but he still did aid the team, to some degree, in his minutes.

Granted, on-ball, there were inconsistencies on that end, in fairness. And to reiterate, the shooting splits were awful, and Rubio was a non-factor in Cleveland’s first-round playoff series loss to the New York Knicks.

In a general sense, it’s reasonable to question if Rubio can get back on track next season, and with Cleveland signing a much younger Ty Jerome, who is a far better shooter, Rubio could seemingly be on the way out of the rotation eventually.

One shouldn’t rule out Rubio potentially having a bounce-back campaign in 2023-24, and his playmaking and on-floor leadership can still give the Cavs a lift, however, that might not play out. In that case, and considering there’s been some chatter about Rubio seemingly down the road potentially returning to finish his playing career in his native Spain, Cleveland maybe moving Rubio or him at least on the outside looking in for court time wouldn’t seem surprising.

Rubio, who turns 33 in October, has had a heck of a career, though. Father Time just might be limiting his on-floor viability with the Cavaliers now.