1. How many assists does Rubio have to average for you to consider his season a success and his career arc headed to superstar status? 2. How many assists do you think Rubio will actually average?
It's not about just assists, it's his overall game. You can get a bunch of flashy assists like Jason Williams and not really be a special player or you can have a good all around game with less assists like Billups and be a finals mvp. I enjoy watching great players so I hope it works out for him but I wish people would shut up about him and let the guy play a few regular season games before they start saying he's the second coming of jason kidd.
anyone who averages in double digits is a special PG. I think He will not get full starter minutes this yer and will end up with around 5-6 assists this game with some flashes of more this season
I knew this was going to come up. You're right. But....if there is one statistic that is going to define Rubio initially, it is the assist. He's not a scorer. Passing is his primary skill. Not that he isn't a good rebounder or defender, he most definitely is. But passing the ball is where he is going to initially shine. I think we all know he isn't going to be Jason Williams.
The way he plays the last 2 months of the season means more to me than his full year numbers. I also don't rely just on stats and have to watch the player. If he has several dominant games late in the year and his averages aren't great, that will speak very well about his future.
I don't think being a great passer will determine whether or not he's a superstar. Jose Calderon is great passer. Assists are a given for him, if he can't do that he won't even stay in the league. What will determine if he's a star will be how good he is at everything else. If he's not a great shooter he needs to be an ELITE defender and good at finishing around the rim to be a superstar.
So, you do agree that if he doesn't put up a lot of assists, then he has no chance of being a superstar, right? With that in mind, how many does he have to average to have an upward career arc towards superstardom provided the rest of his game comes along as well?
Why are you so fixated on assists? Rondo put up 4 and 5 his first two seasons. As a full-time starter both years, CP3 had 8 and 9. I think you are going about this the wrong way. PGs, whether they are gifted scorers or not, often develop slowly. Don't put so much into Rubio's season averages. As the year progresses, observe how he controls games and runs their offense. See if he explodes a few times here and there and demonstrates dominant potential on either end of the floor. If Rubio struggles a lot early on or has some very good early games, don't read too much into it. After 40-50 games, other teams will adjust to him, vice-versa, he will be past the "rookie wall" and a clearer picture will emerge.
I'm not fixated on assists. I have examined his game. I know the impact he has on the offense even without scoring and without getting an assist. And I also know the impact he has on a defense because of his nack for finding the ball, stealing it, taking charges, and otherwise disrupting the opponent/s offense. But you can't measure most of that stuff statistically. Yeah, steals are a stat and I suppose charges taken are. But the pass that leads to an assist isn't. And the tipped balls aren't. And the ability to lead his mates, get them in the right play for the given defense, the ability to quarterback on the floor and get the most effective play against whatever the defense is doing to you, that can't be measured statistically. It is very difficult to measurably quantify Rubio's game. There's gonna be a lot of posters here who use the excuse that he don't score enough or he doesn't have enough of a particular statistic to say he isn't a superstar. So, I'm not fixated on the assist. I'm simply using it to see what responses are given, what the expectations are since he is obviously a passer. Obviously if a poster says Rubio is going to get 7-8 assists per game, then that poster believes that Rubio is going to play full time minutes. That lets me know something right there. If the poster says Rubio is only going to average about 4 assists, then that tells me the poster believes Rubio is only going to get about 20 minutes per game, which means since he is only getting 20, that the rest of his game is severely lacking. Now if I had asked for everybody to tell me how many minutes he would average, I'd hear the same thing. "He's playing on a bad team, so his minutes will be skewed upward and it really doesn't indicate how bad he is." etc, etc, etc. So, I just went with assists as a simple indicator of what different posters' expectations are.
Until he plays actual NBA regular season games, you cannot measure what impact Rubio will have. You may want to ask people what stat line they expect from Rubio this year instead of just assists.
Its not just about assists and stats. No point of averaging 10 assists if he will turn it over 11 times. Will he make the right calls at the right time? How is his decision making? There is no question about whether he can bring the ball up and execute a play as instructed by coach. All the questions are about what else can he do besides pass? I will be impressed if he can knock down open shots and attack the rim, to compliment his passing game. I will be impressed if he can slow down or stop opposing PGs. But if he just throws a few flashy passes - big deal - whoopty freakin doo.
8.5 assists is better than 2.5. It shows one is a willing passer and the other is a bit of a black hole or a non-facilitating Kevin Martin But the overall context still matters. Brevin Knight put up 8-9 assists a game. He only made 16 three pointers TOTAL his ENTIRE career. Steve Nash can do that in one week.
