Rockets showing interest in trading for Ricky Rubio?

As I said, you must be on bbholic's payroll.

 

Rubio+MDA system=thoughts ?

 

Noooo, dude cant shoot. No floor spacing, pretty much usless.

 

Yep, no one like James turn overs and they definitely hurt the team but the proof is out there. Is there a sane person on the planet that thinks the Rockets make the play-offs last season or the last couple of seasons if they replace James Harden with Ricky Rubio.

 

can't put the ball in the basket. He would still play off the ball with Harden on the court. He would be a major offensive liability missing 2 foot lay-ups.

 

Need to let this Rubio thread die already.

 

What I like a lot is that Rubio is a top 5 defender and passer at the PG. Sucks that he can't score from anywhere, but you can't knock that he's a top 5, maybe even top 3 defender and dime dropper in the league, plus he's only 25, and isn't a headcase.

I'd definitely take him, that being said I don't think we have the assets to do so, and I'm not sure if Minny will be looking to move him or not, I guess that will end up entirely on the draft and who they select (possibly Murray/Dunn)

Our best offer would be centered around Capela, KJ/Dekker and picks. They already have Dieng, Pekovic and Towns in the front court so there would have to have a 3rd team involved.

 

With at least a reliable and consistent outside shot he would be a top 5 point guard. I like him, but his weakness without the ball rises a big "?" in me if i have to think about having him here...and btw i really don't think we have the assets to get him unless Thibs is really bad in trading player (which may be true, we'll see) and he's ok in taking something like Beverley, Ariza and a 2nd rounder.

 

Yes, Rubio is an excellent passer, a good defender, a decent rebounder for his position, and an excellent free throw shooter, but he can't hit the broad side of a barn, struggles to make lay ups, and frequently gets injured, missing a lot of games. In 5 seasons, he's had 3 where he missed a heck of a lot of games due to injury. Considering that he will make around $65 million bucks the next 3 seasons, I'm wary about getting the guy.

 

For a 7 seconds are less offense where all your guards need to be a threat to shoot off the dribble, this would be an awful fit.

If he ever learned to be a mediocre shooter he would be an absolute monster, though.

 

Okay big boy smartie pants, wrap your little pea brain around this analysis. (If you possibly can.)

Fact 1: Last season Rubio handled the ball for an average o f 7 minutes per game while James handled the ball for 6.3 minutes per game. (http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/pl...ir=1&Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Regular Season)

For the purposes of simplicity we're going to assume that they both handled the ball the same amount of time per game. (You'll be glad we did when I'm through because if James actually handled the ball as much as Rubio does this analysis would make him look even worse.)

We're also going to make the assumption that Rubio puts up the same amount of shots or uses as many possessions as James does. This is a huge assumption and it distorts the analysis almost double in James' favor because we are exaggerating Rubio's usage so much. But I'm doing it this way so some lame brain can't come along with the excuse that "James makes up for his turnovers because he shoots so much" or make up some other bullcrap.

Thirdly, we're going to assume turnovers are worth 2 points against. They're actually worth around 2.2 points. 1.1 points for the loss of a possession and 1.1 points on the defensive end for the opponent getting an extra possession. This favors James as well since he is the king of turnovers.

And fourth we're going to assume Rubio maintains his same crappy shooting percentages if he takes a high volume of shots. This assumption could work either for or against Rubio. A case could be made that his shooting would get even worse on a high volume of shots or a case could be made that he'd get better on a high volume of shots.

So,

Assumption 1: Both players handle the ball the same amount of time.
Assumption 2: Both players have the same (Harden's) usage rate.
Assumption 3: Turnovers are worth 2 points.
Assumption 4: Rubio's shooting percentages stay the same on James' usage rate.

The first three assumptions favor James. The last one could go either way.

2-pointers
James shot .494 on 11.7 2-point attempts per game last season. That's 11.56 points.
Rubio shot .396 on 2-pointers. If he took 11.7 2-point attempts, that would be 9.27 points.
That's a difference of 2.29 points in James' favor. Yay!


3-pointers
James shot .359 on 8 3-pointers per game for a total of 8.62 points.
Rubio shot. 326 on 3's. On 8 3-point attempts that's a total of 7.82 points.
That's a difference of 0.8 points in James' favor. Yay! Yay!


Free throws
James shot .860 on 10.2 free throw attempts per game for a total of 8.77 points.
Rubio shot .847 from the FT line. On 10.2 attempts that's a total of 8.64 points.
Once again a difference in James' favor of .13 points per game. Yay! Yay! Yay!


Turnovers
James averaged 4.6 turnovers per game last season. Uh oh, that's 9.2 points lost.
Rubio averaged 2.5 turnovers per game. That's 5 points.

Do the math......if you can. That's a net difference of 0.98 points in Rubio's favor. �� You don't say!

Even if you think Rubio's shooting percentages would go down with a high volume of shots, he'd have to go down to 30% on 2-point shots for his shooting to be as bad as Hardens turnovers.


=========================================================================


Now let's go to the real world. Rubio doesn't take half as many shots as Harden does. So if you actually netted out the difference of points if Rubio was as good a shooter as Harden is, the disparity would be even greater.

And the reason is simple. Rubio is a ball distributor, an offensive facilitator. His job is not to score the ball. His job is to help the other 4 guys score the ball by creating open shots for them so they can catch the ball and put it in the basket. Rubio can score the ball effectively as the fifth option for his team. Unfortunately for him, since he's the fifth opton and he is the primary distributor/creator for his team when the play breaks down and he can't generate movement from his team or the right movement from his team then he's left taking crappy shots.

Rubio's shooting percentages are the result of being the primary distributor and fifth offensive option. But he's so smart he minimizes those shots.

James, on the other hand, is a scorer. And as a scorer he's a flat out monster. But he's not even a good ball distributor, much less a great ball distributor like Rubio. And that's why he put up huge numbers and we finished .500. James is simply not a gifted distributor and he can't play the dual role of primary scorer and primary distributor effectively. It's too much Harden and it hurts his scoring efficiency as well as limits the efficiency of the offense he runs. James is a great player but he needs his Pippen. He's never going to win a championship by being both the primary scorer and distributor.

Anybody that believes Rubio's shooting hurts his team more than Hardens turnovers hurt his team simply don't know what they're talking about. The facts speak too loud to ignore. I am waiting to see what MDA does here. If he's truly the offensive basketball genius that he is reputed to be then he already knows what I'm saying and he's going to make sure he has a primary distributor on the floor to take the load off James and make James and our team more efficient. I'll be watching to see who our primary point becomes next season or whether it's just a continuation of this past season. I would love to see Rubio here. He'd be sensational in an uptempo system. And he'd make us much better just playing the right role for a better roster. Trading for him is doubtful. But nowhere as doubtful as us attempting to win a championship with Harden as the primary distributor. Because Harden is a high turnover player. And turnovers hurt a team way more than missed shots do.

Got it, MistaL?

 

One thing i can see, or at least i can think positive though, is that playing in a better team, surrounded by better players (Harden), could actually help him shoot a bit better since he would have better looks than what he had in Minny these past years.

 

IF, and it's a huge if at this point, but IF we traded for Rubio, it would not be for Rubio to stand in the corner shooting 3's. It would be to make Rubio the point and move Harden off the ball while Rubio is on the floor. Playing with Harden would increase Rubio efficiency because his assists would go up to around 12 a game and his usage would decrease with the few shots he took being wide open layups, 3-balls, or trips to the line along with the elimination of the outside the paint 17-23 foot 2-point jumper that Rubio is forced to take now because of the system he is playing in and the kids he is playing with.

 

Will harden understand that his role on offense has been reduced because Rubio is running the who? Does harden have the skill to be more than a ISO player? Can he develop a midrange consistent jumper and learn to attack the rim with is right hand?

so many questions so so many

 

One of the dumbest posts I've read on this site.

 

To me that's obvious. I also think this was basically the idea they had when they traded for Lawson so, i think in fact they are all (i mean Harden and Morey) ok with this idea, if not, the Lawson trade doesn't make sense.

And yeah, that's what i meant, he played with bad shooters and creators/passers in Minny, he would certainly benefit by playing with better shooters and passers, just because he would shoot less and in better situations.

Personally i'm just not sure if his shot would rise enough, but as last dowel of the puzzle i'd take him.

 

This is such a horrendous comparison.

So you're naturally assuming Rubio is going to keep his FG% the more he shoots?

You do know there's a correlation between players taking many more shots, and their FG% going down. You know that right?

But let's even look past that simple fact (which ends your narrative completely)

James Harden would have taken more open looks last season, than Ricky Rubio would have taken contested looks.

To spit that out another way, ONE WAS GUARDED LIKE THE BEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE, AND THE OTHER WAS.... WELL.... NOT GUARDED AT ALL BECAUSE HE IS ABYSMAL AT SHOOTING THE BALL.

I honestly thought this was common sense.

You got to ease up on this terribly inadequate arguement.

 

You are better than this.

 

There's so many variables that he's not accounting for, it's ridiculous. To name a few...

If Rubio was to take as many shots as Harden, he would have to be way more aggressive. If he's more aggressive, he's going to turn the ball over more.

If he shoots more, his percentages will go down. The reason why they are where they are is because he almost exclusively takes shots only when he's open. And his percentages are terrible considering how selective he's being. It's awful.

Then add in the fact that he's not being guarded nearly as tough as teams are guarding Harden. If they guarded Rubio like they guarded James, his percentages would go down even more and his turnover would go up.

And this is assuming Rubio could even get off as many shots as James takes. He wouldn't be able to. James is able to create opportunities for himself to score. Rubio can't.



With the shots Rubio takes, he should be WAY more efficient.


Just an awful argument on his part.

 

He's not.