Gambo says the Phoenix Suns want a ‘combo guard.’ Four players make the most sense

Ricky Rubio

Whereas Ricky Rubio was once in the camp of awful shooting point guards like Lonzo Ball, he has, over time, managed to pull his meager shooting statistics out of the dumps somewhat, however, save for the 2017-18 season, he has never really had any shooting statistics that were anything to write home about.

As his 3-point shot was never his strong suit, over the first four years of his career, Rubio averaged a mere 20.6% of his field goal attempts from beyond the arc of which he averaged only 31.4%.

Over his last four seasons, Rubio has shot 32.7% of his field goal attempts from the 3-point line and beyond, while raising his percentage slightly to 32.5%, at least maintaining that that shot could be a weapon for him for the rest of his career.

At the same time though, his comparable 0-3ft shots (generally layups or dunks) have gone up in average from 46.7% over his first four years, to 53.5%.

None of this is to be mistaken with Rubio being a fantastic scorer. Unfortunately he’s not. However, he is a legitimate and much better passer than any point guard the Suns have had since Nash.

So where Ricky Rubio fails as a scorer (although that is not to say that he cannot score), he succeeds as a passer, averaging 7.7 assists per game in his six seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and 7.2 assists per-36 minutes in his two seasons with the Utah Jazz.

Of the four potential ‘combo guards’ on this list, Rubio might very well be the cheapest of those current NBA players as well, as he is an unrestricted free agent and not only will probably not need to sign a massive contract extension (it will very likely be extremely manageable), but also will not require a trade of any current players, keeping the core intact, and leaving said players to be moved in subsequent trades.