Ricky Rubio had the most successful international campaign of his career. But while his personal statistics were extremely impressive, they should not be expected of him with the Phoenix Suns: some will be even Better.
ESPN called him the worst singing of the offseason, yet for the Phoenix Suns, he was the most important.
Now FIBA has called him their Most Valuable Player for the 2019 World Cup.
But the stats that Ricky Rubio put up, leading his home country of Spain to win the tournament championship and ultimately himself the award for best individual performance, are not the statistics that the Phoenix Suns and their fans should expect from him come 2019-20.
That said, that doesn’t mean though that he can’t be an extremely productive point guard giving the team exactly what they need to be competitive.
In eight games, Rubio averaged 16.4 points, 6.0 assists, 4.6 rebounds, while averaging just under 38.7% from beyond the arc.
For starters, a career 11.1 points per game scorer in the Association, he has set his career-high twice in the last two years at 13.1 in 2017-18 and 12.7 per game last season (it should be noted though that he averaged those scoring percentages while also averaging his two career-lows in points per game, thus his per-36 scoring was also 16.1 and 16.4 per game).
Should Rubio see a spike in minutes per game (to about 33 minutes per game from 27.9 last season), he could conceivably average between 14-15 points next season, the perfect offensive scoring output for a passing point guard who is going to need to keep the defense honest to best find as many open shooters as will be necessary to run a high-scoring modern offense.
However, his 3-point shooting will be the catalyst to such a scoring average and truly make him the valuable asset that the franchise believes him to potentially be.
A career 32.2% scorer from the outside, Rubio’s 38.7% in the FIBA World Cup would not only be a career-high for him with the Suns, but a revelation.
While never a terribly prolific shooter from beyond the arc (when you know your weaknesses you should always try and avoid them), he has yet to even make 100 3’s in a single season in his career, and only in the last two years has he even attempted more than 200).
However, he will presumably need to ratchet both of those totals up with the Suns, a team that is likely to be much more wide-open and shooter friendly in James Jones and Monty Williams‘ system.
If he somehow averaged upwards of his FIBA number (you never know if that has been a specific focus of his this offseason as was for T.J. Warren last year – and look what that did for the current Pacer), however, that should not be the expectation.
He is likely to remain somewhere near his 33.2% of the last two seasons; not terrible, although certainly nowhere near great.
All of that said, his own personal scoring is only one part of how he contributes to a franchise on the offensive end. He is a fantastic passer, a skill that his Spain head coach recently discussed when prompted about Rubio’s signing with the Phoenix Suns.
Discussing Rubio as a player in the international circuit, Spain Head Coach Sergio Scariolo noted that “he’s special. He can do many different things, such a good passer, smart player, good defensive player.”
Yet he continued, and actually echoed something that Rubio himself mentioned when he signed with the Suns: that he is only now, at nearly 29-years-old, entering his prime.
“I think Ricky is still on his way to improve, to finally get that balance between passing the ball and shooting the ball himself. He is close to the full maturity and best years are still to come for him.”
If that is the case, than his already impressive assist averages are bound to only spike in Phoenix beginning this season – as they did with Steve Nash upon his return in 2004.
A career 7.7 assists per game averager in the Association, Rubio’s FIBA average of 6.0 might seem awfully low comparatively, although it should be taken into consideration when noting those stats: he was playing with lesser talent than he has ever played with in the NBA while also averaging only about 27 minutes a game.
Rubio once dished out 9.1 per game (in 2016-17), and in his six seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves where they played a much more wide-open game than the defensive-centered Utah Jazz, he averaged 8.5 overall.
There is no reason to believe that in an offense that is going to be set up to be much more wide-open than he experienced with Utah; on a roster that has zero ball-handling depth behind Rubio himself and will thus rely on him to play far more minutes at the position than he has recently; and on a roster that is geared to be very 3-point heavy, his assist average will rise well above the 6.0 from Spain and the 5.7 from Utah.
He can, in fact, potentially push his career-high of 9.1 and even, maybe break the double-digit barrier – should his teammates nail enough shots after he has found them.
Ricky Rubio was hand’s down the most important addition to the Phoenix Suns this offseason, no matter what ESPN says, and that includes Kelly Oubre (if you consider his restricted free agency).
Winning the FIBA World Cup MVP is an impressive feat for the franchise’s newest point guard, but while they were impressive in one part offensively, they certainly should not be the expectation in Phoenix.
That said, that also does not mean that his numbers won’t be bad at all. In fact, they could be great.