Why you should be looking forward to the Ricky Rubio Experience with the Phoenix Suns

There has been a drought at the point guard position the last few years for the Phoenix Suns. Lets hope Ricky Rubio brings some much needed water.

Last season the Phoenix Suns thought they could get by with Devin Booker and Tyler Johnson at point guard, but it didn’t quite work as well as they had hoped (or maube it worked just as bad  as they had hoped – who knows).

So what makes a good point guard? Is it the ability to shoot from anywhere on the court?

Or dominate opponents by sheer force of will?

Average a triple-double?

Maybe its the ability to make plays and set up teammates.

Whatever it is that makes for a good point guard, the Suns haven’t had it. Not in recent years, at least.

This is a club that at one point had Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, and Steve Nash on their roster . . . at the same time!

This was a team that once had the legend now only whispered about in the cavernous hallways under the laminate hardwood floor of the might Beijing Ducks.

This is a team that had two-time MVP of the league Steve Nash running point . . . Again!

Even Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe were better then what’s passed for a point guard on this team the last few years.

Hell, last year they ran out two rookies in Elie Okobo, and D’Anthony Melton, and the poster child for the Over Paid Ballers Club.

Oh yeah, and Jimmer Fredette, Sarver never able to pass up a cheap way to make a buck.

So the bar was set low for whoever the Suns brought in in the offseason.

Enter Ricky Rubio.

Coming off a summer in which he led Spain to a gold medal in the World Cup, earning himself MVP honors, its a good time to be in camp Rubio.

The Suns signed Ricky Rubio amidst a flurry of otherwise depressing free agent rumors, at one point supposedly to be hot after Terry Rozier (thank you His Airness) and Cory Joseph.

It was a welcome breath of fresh air, a thirst quenching class of cool water to see that it was Rubio whom they truly opined for.

And with the collection of shooters he has around him, and a big in Deandre Ayton that can run, jump, and catch lob passes at an elite level, Rubio has the chance to have a career-year.

Rubio isn’t the Wunderkind we all once thought he was coming out of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics when he helped lead that team to a silver medal at the tender age of 17 – the youngest player ever in an Olympic final.

Phoenix Suns

Drafted fifth overall in 2009 by the Minnesota Timberwolves he showed early flashes of what made him so talked about.

But poor roster construction and an early knee injury took it’s toll on him. That and his shot struggles, shooting only a .458 eFG%.

Ricky Rubio is not in the class of K.J. or J.K. or Nash.

He’s not an elite point guard in this league, or even a borderline All-Star.

He doesn’t shoot well from the outside or possess next level speed.

But what Rubio is is exactly what this team needs at exactly the right time.

At 28-years-old and entering the prime of his career, he is what he is, a middle class Jason Kidd, someone on the constant lookout to set up a teammate.

He’s the kind of player that is genuinely interested in his teammates success – the teams success – and not just out to pad his own stat line.

Hey – and he plays good D, something sorely lacking on this team.

He is a floor general.

He is almost universally beloved by former teammates and you never hear a bad word about him around the league. He’s the kind of player other players want to play with. This isn’t nothing.

For a franchise that has taken a beating for being cheap and petty and mismanaged, goodwill is at a premium.

So when you watch the Phoenix Suns this year, appreciate what you have, or, at the very least, appreciate what you don’t have running the point.

It could have been worse. It could have been a tall glass of warm dishwater meant to quench your thirst.