Minnesota Timberwolves: Ricky Rubio is working with shooting coach

A long-awaited sensation while playing in Spain, it can be easy to forget that Ricky Rubio is only 23-years-old despite playing professional basketball since he was 14 years old. He is an extremely gifted passer, blessed with exceptional vision and anticipation. However, he can’t shoot for a lick.

In fact, Rubio is on pace to be one of the worst shooters in the history of the NBA. With a career shooting percentage of .368, Rubio is the 1,968th worst shooter since the shot clock era (out of 2,030 qualifying players who have played at least 100 games), according to basketball-reference.com.

I mean, just look at his shot chart via NylonCalculus.com.

Brrrrr.

All that blue is why Rubio has been working with a shooting coach this summer, and Flip Saunders plans on adding a full-time shooting coach to the Minnesota Timberwolves staff.

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Without Kevin Love, the Wolves are going to need Rubio to take a step forward as an offensive player. Former general manager David Kahn previously decided to give Rubio a big contract and not extend Love. Not having Love locked up long term certainly helped him force his way out of Minnesota.

Now Rubio is the furry face of the franchise. Already a solid facilitator and defender, he’ll have to average more than 10 points a game if he wants to truly be an impact NBA player. He doesn’t have to be Stephen Curry out on the floor–his fantastic ball delivery will still be the predominant aspect of his game–but 12-14 points a game is realistic and, mainly, improving that shooting percentage is key.