NBA Rumors: Minnesota Timberwolves unlikely to trade Ricky Rubio
By John Buhler
Despite drafting point guard Kris Dunn at No. 5 in the 2016 NBA Draft, Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor doesn’t think his team will end up trading Ricky Rubio.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Sid Hartman, the Minnesota Timberwolves are unlikely to trade starting point guard Ricky Rubio before the start of the 2016-17 NBA season.
Hartman spoke with Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor on several points of interest with regards to his promising young basketball team, including the status/role of Rubio on the 2016-17 Timberwolves.
Taylor told Hartman the following about the Timberwolves starting point guard: “I don’t see [a trade] as a likely possibility. I just think the coach, everybody, likes Ricky. I think we want him to come in and improve on his shooting. But his other things, he plays defense, he gets assists, he helps the others get better. He has some wonderful qualities. I think the coach wants to bring in an assistant coach to help Ricky on his shooting and I think that’s what where we’re going to start out and go and we’ll see how good Kris Dunn is.”
It’s fair to say that Rubio is the type of point guard that new Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau will enjoy seeing run the first unit in 2016-17. Rubio has improved drastically on the defensive end, Thibodeau’s speciality as a coach, and already came into the NBA as a gifted playmaker distributing the rock.
Trading Rubio may inevitably be on the horizon for Minnesota should Dunn flourish as expected, but perhaps sending the Spanish point guard elsewhere a year early might end up costing the Timberwolves a realistic shot at making the Western Conference Playoffs. Minnesota has missed the playoffs the last 12 years and are on the cusp of ending the longest active playoff drought in the NBA.
Shooting and health have really been the two dark marks on Rubio’s NBA career thus far. He maybe beloved in the Twin Cities, but if Dunn proves to be the real deal, Rubio’s time in Minnesota could be coming to an end in the new few months. However, Taylor feels confident that he’ll be with the club at least for the duration of the 2016-17 NBA campaign.
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