The Whiteboard: Ricky Rubio remains vital to the Suns

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It’s almost comical how Ricky Rubio, perhaps the Phoenix Suns‘ most scrutinized offseason move last summer, is now the linchpin upon which their competitiveness may rest within the NBA’s restart bubble.

This is nothing new; the Suns have been criticized for the number and quality of point guards on their roster for half a decade now.

When they tried to play Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas together, they were hammered for the “Point Hydra” experiment (which actually fared well in limited minutes!). When they overcorrected by dumping Dragic and IT to bring in Brandon Knight, they were criticized for trying to make it work with two primary ball-handlers. And in recent, post-Bledsoe years, they’ve been rightfully blasted for lacking even one starting-caliber point guard to make life easier on Devin Booker.

So when they went out and got Ricky Rubio — an actual, real-life NBA point guard! — you can probably guess what happened: Pundits criticized the move, questioned the three-year, $51 million contract he received and went back to disregarding the bottom-dweller Suns, ironically enough, for trying to claw their way out of the basement they’ve occupied for 10 years.

Not so surprisingly, adding a stable floor general to the backcourt alongside Booker yielded positive results. The Suns were never going to storm back into the Western Conference playoff picture before receiving a gracious invite to the NBA’s restart, but simply by winning 26 games this season, they surpassed their highest win total of Booker’s five-year Phoenix tenure … with 17 games remaining, no less.

It wasn’t hard to see Rubio’s impact on Booker and the rest of the Suns.

“Ricky is the general for our team,” head coach Monty Williams said Wednesday on a Zoom call with the media. “We all understand that he makes everybody better on offense. He helps us play with pace, he’s one of the reasons why we were the best assist team in the league and he has a confidence about him, a leadership quality.”

True enough, Rubio’s passing skills have been renowned for years. His 8.9 assists per game ranked third in the league this year, and he basically accounted for one-third of the Suns’ league-high 27.2 dimes per game. But his impact goes far beyond just throwing pretty passes.

By taking the ball out of Booker’s hands, the Suns’ 23-year-old shooting guard enjoyed the best and most efficient season of his career, averaging 26.1 points, 6.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game on 61.7 percent true shooting. Rubio can’t take all the credit for Book’s career-high efficiency, but simply having him around to run the offense, facilitate and set Booker up for easier looks made his life — and everyone else’s — much easier than last year.

The on/off numbers and lineup data back this notion up. The Suns’ five best five-man lineups (that have logged at least 30 minutes) all include Rubio, Booker and Mikal Bridges. He’s part of Phoenix’s best five-man lineup of the future; the trio of Rubio, Booker and Deandre Ayton have logged a plus-22 total point differential; and with Rubio on the floor, the Suns have posted a team-best Net Rating of plus-3.8. When he sits, it plummets to minus-6.5.

That’s just as much an indictment of Phoenix’s backup point guard situation as anything, but even though Booker, Ayton and Bridges are the stars of tomorrow, it’s very encouraging Rubio is blending with them as something more substantial than just a stopgap point guard.

“He’s just someone that I rely on for a lot,” Williams explained. “The way he helped us change the program, I could go on all day and talk about all of his attributes. But he’s a guy that makes everyone better, and I’m thankful that I’ve had a chance to coach a guy like Ricky Rubio.”

The problem is, Rubio isn’t quite 100 percent yet, and the Suns’ first seeding game in Orlando is only a week away. Nobody expects Phoenix to go 7-1 or 8-0 to force their way into the play-in scenario as the West’s ninth-place team, but Kelly Oubre’s status being up in the air is already enough of a downer. Missing the first competent floor general they’ve had in years would send the Suns back to the dark ages, when just hearing the names of Isaiah Canaan or Mike James would coax an audible groan out of the fanbase.

The Suns view these eight games as a chance for their young core to grow and bond in meaningful games. To that end, having Rubio back on the floor and 100 percent healthy before July 31 is monumental.

“I think the chemistry is building up, especially on a young team where you spend a lot of time together,” Rubio said Wednesday. “Like I was saying in the beginning of the season, the road trips will help us, and I think this is the longest ‘trip’ we’re going to be on. In here, we’re able to really build the chemistry up that’s gonna help for the future.”

At some point after returning to Phoenix after being home in Spain, Rubio tested positive for coronavirus, which is why he hadn’t joined his teammates in the Walt Disney Resort bubble until this week. He’s obviously tested negative for COVID-19 since then, but Tuesday was his first practice back on the court. That leaves him and the Suns in a bit of a time crunch to get an essential piece of their rotation back up to game speed without pushing him too hard too soon.

“The thing that I’m confident in is our guys are ready to play, but I also want to be careful and not overdo it,” Williams said. “But I also don’t want to under-do it as it relates to them getting a rhythm. So we’ll make that assessment.”

With the Suns’ first scrimmage looming on Thursday and guards Elie Okobo and Jalen Lecque not in the bubble yet due to personal reasons, Phoenix’s only other options at the 1 are rookie Ty Jerome, Jevon Carter and new addition Cameron Payne. Rubio says he feels rusty, but will take it day by day for now.

“Health-wise, I’m good,” he said. “I had mild symptoms, but now that I’m back playing, of course, being out for like 3-4 months, your legs feel it, your lungs feel it. So it’s just something that I’ve gotta work on. I’ve gotta figure out a way to really give my best to the team but at the same time, stay focused on my health too.”

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