Ricky Rubio
RETIRED

Player Facts

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 190lbs.

Wingspan: 6'9"

Date of Birth:
Oct. 21, 1990
College Experience: N/A

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 7
Physical Strength: 5
Positional Size: 7
Positional Wingspan: 9
Paint Scoring: 5
Midrange Scoring: 7
Three-Point Scoring: 6
Dribbling: 9
Passing: 9
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 4
Rebounding: 6

Embed from Getty Images

JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Pristine Passing

> Playmaking Flashiness

> Driving-and-Dishing

> Throwing Laser Beams

> Guiding His Teammates

> Slashing to Score

> Midrange Work

> Playing Alongside Penetrators

> Active Perimeter Defense

> Forcing Turnovers

> Crashing the Defensive Boards

> Big-Time Scoring Holes

> Pull-Up Shooting Woes +The Problems that Creates

> Negigible Rim Protection

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

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*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Ricky Rubio is one of the NBA's most talented, intelligent playmakers. He spoon-feeds his teammates prolifically by being skilled at an array of pass types. The 6'3" Spaniard has solid size at the point guard slot and offers premium perimeter defense on the other end of the floor.

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Pristine Passing

Rubio is a savvy floor general to say the least. He has incredible court vision that makes his teammates' jobs a lot easier. Ricky leads his squad in assists and assist points created season after season.

He was third in total assists in 2019-2020 behind maestros LeBron James and Trae Young. Ricky was second in total assist points created at 1398 in 64 games.

He knows how to elevate his teammates through his masterful playmaking. Ricky typically cultivates a special connection with his backcourt mate as he will constantly get the ball over to them in good spots. In 2018-2019 he was responsible for 116 Donovan Mitchell field goals and delivered 177 Devin Booker buckets the following season.

Rubio will pass up a certain passing window with the knowledge that a superior one will soon open up. He manipulates opposing defenses clinically with his elusive ball-handling and pass fakes. He consistently owns one of the league's prettier assist-to-turnover ratios year after year. 2019-2020 saw him post an impressive 3.29 assist to turnover ratio which outpaced sure-handed guys like Chris Paul, Malcolm Brogdon, and Fred VanVleet.

The 6'3" point guard does the "Steve Nash" as well as anybody who tries to imitate the Suns' legend. He'll tiptoe along the baseline with a live dribble to confuse defenders and be ready to sling it over to whoever is open. The majority of guards lack the handle or wherewithal to consistently scan the floor in this fashion.

Playmaking Flashiness

He makes no-look dimes seem easy to execute. Ricky will leave his feet to make passes that he otherwise could not, rather than foolishly jumping without a clear plan. Rubio threads the needle on some ridiculous feeds.

One of the game's premier cutter-finders, Ricky uncorks dazzling deliveries on a consistent basis. When driving especially, Ricky sees the entire floor exceptionally well and locates both weakside and strongside cutters with perfection.

Driving-and-Dishing

When discussing drive-and-dish guys, there are few better than Rubio. He knows exactly how to set up teammates off his own dribble penetration. On his 12.4 drives per game in 2019-2020, he made 6.4 average passes. That 6.4 figure was identical to lethal kickout man Ben Simmons that here.

He uses great interior pass types like the shovel and sometimes a literal handoff to his teammate darting inside. By using these sorts of deliveries, Ricky minimizes the chance of deflections and interceptions.

Rubio is excellent at wraparound passes. He looks immediately for his big once he attracts that second defender in the paint. He'll get the rim protector to fully commit to the prospect of his own layup before laying it down to his big.

Throwing Laser Beams

Ricky has no weaknesses in pass direction. This helps him be an unpredictable, savvy pick-and-roll facilitator. He can go across his body to opposite corner shooters with no issues. Rubio is also superb at calculating how much spin and velocity to place on the given pass.

The Spaniard throws passes that other point guards wouldn't even think of, let alone execute. His teammates know this, and it helps them stay constantly engaged and ready for the ball on offense.

Guiding His Teammates

He leads teammates into the shot on passes ranging from bouncers to lobs. This skill of Ricky's has been mastered by only a few NBA players, with LeBron James and Luka Doncic at the modern-day forefront. It is an element that exists to this degree in only the game's true playmaking savants.

The transition passing of Rubio is supreme as well. The best thing for the offense is to put the rock in Ricky's hands to quarterback the break. Even with the defense is expecting him to pass, they can't do much to stop it.

Slashing to Score

When he slashes to the cup, Ricky does a good job of quickly getting the ball to the glass on his layups. By flipping it up fast he neutralizes opposing big's chances of getting a legal swat. Rubio gets nice extension with that 6'9" reach on his lay-ins with a silky touch off the glass.

Midrange Work

His best scoring avenue on the floor is probably the midrange. Ricky stops hard on his drive and will even take a 360° pivot before lining up a two-point jumper. Additionally, he likes to elevate on a one-legged jumper from about 8 to 10 feet.

Rubio's solid size and length allow him to shoot over more diminutive one-guards. All in all, he made more midrange baskets and even shot a higher efficiency than Jayson Tatum, Tobias Harris, and Nikola Vucevic during 2019-2020.

Playing Alongside Penetrators

Playing off of guys like Devin Booker and Kelly Oubre Jr., Ricky has shown that he can knock down spot-up shots. He drained an even 41% of his catch-and-shoot triples in 2019-2020. Rubio's playmaking ability still shines through when he's on the receiving end of a drive-and-kick. From here, Ricky can attack a scrambling defense and flick in a gorgeous dime.

Active Perimeter Defense

Rubio possesses lively hands on defense. He is usually very engaged, especially with his on-ball work. When bigger players try to post Ricky, he often reaches around for a poke-away. Moreover, his swift swipes continue to serve him well when defending in transition where he is also talented.

Ricky is a valuable perimeter defender. He can guard one's and two's, with enough lateral quickness to stay in front. Rubio makes himself skinny to weave around big screen-setters and stay in the play. He placed in the league's 64th percentile for his work defending pick-and-roll ball-handlers in 2019-2020.

Forcing Turnovers

He provides numerous textbook ball denials each and every night. These are solidified by his length and timing here. Rubio ignites runouts with all the steals and deflections he collects this way. The pestering Rubio is annually among league-leaders in deflections and steals. In 2019-2020, he recorded 2.7 deflections per game. On the steal side, he plucked 1.4 per contest that year.

Crashing the Defensive Boards

Ricky is one of the league's better rebounding guards. He crashes the defensive glass repeatedly despite being one of the smallest guys on the court. He has snared a respectable 4+ defensive rebounds per 36 minutes from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020.

WEAKNESSES

Big-Time Scoring Holes

Rubio is not nearly as capable a shot creator for himself as he is for others and can be pass-first to a fault. His athletic limitations and unspectacular size at 6'3" mean that he struggles in isolation. He offered a meager 0.3 points per game in isolation in 2019-2020, with fellow guards D'Angelo Russell, Kyrie Irving, and Spencer Dinwiddie multiplying that output at least tenfold.

Ricky's scoring struggles plague him both inside and outside. On the inside, subpar explosiveness, strength, and bounce yield a poor interior finisher. The Spanish guard has been below 57% from the restricted area from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020.

He can also get his shot blocked quite often on the inside due to his middling athleticism. 38 of his shots were blocked in the paint in 2019-2020. Comparatively speaking, shorter point guard Eric Bledsoe had his shot blocked less in the key that year on over 100 more attempts than Ricky.

Pull-Up Shooting Woes +The Problems that Creates

On the outside, Rubio's pull-up three-point percentages are consistently bad. He has ended up with a sub-34% clip on pull-up threes in each of his NBA seasons. He gets very little lift on his jumper and at 6'3 has a slow shot release. This is a somewhat bizarre weakness given that he's always been an 80%+ free throw shooter.

His pick-and-roll game is brought down a peg due to his pedestrian scoring threat. Ricky was good for only a weak 0.77 points per possession as the initiator here in 2019-2020. Defenders go under screens constantly, neglecting the streaky shooter. This disrupts these actions when compared to a point guard who is at least a serviceable off-the-dribble jump shooter.

Defensive Weak Points

As with most smallish guards, Ricky proves inconsequential defensively on the interior. However, he will step in and draw a charge for you here and there. In addition, physical shortcomings also hinder his positional versatility which is the main knock on his perimeter defense.

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Beacon Bacon

Rubio's basketball career began long before even entering the NBA, playing professionally in Spain at 14