Shades of Donovan Mitchell? I would say so, minus the dunking. Otherwise, what Ricky Rubio did tonight against the Spurs was basically the same as what Mitchell has been doing lately. With more assists. I forgot about that part.
I’ll be honest, because honesty is the name of DTB’s game and I try to be honest in every word that I write, I had my doubts about Rubio’s fit with the Jazz this year. He had a good system going in Minnesota: spam passes to KAT for free assists. Everyone won, except for the actual team. Turns out, my concerns were justified. Now, he doesn’t get to have the ball all the time, Quin Snyder has a weird system that doesn’t exactly jibe with his unique talents, he doesn’t have any particular chemistry with any of his new teammates, and Mitchell turned out to be such a beast that things now, understandably, revolve around him. It’s fair, but it’s also sad, and Rubio’s stats suffered because of it. Especially his assist-to-turnover ratio. That thing is PUTRID. Damn.
His scoring wasn’t even the problem, but if it was, my concerns would be totally alleviated after tonight. A career-high 34 points, 11 of 14 from the field, perfect in the first half, that’s uncharted territory for him. He padded his stats a little bit at the end from the free-throw line to get him to his career high, but that’s okay. Stat-padding, as Russell Westbrook has proven time and again, is an acceptable part of NBA basketball.