How much of Ricky Rubio’s offensive output tonight, in the form of both points and assists, could be attributed to the fact that Anthony Davis was out for the Pelicans? You could probably take away most of his layups, and forget about a bunch of those lobs to Gobert. New Orleans, very obviously, doesn’t have a contingency plan for when Davis doesn’t play. Emeka Okafor isn’t walking through that door. He’s hobbling through it.
In the first four games of the season, Rubio looked bad in three of them. He often goes through rough patches, but rough patches at the start of a season are very noticeable and can set the tone for the rest of the year. He needed a comeback game to get back on track, and he took advantage of the Jahlil-Okafor-riddled Pelicans to do it.
If things got much worse for him, I would’ve been suggesting a trade back to the Timberwolves. That would be very bad for the Jazz even if they got Jimmy Butler in return; there’s no reason to mess with the chemistry that they have. But seeing KAT so sad in Minneapolis breaks my fragile little heart. Remember the pick-and-pops that they spammed together? Those never happen anymore, and it’s costing everybody.
Those two need to reunite at some point in their careers. There’s still a lot of time left.