I hate to do it, but it’s time to call out Ricky Rubio. I’ve been talking about it for years, but now I’m saying it right to his face: that jumper is WAY too flat to ever be consistently effective in the NBA. Sure, there will be nights (like tonight) when he line-drives in a bunch of low-percentage looks, but what about all the other nights where he kills his team’s spacing and flow by being ignorable wherever he is on the court?
The Jazz are struggling right now. No doubt about it. They’re still close to .500, so it’s not dire yet. We can talk about Rudy Gobert’s mysterious decline on the defense end all we want (personally I think he’s using too much energy dunking it 100 times a game), but the offensive issues start with Rubio. That is my professional take on the matter. He may be being slightly misused by the coaches(more pick-and-pops with D-Faves please), but he’s misusing the ball by chucking it straight at the rim with no arc at all.
He doesn’t even need a shooting coach. Just ask Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles for tips on how to shoot the ball more towards the ceiling and less towards the stanchion. They’ll be happy to help, because despite all the losing, the team seems to still have good chemistry.