I like the Jazz, but I like Ricky Rubio even more (I think because of his eyes that have a hidden depth behind their shimmering radiance), and I just don’t think that this “everyone touches the ball” thing the Jazz have going on is playing to Rubio’s strengths. It might be better for the team, we don’t really know, but it’s definitely not better for Rubio and his ongoing quest to accumulate enough statistical units to make the Hall of Fame.
In Minnesota, he got the ball. No one else got the ball unless he was passing it to them. It’s debatable how much success his ball-having-ness brought to the Timberwolves, but he sure racked up a lot of assists, especially when Karl Anthony-Towns appeared on the scene. They had the best two-man game in the league for a while there, I am convinced.
Now, he’s only averaging 6 assists per game. That’s better than last year, but still an anemic total for one of the most hyped Euro PGs of all time. Maybe THE most hyped. I was expecting Pete Maravich; instead I get… what? A worse Darren Collison with pretty eyes? Okay, bad comparison, but still. Even if Rubio can’t really score (some of his missed layups are utterly baffling), he can definitely run pick-and-pops with Derrick Favors all day long to get those assist totals up. Game 3, make it happen. The current plan isn’t working.