Rising or Falling: Rubio Decides the Fate of the Wolves
What was a promising start to the season for the Minnesota Timberwolves now seems to be a distant memory or a dream that was born out of hopeful thinking. What many thought of as a season wherein the team will finally get back into the playoffs is slowly fading away.
The Timberwolves currently have 16 wins and 16 losses which puts them at the number 9 spot in the western conference. I guess not all hope is loss as they are only 2.5 games behind the Mavericks who are currently holding the last playoff spot but things aren't looking so good either. They need to make a big turnaround and with Kevin Love already playing at an elite level and the team is still stuck where they are right now, you'd have to wonder what it's going to take for the team to right their season.
As mentioned, with Love already playing at his best and Nikola Pekovic holding his own, the focus now turns to Ricky Rubio.
A Driving Force
Rubio has been fun to watch since he entered the league. His court vision and topnotch passing ability results to plenty of exciting moments in the game. His individual defense is also pretty decent. He is a good player overall and as the point guard, he is the driving force behind the offense of the team. He gets plenty of credit when the team is doing well. That is why when the offense stalls, he is also the one that gets the blame.
A Liability
As good of a facilitator he is, there is one weakness to his game that makes him a liability to the team. The guy can't shoot. Since he entered the league, he has only been making a pathetic 35 percent of his field goal attempts.
Opposing teams realize this weakness of his and are taking advantage of it when defending the Timberwolves. Knowing that Rubio is not an offensive threat on his own, they can double more freely to make it a whole lot harder for the scorers on the team. Although this isn't the only reason why the Wolves are struggling, it is undeniably a big factor.
As it stands right now, whether Rubio can improve his offensive game or not decides the fate of the Timberwolves.
