Untouchable to expendable: Where does each Utah Jazz player rank?

Ricky Rubio

The only thing more impressive than the Utah Jazz turnaround from 19-28 on the season to advancing to the second round of the playoffs was the turnaround of starting point guard Ricky Rubio himself. After a dismally slow start to the year, Rubio essentially became a different player in the season’s latter half by revolutionizing his game and playing some of the best basketball of his career.

From February 1 until the end of the regular season, Rubio put up 16 points per game on 45.6 percent shooting from the field and 43.1 percent from deep while chipping in 5.1 rebounds and 6.0 assists. He developed an awesome chemistry with his entire team and proved that he is every bit capable of being a playoff-caliber starting point guard.

Considering how well he and his Jazz team ended the season, I can almost guarantee that Utah has every intention of seeing how he can do next year now that he’s acquainted with the team. His improvement this season was phenomenal and could very well only continue to ascend as he elevates the team to new heights. He’s expressed nothing but love for the Jazz and that feeling has been mutual.

He has one year remaining on his contract at a reasonable amount and that may be when the Jazz are faced with a tough decision. Rubio will certainly have a lot to prove in 2018-19 before reaching unrestricted free agency. For now, though, every indication is that he’s their man at the point moving forward.

On the odd chance the Jazz received some sort of crazy trade offer this summer that helped them land a star talent that included Rubio, they may consider it, but I find that far from likely. You can pretty much count on it, Rubio isn’t going anywhere this offseason. And based on what he and this team showed us to close out the year, that’s a very good thing.

Verdict: Not quite untouchable, but pretty dang close (at least for now)