Utah Jazz ’17-18 review: Ricky Rubio wins over the hearts of Jazz fans

Despite an inconsistent first-half effort, Ricky Rubio closed the 2017-18 campaign with the best stretch of basketball in his career. In doing so, he emerged as the heart and soul of this Utah Jazz squad.

I am going to throw myself under the bus here. This is a tweet of mine from January 25th:

Up until that point, I truly believed that the Utah Jazz were going to have to trade Ricky Rubio at the deadline if they were going to have a shot at the playoffs. To be fair, I know I was not alone in that belief, as many people were pushing for Rubio to be traded.

Can you blame us? Rubio started off his career with the Jazz on a high note. Over his first eight games with the Jazz, Rubio averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 assists, five rebounds, two steals and shot 37 percent from the 3-point line. Those are mind-boggling, All-Star level stats.

His next eight games though? nine points, four assists, 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals and he shot a putrid 2-for-29 from three, good for seven percent.

Safe to say the jury was out on whether he was helping the Jazz or hurting them, and by all accounts, the numbers stated that he was hurting them.

All that being said, nobody could ignore his passion and intensity for the game of basketball. He was able to quickly win over the hearts of both his teammates and the fans because of his clear desire to win.

While Rudy Gobert is likely the primary reason the Utah Jazz were able to completely turn their season around, Ricky Rubio is a close second. He may have potentially saved the season and kicked off Utah’s resurgence with his heroic performance in Detroit on January 24.

Coming off an embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Jazz season was threatening to implode. They had a 19-28 record, and the playoffs seemed all but out of reach. The game against Detroit was a low scoring game where both teams struggled to get much going. Then, late in the fourth quarter, Ricky Rubio was elbowed by Anthony Tolliver and needed to get stitches. He would only be out for two minutes, before returning and leading the Jazz to an overtime victory.

That was the start to an 11-game win streak and Utah turning its season around. If Rubio doesn’t show incredible toughness by coming back into the game, the Jazz likely lose that game, drop to 19-29, and may never make their historic turnaround.

Rubio would become a completely different player from there on out and evolved into the heart and soul of the team. From then on, he averaged 16 points, six assists, 5.3 rebounds and also shot nearly 44 percent from three. If the Jazz can get that player for all of next season, they have a found a gem in Rubio.

Prior to joining the Jazz, he had only scored 30 or more points once in his entire career. He scored 30 or more points four times this last season, and three of those came in the second half of the year. He posted 34 points and nine assists against San Antonio, 30-7 versus the New Orleans Pelicans, and 31-8 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Injuries would unfortunately limit him in his first career playoff appearance, but he was spectacular in the first round against the Oklahoma City Thunder, as he outplayed the reigning NBA MVP Russell Westbrook. Westbrook’s numbers jump off the page when you look at them on the surface, but watching the games, it was clear that Rubio was more in control and made his teammates better.

Rubio would also save his best game of the season, and perhaps his career, for the playoffs. In Game 3 of the first round, he dropped a ridiculous 26-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist game – the first Utah Jazz triple-double since Carlos Boozer in 2008, and the first postseason Jazz triple-double since John Stockton in 2001.

That game would prompt Westbrook to say, “He made some shots, you know, too comfortable. But I’m going to shut that sh** off next game, though. I guarantee that.”

Well, Rubio would match his plus/minus from the game before, with a plus-22. So while Westbrook’s attention was so focused on shutting down Rubio, Rubio’s focus was on the team and helping to lead them to a first round win in the playoffs.

This off-season will be big for Rubio, as he can work harder to improve and evolve his game to fit the Jazz needs. He proved over the second half of the season that he could be the longtime solution at point guard for the Jazz. Rubio’s confidence is high, and he appears ready to take on the workload to lead this team further into the playoffs.

Next: Utah Jazz tip-off pre-draft workouts with Donte DiVincenzo

I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for him as well as for his Jazz team that he’s so effectively endeared himself to.