If the Utah Jazz go as Ricky Rubio goes, then they’re in big trouble

The play of Ricky Rubio has often determined how well or poorly the Utah Jazz perform. And that’s unfortunately becoming an alarming truth.

When Ricky Rubio is at his best, it often correlates with the Utah Jazz playing at their best as well. We saw this all too clearly a season ago when Utah went 29-6 to close out the year while Rubio put up one of the best stretches of his career. That continued into the first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder where Ricky was instrumental in Utah’s victory in six games.

On several occasions, Rubio has been described as Utah’s barometer. Whatever level he’s playing at, his team typically follows suit. Like it or not, he plays such a crucial role in the Jazz’s success as they depend on him immensely to run the offense and get everyone in rhythm. When he plays well, the Jazz are hard to beat. When he’s off, well, the Jazz typically falter, or worse, are blown out of the water.

Unfortunately, Friday night’s thrilling double overtime contest against the Oklahoma City Thunder was a perfect example of such a trend. Overall, the Jazz had a fantastic game. Donovan Mitchell was prolific until exhaustion and the burden of simply being asked to do too much came into effect. Derrick Favors had an excellent game. The Jazz had contributions across the board.

But Ricky Rubio was downright awful. And as a result, the rest of those aspects were nullified, leading to the Jazz falling just short by the narrowest of margins.

At a quick glance, Tricky Ricky didn’t do so bad. After all, he shot a respectable 4-of-9 from the field for 14 points and even went 3-of-4 from deep. However, he turned it over a dreadful eight times and his defense was downright atrocious on a number of occasions, as was his decision making. His turnovers proved costly to the Jazz time after time, including when they had a seven-point lead with just over two minutes left in regulation but couldn’t seal the deal.

It was an awful look from the guy who, rather than look like Utah’s stabilizing floor general which is what you’d want your point guard to be, looked instead like he was still mentally on the All-Star break. No loss ever falls entirely in the lap of one single player, but if you had to choose which player deserves the lion’s share of the blame, it would undoubtedly be Ricky Rubio.

The good news is that Rubio certainly can play better than he did on Friday night, and I even imagine that he will. We saw what he was capable of a season ago, and if he gets even close to back to that, the Jazz will be much, much better than what we’ve seen thus far.

But on the flip side, the bad news is that we already largely know what Rubio is, even when he does play at his ceiling. He’s been in the league long enough that hopes of him dramatically revolutionizing his game and becoming the answer at the point guard spot for the Jazz is essentially out of the question. His career has proven that he’s not a floor spacer, he’s prone to turning the ball over and he’s a middling defender at best.

As such, considering that Utah’s barometer, a.k.a. Ricky Rubio, has a ceiling that leaves quite a bit to be desired, the sad reality is that the Jazz team itself does as well. With Rubio at the helm in the starting point guard spot, this team can only go so far, and it’s not going to be enough to be a championship contending team.

It will be interesting to see how Ricky closes the season, and even more intriguing to see what happens with him this summer. It’s clear as day that the Jazz need an upgrade at that position, but accomplishing that will be easier said than done. Even if someone does become available, Dennis Lindsey and the rest of Jazz brass have clearly prioritized chemistry over talent acquisition.

But until a change is made or a new player acquired, the Jazz’s ceiling is essentially set – it’s as high as Ricky Rubio can help them reach. And unfortunately that simply isn’t high enough.