Should Utah Jazz fans be missing Ricky Rubio?

The uninspiring play of the Utah Jazz and newcomer Mike Conley have left some wishing that former point guard Ricky Rubio was still in their ranks.

Let’s be real, the start of the 2019-20 NBA season hasn’t exactly inspired confidence in the Utah Jazz being the dark horse title contenders they were once thought as. Sure, the season is young and they could still yet turn things around in a big way, but up to this point, the Utah faithful has been left flustered and discouraged with the recent play of their team.

One of the biggest culprits causing that disappointment has been Mike Conley, even before he got hurt, as he’s had a head-scratchingly slow start. Normally a prolific offensive player who can run an offense and knock down floaters with ease, the newly-dubbed Mountain Mike hasn’t looked at all like the guy who tore opponents up in Memphis.

At just 13.9 points per game on a career-worst 36.9 percent shooting from the field with 2.1 turnovers to just 4.6 assists, Conley has been as easy of a scapegoat as anyone to point out during Utah’s struggles.

That poor play has led some to reminisce of the old days and miss the guy that rocked the blue, green and gold at the point guard position alongside Donovan Mitchell for the past two seasons: Ricky Rubio.

Shortcomings aside, Rubio was awesome for the Jazz. He played with as much heart as anyone, gave them a stability at the point guard spot that they had been missing and was as superb as they come off the court and in the community. Yes, the Jazz had probably reached their ceiling with Ricky, but there’s still no denying that he helped establish the team’s identity and chemistry, and had some great moments as a Jazzman.

Factor that in with his relatively hot start in Phoenix, and it isn’t hard to see why some might be pining for him. Currently Ricky Rubio is averaging career-highs in both points and assists with 13.2 and a whopping 9.2, respectively. While Quin Snyder’s system was probably largest to blame, many were disappointed in Ricky’s low assist numbers during his time in Utah. But he’s showing in the Valley of the Sun that he can indeed still drop dimes with the best of them.

The Suns may still not be all that great, in fact, despite their current eighth-place status, they may not even end up as a playoff team, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been much better than expected. And Rubio’s presence as a veteran leader, experienced floor general and facilitator extraordinaire have had a lot to do with that.

The bad news when it comes to Rubio happens to be the same issue that plagued him so heavily during his time with the Jazz and truly his whole career. Yes, his points and assists look nice compared to the rest of his career, but he’s also shooting just 38.9 percent from the field and a dismal 30 percent from the perimeter. Both of those marks are significantly worse than during his time in Utah.

No one can say anything negative about Rubio’s heart, work ethic, hustle and team-first mentality. But, unfortunately, his lack of shooting leaves a lot to be desired. We saw it time and time again throughout the regular season and particularly in the playoff series against the Houston Rockets – Rubio just wasn’t a threat from the perimeter which eliminated the Jazz spacing and was a significant detriment to their offense.

In this regard, the Jazz had indeed largely peaked with him at the helm.

And, yes, I realize that through the first quarter of the 2019-20 campaign, Rubio is shooting better from the field than Conley, but even in a rough start Conley’s three-point percentage is far better than Rubio’s. Not only that, but since Conley has a reputation as a knock-down shooter, even when he’s missing shots, he still commands the opposition’s attention in a way that Rubio never did.

And while Rubio’s career to this point has pretty much solidified that this inefficiency is a part of who he is, Conley’s slow start is almost certainly an outlier. Conley has been a prolific scorer his entire career. With that backdrop, it’s a near-certainty that he’s eventually going to revert back to the norm and be the stud Utah needs him to be from the field.

Once he does and as he continues to get more and more comfortable with this Utah system, I have a strong feeling that Jazz fans will be glad to have him and, while Rubio’s contributions will forever be missed, they’ll be able to see that going with Conley was the optimal choice.

There are definitely things I miss about Ricky Rubio. When he was on point, his energy was electrifying. It made his teammates better across the board. He had a great chemistry with the likes of Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles and Rudy Gobert. He’s an amazing facilitator that could set his teammates up with ease.

But in terms of what the Jazz offense is trying to create and become, Conley simply makes so much more sense, poor start notwithstanding. Because the Jazz have played so far below their potential up to this point, it’s easy to panic and feel chagrin about replacing Rubio with Conley, but once Mountain Mike returns to health from his hamstring injury and gets back in a flow, I’m confident that he and this Jazz team can still reach great heights.

Not only does history back up that assumption, but even in the brief stint that Conley has been out of action, it’s been evident how much the offense has missed his spacing, shooting and facilitating. The Jazz are a better team with Conley than without him. And even if they haven’t fully shown it yet, they will be a better team with Conley than they were with Rubio.

It may just yet take a little more patience before we see that come to full fruition.