The Minnesota Timberwolves received awful news last week when it was announced that Flip Saunders would miss at least the beginning of the season as he battles cancer. In Saunders' absence Sam Mitchell will be the interim head coach, and although he will use Saunders' playbook and take some things from him, Mitchell will have full control of in-game management. The Timberwolves are expected to be much better this season after just 16 wins a season ago as they have a lot of talent, but there are questions about how patient Mitchell will be with point guard Ricky Rubio, according to David Aldridge of TNT.
Prior to last season, Rubio signed a four-year, $55 million contract extension that kicks in this season, so the Wolves clearly expect him to be their point guard for now and the future, but Aldridge notes that it was Saunders that gave Rubio that contract extension, not Mitchell. So far in his four-year NBA career, the 24-year-old point guard has been a disappointment, and if he continues to struggle shooting the ball Mitchell might choose to go in another direction.
Rubio is one of the best passers in the NBA without a doubt, as he has averaged 8.2 assists per game in his career, but his scoring ability has not improved since he entered the league in 2011. Rubio is a career 37 percent shooter from the field and 31 percent shooter from three and last season only shot 36 percent from the field and 26 percent from three. To go along with the poor shooting Rubio has also had injury issues and has only played in more than 57 games once, so this will be a big year for him to prove he is worth the money.
The hope in Minnesota is that Rubio can relax now that the Timberwolves have a ton of talent on the roster and he isn't expected to carry the load. When he was brought over to the NBA Timberwolves fans viewed him as a savior, and that is a hard expectation to live up to, but now he doesn't have an excuse as he is just expected to be a role player.
If Mitchell does decide to have a short leash with Rubio, which is still somewhat unlikely, he does have options at the point guard position. Zach Levine looks to be a budding star in the NBA that can play the point, and Minnesota also added veteran Andre Miller through free agency and rookie Tyus Jones through the draft. Rubio will likely go into the season as the starting point guard, but he is going to have to earn his keep in the lineup as he doesn't have Saunders calling the shots, and he has players behind him that are more than capable of making shots.
