NBA: 13 Western Conference Trades That Need To Happen Before The Deadline
By Mason McFee
Over the Hill and Through the… Rubio?
Eh, close enough.
The Timberwolves are not going to make playoffs. While a popular pick in the preseason to make playoffs, the Timberpups are currently sitting with a 21-35 and 12th place ‘standing’ in the Western Conference.
When upper management brought in Thibodeau, they brought him to instill a better defensive system. They are (pun intended) literally middle of the pack, ranking 15th out of 30 in opponent PPG. While a marginal improvement from being 23rd last season, they could seek to get better.
While bringing in veteran defender Thabo Sefolosha is a savvy move, they still have a myriad of problems on their roster they should try and address; and I have just the move:
Rubio has been a good point guard for Minnesota’s purposes as they’ve been rebuilding, but he hasn’t been the difference maker they drafted him to be. With Kris Dunn waiting in the wings, Rubio is only taking away minutes to develop guys like Dunn and Tyus Jones.
The Trail Blazers have been looking for a true backup PG; as Shabazz Napier is inexplicably getting 7.6 MPG a game (or less), and Lillard and McCollum are averaging a combined 70.4 MPG. Their careers will be severely shortened if Stotts doesn’t find someone that can spell them for longer periods of time.
The Trail Blazers did just acquire Nurkic to (again) space out their bigs’ minutes, but he isn’t a point guard. Rubio is. While he can’t shoot the 3 ball, he averages 8.3 APG for his career; and I think would really thrive in a bench role. The Trail Blazers might not be the ideal playoff caliber team Rubio would look to join, but there are worse options he could be traded to *cough Knicks cough*.
Now, many of Portland’s freshly extended players haven’t lived up to their lofty paychecks. Meyers Leonard is one of those players.
From reading Portland’s Twitter account often, many fans are not happy with the play of Meyers Leonard. While his shooting line (.367/.350/.962) isn’t stellar, he is making 96% of his limited FTA, and does hold a career 37.5% from 3. I just think he has a lot of pressure on him to be their 6th man, but by moving to a non-playoff team like Minnesota with no competition off the bench; he can re-find his shooting stroke.
Ed Davis is the better rebounder than Hill, but Hill has the better offensive game. Honestly it’s more of salary matching than anything, but I think if Portland wants to get Rubio, they’ll have to sacrifice rebounding in exchange to get a true backup point.
(For reference: I’m counting this trade as the one for both the Timberwolves and Trail Blazers as there aren’t many other viable trades, even minor ones they could make).