Why Are the Minnesota Timberwolves Babying Ricky Rubio?

December 18th, 2012 by Josh Martin Leave a reply »
Ricky Rubio is back!

Well, sort of. The Minnesota Timberwolves are handling the boyish sensation from Spain with kid gloves in his return from knee surgery. According to Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Rubio will be in street clothes while his teammates take on the defending-champion Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena on Dec. 18.

The move may seem strange, at least on the surface. After all, Rubio's played only 34:30 in two games during the 2012-13 NBA season, including all of 16:28 in Minny's 102-93 loss at the Orlando Magic on Dec. 17. He was also held out of the overtime period of a 114-106 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 15. Meanwhile, the T'Wolves, at 12-10, are in the thick of a crowded Western Conference-playoff picture and could use all the help they can get to stay there.

But the plan to plant the 22-year-old point guard on the pine has nothing to do with any Popovichian desire to show up the commissioner or any disregard for the team's postseason prospects. Rather, it's part of a carefully devised strategy to get Ricky back to dazzling with his dishes and the T'Wolves to winning with him doing so.

...

Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by

Advertisement

Comments are closed.