This is kind of bizarre. For the first time in Timberwolves history, we're on the media hype side of an awards race.

Don't get me wrong... I would vote Rubio for Rookie of the Year, and I think he deserves it. But Kyrie Irving is quietly having one hell of a season. He's top 20 in the league in PER, averaging 17.6PPG, 4.8APG, and 3.6RPG. He's scoring with remarkable efficiency and leading what should be a terrible Cavaliers team to respectability.

Rubio gets a lot of the media hype for his offense, and he definitely deserves it. But as far as I'm concerned, his incredible defense (is there a better defender at the PG position in the league?) is why he narrowly beats Irving for ROY.

TrulyRaNd0m wrote:
Call me a purist, but leading a team to a 9-10 record while throwing up 11.4/8.8/4.6/2.4 is a LOT better for a point guard than 17.6/4.8/3.4/0.8 for a team that is 7-11 and has not beat a team with a winning record.

By comparison (purely statistical, although I'm not a fan of purely statistical comparisons) Rubio contributes directly to an average of 29.0 ppg (assistsx2 + pts) while Irving contributes directly to 26.2 ppg. Rubio also adds 1.6 possessions per game than Irving (2.4 steals vs. 0.8 for Irving) while turning the ball over about the same (3.4 for Rubio vs. 3.3 for Irving) and fouling about the same amount (2.4 for Rubio vs. 25 for Irving).

Any statistical analysis that ignores the fact that Rubio involves his teammates almost 2x as often as Irving misses the point of the point guard position.

Final note: did you know Irving is from Australia? Any chance he plays on their Olympic team? They'd be a lot more intriguing with Patty Mills, Irving, and Bogut, right? Is Jawai still hooping?

Ruuuuuuuuubiooooo!!!

No doubt in my mind.

Irving is scoring 17 a game sure, but for Rubio to be top 3 in assists, steals and charges taken...damn impressive...His rebounding numbers for a PG are impressive too

Scoring is the most overrated stat there is.

Rubio4MVPoftheWorld

Well, we are obviously all quite biased as Wolves fans. I've only watch Kyrie twice this year. He looks legit. He seems in control (vs. Kemba down here) and is a willing passer. He doesn't really see the floor well yet and fits the mold of a Rose more than a Kidd/Nash/Rondo. He's not as athletic as Rose though. He definitely could be is a better shooter than Rose (already better than Westbrook). From the looks of cavs blogs, he's not really there on D, being lost much of the time. Don't know though, a smart Cavs fan might disagree here.

Anyway, if points per game told the story then we'd all know that Beasley is a better contributor than Iggy, Grumpy old Men KG & Duncan (maybe he is, yikes they are old), etc. since he scored almost 20 a game last year.

Having watched him almost every game Rubio is the clear leader of this team on both ends. ROY, MVP, DPOY, and MIP (don't worry about it, I know it makes no sense).

citing Murphs56:

RICKY OF THE YEAR!!!

Common Ricky is more than a point in front of the Assist/Turnover-ratio:
2.69 : 1.46
And even if you argue, that Kyrie isn't play the amount of minutes, the AP48M is more than clear: 12.3 against 8.2 - it's the same +4 Assist as it is in real (8.8 against 4.8)
And if you take into consideration, that an assist is at least worth 2 points (with Ricky not unoften 3: let's count it as 2,2) than you have extra 8,8 points, that Ricky is co-responsible for.
Adding this to his scoring this would result in 19.9 ppg against Irvings 17.9.
And in this not included is the fact that Ricky is often the starting point of hockey passes. Not to mention, that he REALLY is our top candidat for DPOY... But Matt Winer has noticed, that KLove maybe has another shot on the MIP...
By the way: Ricky is even in front in Rebounds as the best rebounding Rookie Guard (No. 8 overall)... And he even gets lesser fouls in 48 Minutes than Irving (even though Rick Adelman was afraid of this in training camp): 44th between the rookies with 3,4. And even in FT& he's minimally better...
And then we have to consider, that not the Cavs, but we were the worst team last year (and so you can argue, that Ricky even had the harder job)
And further: we had a absurd amount of injuries already this year, so it's nearly a wonder, that we've got any rythm and that a ROOKIE Pg get's along with this.
It's obvious, thogh...

Rubio is great, much better then I expected. But still, Irving is the better player. Rubio has to improve his scoring at Irving's level and then we'll talk.

Work hard Ricky, the future is yours!

wolfenstein wrote:
The idea of him playing there has been brought up in the media. He moved away at age 2 so it isn't like he is really Australian (his dad was an American pro-basketball player there).

The team records shouldn't be considered anything more than a wash at this point. Both just under 500 with the Cavs easily beating the Wolves in Minnesota.

I'd guess if the media voted right now they'd pick Rubio.

pants wrote:
Let's see how things turn out as the season wears on. Will either hit the wall hard? Will Ricky's teammates hit open shots, thus making him a lock to average 10+ assists? Will Irving not remain the most efficient scorer in the league (exaggeration, but he is the opposite of Kemba right now...)? Will Ricky learn to only shoot 8-ish times a game so his % isn't horrible?

No doubt good points DFS. Interesting to ponder what Rubio's APG would be if we had someone besides Love who could knock down an open J. 12+? How many bricks per game do Beasley + Wes + Randolph (+ Webster) average? Yikes.

wolfenstein wrote:
It'd be fair to guess both assists and shooting % go up for Rubio if guys make shots. Unlike Beasley I expect Rubio to take fewer shots when there are other people hitting them.

It's pretty shocking all around how effective the teams been with this terrible shooting.

pants wrote:
I think the true test of this team will be next season. Right now we have gotten a lot of wins against AARP teams who are clearly struggling at times with this schedule.

TrulyRaNd0m wrote:
Rubio is becoming a great defender. Effort comes from within. He's a hard worker and is learning from his teammates Ridnour and JJ. I wish a few other players with greater size and athleticism but play lazily would pick up on the concept.