Journalist Chris Fedor, very reliable when it comes to current affairs with the Cleveland Cavaliers, has written an article in which he deals with the complicated situation of the backcourt (outside game) of the Ohio team, which He has just signed his first season with a winning balance since 2017-18. I mean, since LeBron James left.. However, injuries sent the team to the purgatory of play in and left him in a very bad situation at the decisive moment. The Cavs didn’t get past that new playoff system and missed out on what would have been their first playoff run without LeBron since 1998.
Here’s what Fedor has to say: “Collin Sexton, because he’s a restricted free agent, he could still be on the team. His points would take some scoring responsibility off Darius Garland. Caris LeVert could also follow. It is believed that he could be better acclimatized after a few months, and he himself has assured that he will play better. So they can almost be considered as two signings for next season. It would remain to cover the role of substitute base, and there they want to have a veteran presence that serves as a stabilizing factor: Ricky Rubio, Delon Wright, Tyus Jones… But Ricky Rubio’s relationship with the franchise multiplies the chances that he will return. In fact, a source I have consulted assures me that it is ‘something highly probable’”.
Last season was light and (because of a damn injury) shadows for the Spanish point guard. In less than a year, from November 2020 to August 2021, he was traded from Phoenix to OKC, from OKC to Minnesota, and from there to Cleveland. At 31 years old, he arrived at a team under reconstruction and with few aspirations amid rumors of his being fed up with the functioning of the NBA and of a possible return to Spain to play for Barcelona in the summer of 2022, when a contract that gave him ended. last campaign 17.8 million. He had signed with the Suns, in the summer of 2019, for three years and 51 million dollars.
However, in Ohio things went great for him. The team began as one of the sensations of the course, thanks to the emergence of its young core: Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen (both have been all star this season) and rookie phenom Evan Mobley. Ricky emerged as a pivotal presence on the court, a seasoned veteran point guard who helped uncork Garland and filled many needs on the court, almost like an extension of coach JB Bickerstaff. He played 34 games at a high level, eight of them as a starter, and he averaged 13.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists. In the first third of the season, his future in the NBA seemed bright again, he was happy and there was talk of an offer to continue in Cleveland but also of the interest of contenders for the ring in the winter market.
But in December, Ricky broke the cruciate in his left knee (a second similar injury, too). Once it was confirmed that he would not play again this season, and with a contract that ends this summer, Ricky was traded to the Pacers in the operation that facilitated the arrival of Caris LeVert to the Cavs. In Indiana they knew that Ricky would not play there, but they took advantage of the operation to ‘rent‘his contract a few months and fully release that wage bill now.
Ricky will not be able to start the season on the track. But he will have offers, surely not because of the years and the amounts that he would have been able to sign, without the injury, given the level that he displayed in the first months of the course. Since he was transferred, what Fedor now points out has been rumored: that there may be mutual interest, even a verbal agreement, for a return with a new contract with the Cavs. That, too, seems to be on the table even if Collin Sexton (injured for most of last season) and LeVert (who has disappointed since his arrival) are still on the team. The harmony with the franchise, the coach and the new Superstar, Darius Garland, it’s obvious. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a return to the Cavs seems like plan A for Ricky right now.
