5 Big-Name Point Guards Ricky Rubio Has Already Surpassed

Ricky Rubio has made an amazing impression on the NBA already. 

Just how amazing is hard to appreciate without an objective look. 

While it's true that stats don't mean everything, they don't necessarily mean nothing either. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that Rubio is actually better than all of these players, if you look at his WS/48 he's doing better than some of the NBA's elite point guards. Make of that what you will whether it be everything or nothing. 

Rubio has an average .154 win share per 48 minutes. Here are some of the NBA's best point guards that trail the Timberwolves rookie star and their win shares per 48. 

John Wall: Minus-.01

Now granted this is not entirely John Wall's fault, but he actually has a negative win share right now. It's largely the product of having a team that is so selfish that at some point I expect them to actually wrestle one another for the ball. 

Now that would be off the wall!

Deron Williams: .028

Once again it's hard to blame it all on Williams, but his win share of .028 is far and away the worst of his career and is more than 100 points below his career average of .131. 

Williams is having the worst assist numbers since his rookie year, and the worst scoring numbers since he was a sophomore. Granted a little help wouldn't hurt, but it's stunning. That Rubio is at least statistically doing better than Williams is a statement about both the quality of Rubio's play and the quality around Williams. 

Russell Westbrook: .115

Unlike Wall and Williams, it's much harder to make excuses for Russell Westbrook, who has a bevy of great teammates around him. 

Westbrook might be scoring more, but Rubio's field-goal percentage is better, .446 to .442. More than that though there's the huge difference in assists. Rubio is averaging 9.6 assists per 36 minutes to Westbrook's 5.9. 

It's clear that Westbrook is more concerned with recklessly jacking up shots than involving teammates like Kevin Durant and James Harden. He's averaging more field-goal attempts per game than any point guard in the league, and that includes 0.3 more attempts than Derrick Rose, who is the No. 1 option on his team. 

Additionally, Rubio is also playing better defense than Westbrook. His OPER is nearly three points better, 13.5 to 16.2. Rubio's defensive rating is 98 to Westbrook's 103. Finally he gives up a full .09 points less per play to his opponents. 

In this instance you can make a pretty honest argument that Rubio is outplaying Westbrook so far this season. 

Rajon Rondo: .124

This one is truly impressive because Rondo is kind of what the Timberwolves were hoping that Rubio would blossom into. Rubio has the better WS/48 but there's more to the comparison than that. 

Look at the two compared according to per 36 minutes. They are incredibly close.

Player	Points	Assists	Rebounds	Steals	Blocks	Turnovers
Ricky Rubio	12.5	9.6	5.0	2.3	0.2	3.8
Rajon Rondo	14.1	9.7	5.1	1.8	0.0	4.0

So, while it might seem like a veritable laugh-fest to even mention the two in the same sentence, unless you're talking about players who have the initials RR, there's considerably more comparison here than you might think. 

Furthermore, Rubio's synergy numbers are better. He scores .85 points per play to Rondo's .84. He averages .94 both in isolation and in the pick and roll while Rondo only averages .86 and .84 respectively.

Steve Nash: .141

This one really comes as a shock to me. Truthfully, all of Nash's offensive numbers are better than Rubio's, but the difference between the two is defense. 

Rubio's defensive rating is 12 points better. He has twice as many steals and nearly three times as many rebounds as Nash per 36 minutes. 

In fact, Rubio's defense is really something that is overlooked when people talk about him. 

The Timberwolves' defense is nearly 10 points better per 100 possessions when he's on the court than when he's on the bench. When he sits, the 'Wolves give up 104 points per 100 possessions. When he's on the court, they only give up 94.5.