How Ricky Rubio Is Tearing Up the NBA in His Rookie Season

Ricky Rubio is tearing up the NBA in his rookie season.

While he has not made the Timberwolves into winners, he is making them more competitive and,  more importantly (at least for now), he's making them watchable. 

I get what you're thinking. How can being watchable be more important than winning.

I'll tell you why. Minnesota is why. 

Minnesota is a small market team in a cold-weather city. Free agents aren't clamoring to go there. 

When players see Rubio making everyone around getting into the highlight reel, it makes them think, "That could be me."

It think when people hear about Rubio, they are expecting to see an extraordinarily athletic player.

But that's not what he is. He's an incredibly smart player with a feel for the game that helps make his teammates find easy scoring opportunities. 

For instance in this video see how the subtle but brilliant fake (which the cameraman bit on too) freezes Ronnie Price, creating a scoring chance for Anthony Randolph. 

In this video, see how he uses Josh Smith to inadvertently set a "pick" on teammate Joe Johnson, allowing Kevin Love to come off the "screen" and get an easy scoring chance.

In this clip, notice how he glances to the right as he releases the pass, momentarily getting the entire Hawks team to think he's passing it out the right. To a man, the Hawks all start to lean in that direction. But then, wait, No! It's a lob to Wesley Johnson. Again, he's creating easy points for his teammates with subtle moves. 

On this play, note the way he leads Randolph to an easy lob pass. He subtly leads Randolph to the alley-oop with his head and then, picking up his dribble, throws a one-handed lob in one easy motion.

The plays that Rubio makes aren't spectacular but they get his teammates big opportunities for SportsCenter finishes and easy opportunities. That's the kind of thing that makes players perk up.

Who doesn't want to play with someone that makes them better?

Kelly Scaletta is an NBA and Chicago Bulls Featured Columnist, and one of the top NBA writers on Bleacher Report. He is trying to get better at twitter if you would like to follow him.