STOB's Rubio Watch: Rookie Comparison with Russell Westbrook

Totally different styles, but not so different numbers?

Has Rubio hit the rookie wall?  Or is Rubio always going shoot under 20% every night for the rest of year like he has 4 out of the last 6 games?  His scoring and shooting has fallen off of late, but so has creating for others.  Rubio in the first 25 games of the season had double digit assists in 13 of the 25 games, since only 1 double digit assist game in the last 15.  Even though Rubio isn't putting up some of the more impressive numbers he was earlier this year, he is still making a lot of little plays and with those plays the Wolves are winning.  The Pups sit at 21-19 and in the eighth spot in the Western Conference, primed for a run at the playoffs for the first time since 2004.  Let's take a look at how Rubio's numbers compare to Russell Westbrook's numbers through 40 games of each of their rookie campaigns in the first STOB Rubio Watch comparison in over a month!  

TO THE STIBITEY-STABITEY-STOBITEY-STATS!

Ricky Rubio Through 40 Games -

Totals																		Shooting			Per Game
G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	3P	3PA	FT	FTA	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	FG%	3P%	FT%	PTS	TRB	AST
40	30	1365	134	377	31	92	122	152	20	147	167	326	89	7	127	93	421	.355	.337	.803	10.5	4.2	8.2

Current PER - 14.9 (down 2.5 since last RW on 2/7/12)

Look past the gross field goal percentage and there is nothing to be ashamed of here for Rubio.  Unfortunately everything has really fallen off lately.  Looking at his splits from each month of this season you can really see the fall off and if the Wolves are going to continue to be successful they will need Rubio to turn this around:

Split	Value	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	3P	3PA	FT	FTA	ORB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	FG%	3P%	FT%	MP	PTS	TRB	AST
Month	December	3	0	85	8	13	2	3	6	8	0	14	22	4	0	8	8	24	.615	.667	.750	28.2	8.0	4.7	7.3
	January	18	11	638	70	191	15	45	61	74	9	85	164	43	4	60	41	216	.366	.333	.824	35.5	12.0	4.7	9.1
	February	15	15	517	48	143	13	38	41	52	4	56	116	36	3	50	34	150	.336	.342	.788	34.5	10.0	3.7	7.7
	March	4	4	125	8	30	1	6	14	18	7	12	24	6	0	9	10	31	.267	.167	.778	31.2	7.8	3.0	6.0

March so far is Rubio's worst month to date, albeit with only four games completed.  Though the numbers put up in March are reflecting what Wolves fans have seen over the past few weeks, not just the last four games.  Rubio is obviously, as stated before, going to have to work on his jump shot.  More than that though, Rubio will need to work on finishing around the basket.  Too often he goes in and throws up an odd, off balance, across the  body, fading, ugly thing that is more a prayer that he gets fouled than a shot, shot.  He needs to also learn to use his body to eliminate shot blockers and get lay ups, up, instead of swatted.  Luckily JJ Barea and Luke Ridnour know something about these issues and should be great teachers this off season for young Ricky.

Russell Westbrook rookie year through 40 games -

Totals																		Shooting			Per Game
G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	3P	3PA	FT	FTA	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	FG%	3P%	FT%	PTS	TRB	AST
40	23	1230	202	492	17	56	154	197	83	87	170	196	62	8	120	94	575	.411	.304	.782	14.4	4.3	4.9

Entire rookie year PER - 15.2

Russell wasn't much for giving up the ball even in his rookie year, only averaging 4.9 assists.  Obviously Rubio gets the edge in passing, but more surprising is that Rubio hangs close at all with Westbrook in scoring and even though he isn't as super athletic or strong, is in a dead heat in rebounding.  Not saying Rubio will ever be as explosive scoring wise as Westbrook, as they are totally different athletes.  Yet, Rubio will obviously improve his finishing and shooting, and with that his scoring numbers should drastically improve from these rookie numbers.

Here are Russell's numbers by the month to compare the NBA season's grind on the rookies:

Split	Value	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	3P	3PA	FT	FTA	ORB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	FG%	3P%	FT%	MP	PTS	TRB	AST
Month	October	1	0	22	4	9	1	2	4	6	4	4	4	0	1	2	2	13	.444	.500	.667	21.9	13.0	4.0	4.0
	November	17	1	462	70	203	6	25	62	76	31	56	69	32	5	42	42	208	.345	.240	.816	27.2	12.2	3.3	4.1
	December	15	15	496	85	184	8	20	54	70	36	76	76	20	1	60	33	232	.462	.400	.771	33.1	15.5	5.1	5.1
	January	14	14	486	81	185	7	22	62	75	26	69	77	16	2	38	31	231	.438	.318	.827	34.7	16.5	4.9	5.5
	February	12	12	439	78	205	7	31	84	97	37	73	71	14	2	47	31	247	.380	.226	.866	36.6	20.6	6.1	5.9
	March	15	15	516	88	221	4	18	50	61	23	74	82	16	3	59	37	230	.398	.222	.820	34.4	15.3	4.9	5.5
	April	8	8	247	30	88	2	11	33	43	21	47	56	12	2	26	15	95	.341	.182	.767	30.9	11.9	5.9	7.0

Nothing too telling here, other than in March, Westbook's numbers also falling off in scoring as well in his rookie year.  February through March Russell's shooting percentages fell off the map as well.  Throw in the condensed season due to the lockout and Rubio's slump, he is currently in, is very understandable.  

Even with the slump, Rubio is still comparing well to a NBA superstar in Russell Westbook.  You hope his play picks back up some, but I think we now are seeing what we should expect to see from Rubio for the rest of his rookie campaign.  As Rubio plateaus it seems Derrick Williams' season  is starting to take off.  Look for a Derrick Williams rookie watch on STOB soon and check out his comparison with Kevin Love if you haven't already and if you have...look at it again for shats and giggles.

Thanks, as always, to Basketball-Reference.com for providing the stats in this post.

Past Rubio Comparisons -

Chris Paul
Steve Nash
Jason Kidd
John Wall
Stephon Marbury

Kyrie Irving