{"id":22916,"date":"2019-06-30T20:15:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T00:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22916"},"modified":"2019-06-30T20:15:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T00:15:31","slug":"ricky-rubio-signs-with-phoenix-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/06\/30\/ricky-rubio-signs-with-phoenix-suns\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricky Rubio Signs with Phoenix Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rubiori01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ricky Rubio<\/strong><\/a> will sign the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/phoenix-suns\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phoenix Suns<\/a>. According to Shams Charania, Rubio has agreed to a three-year deal with the Suns worth $51 million. For his career, Rubio has averaged 11.1 points per game, 7.7 assists per game, and 4.2 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ricky Rubio has agreed to a 3-year, $51M deal with Suns, per <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ShamsCharania<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1r4FDiasRY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1r4FDiasRY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1145459383234523136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 30, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Phoenix Suns Sign Ricky Rubio<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The Sun&#8217;s long search for a point guard has finally ended. The Suns have been looking for a competent point guard to play alongside\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=bookede01,bookede02&amp;search=Devin+Booker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devin Booker<\/a><\/strong> for a while now. For a while, they&#8217;ve tried letting Booker be the primary playmaker, with mixed results. Earlier this year they traded for\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsty01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Johnson<\/a><\/strong> and his massive contract just for a stopgap. Now with Rubio, they won&#8217;t have to worry about it anymore.<\/p>\n<p>A pass-first point guard, Rubio will be a great fit alongside Booker. Though Booker has improved as a passer, his calling card is still getting buckets. Rubio can handle the playmaking so Booker can focus on scoring. With a career 7.7 assists per game average, Rubio is more than qualified to be the primary playmaker. Now with an elite scorer in Booker, he can focus more on getting everyone involved. <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/06\/11\/nba-free-agency-best-landing-spots-for-ricky-rubio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">He should thrive alongside Booker and promising rookie<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aytonde01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deandre Ayton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The benefits don&#8217;t stop with his playmaking. After his last two years with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/utah-jazz\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Utah Jazz<\/a> with\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitchdo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a><\/strong>, Rubio has experience playing alongside a more ball-dominant backcourt partner. He&#8217;s also a good defender, something that will be beneficial considering Booker&#8217;s weakness on that end. By taking on the best opposing backcourt member, Booker can conserve energy on defense to expend more on offense. At age 28, Rubio is still in his prime and should be productive over the length of his contract. The Suns have been building for years to get back to the playoffs. With Rubio on board and a young star in Booker, they should be in the playoff picture finally.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"XB5WlwBJQ4FRwRf8KzGkLQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/994373316\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'XB5WlwBJQ4FRwRf8KzGkLQ',sig:'NKlLQVMqaOHvMYDZMMQPfMUQ4Egt50NBWA2C4x756Ks=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'994373316',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ricky Rubio will sign the Phoenix Suns. According to Shams Charania, Rubio has agreed to a three-year deal with the Suns worth $51 million. For his career, Rubio has averaged 11.1 points per game, 7.7 assists per game, and 4.2 rebounds per game. Ricky Rubio has agreed to a 3-year, $51M deal with Suns, per [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3086,"featured_media":22969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,3,28],"tags":[1970,65,1419,352,96,297,202,280,314,326],"class_list":["post-22916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-suns","tag-2019-nba-free-agency","tag-basketball","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-devin-booker","tag-nba","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-news","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-ricky-rubio","tag-tyler-johnson"],"modified_by":"Tyler Marling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}