The NBA playoffs begin this week and with them comes a veritable parade of point guards whose scoring both at the rim and from great range has reshaped the game.
It's no coincidence the best of the bunch, reigning league MVP Stephen Curry, leads the best team, the Golden State Warriors. But there are many others — Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Portland's Damian Lillard, Detroit's Reggie Jackson, Boston's Isaiah Thomas, Charlotte's Kemba Walker, Toronto's Kyle Lowry, to name just some — who have brought their teams this far.
Lifted by their late-season surge, the Timberwolves to a man are aiming to join those teams next season, but a question looms: Can you still win big without one of those scoring point guards who can shoot the three, break down defenses with the ball in his hands and score 30 points any given night?
"Analytics people might say no," Sacramento coach George Karl said, "but I say yes."
Wolves management probably pondered that question in February when General Manager Milt Newton discussed trades involving point guard Ricky Rubio with Milwaukee and other teams. It's a question that could surface again before the June draft.
Rubio's statistics shooting from distance and finishing at the basket have improved these past two months, but the 25-year-old Spaniard, nonetheless, remains an anachronism: an imaginative point guard who does almost everything on both ends — creates, defends, guides, unifies, maybe even burns — except score proficiently and dependably.
He also remains true to himself. Inspired in his youth to play point guard after he heard Magic Johnson explain how an assist makes two people happy, Rubio has spent countless hours in the gym and works regularly with a self-contracting coach to improve his shooting.
Rubio will never be a shooter such as Curry — drafted two picks after him in 2009 — but he must shoot well enough to make opponents defend him.