Ricky Rubio: Struggling Timberwolves could use a "three-hour meeting"

Ricky Rubio was able to play again Friday for the first time since Jan. 13 as he cleared the NBA's COVID protocols.

Rubio said he was exposed to somebody who had tested positive (he didn't specify who that was) and said he tested negative every day he was in the protocol, which allowed him to return Friday.

"Tough. Put my family at risk," Rubio said. "But that's the chance we've taken to come here. Just stay home, try to get all clear. I test negative every day, so I just was in contact with a positive and have to quarantine. It's tough, but there's no excuses right now. And learn from it. And then it felt good to be back out there. The outcome is not what I wanted, but at least I can run up and down the court and feel good."

There wasn't much else for Rubio, who had four points in 15 minutes, to be happy with on Friday in a 116-98 loss to Atlanta.

As one of the elder statesmen on the team, Rubio once again didn't hold back in discussing where he thought the Wolves are. Specifically, Rubio said the Wolves could benefit from a team meeting right now, but they can't have one because of COVID protocols.

"It would be good to have a long meeting, but I don't think we can have more than a 10-minute meeting," Rubio said. "But we need like a three-hour meeting. After talking, we got to execute the words that we have."

Rubio suggested ways the Wolves could meet — more individually or over FaceTime or Zoom, but there have to be talks of some sort.

"I say a meeting, but maybe just talking one-on-one with each other, having that chemistry building that we didn't have in training camp because of the situation," Rubio said.

Rubio said nobody on the Wolves was blameless for this current stretch where the Wolves have lost 11 of 12. Rubio said he has noticed too much "hero ball" on the floor.

"I think there's a lot of moments where … it's 'I got it, don't worry. I'm gonna do it on my own.' This is a team sport where everything has to be on the same page and everybody got to be right all the time to execute and do the perfect thing," Rubio said. "If there is just one mistake from one of the five players that are on the court, things are not working. We have too many,

'Oh, my bad' moments.

And not as many ways to remedy them as a normal season.