Philadelphia 76ers Still Need to Make Run at Ricky Rubio

The Philadelphia 76ers solved some problems by agreeing to contract terms with Jerryd Bayless, but could solve more by pursuing a trade for Ricky Rubio.

The Philadelphia 76ers reportedly agreed to terms for a contract with Jerryd Bayless. He will be with on the team’s payroll for the next three seasons, and he answers a lot of questions that the Sixers had in the backcourt.

Bayless is a solid point guard who doubles as a veteran presence. Bayless can shoot and space the floor well for the multitude of Sixers bigs to go to work. Additionally, since Bayless isn’t much of a passing guard, he will be able to work without taking any of Ben Simmons‘ limelight, since Simmons can facilitate the offense from time to time.

Of course, this is all in theory. This signing, to me, is reminiscent of the Sixers signing Kendall Marshall last summer. That signing didn’t work out at all, and it’s unlikely that we see the Sixers keep Marshall on the team this upcoming season after such a lackluster showing this past year.

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Even if all of that does play out as we expect it, there’s still some unanswered questions. There’s 48 minutes to be had in the point guard slot, and Bayless is good for a max of 30, and probably more in the range of 20-25. So who takes the majority of the rest of the minutes?

I still think that the Sixers need a more traditional point guard, a player who can score as well as facilitate the ball. After all, even if Simmons can do that, and act as a guard, he can’t play all 48 minutes either. There’s good reason to believe the Sixers could trade for Ricky Rubio. I think they need to do so.

Bayless is not a facilitating guard, nor is he a starting guard. Rubio is.

Rubio would help this team immensely. Reportedly, Rubio is already on the Minnesota Timberwolves’ trading block following the team’s drafting of Kris Dunn, and the Sixers had some interest in him even before the draft came around.

Rubio is more of a full point guard than Bayless or even T.J. McConnell is, and he doesn’t appear to be past his prime. Rubio is 25 years old with 5 NBA seasons under his belt, all with the Wolves. This past season, he averaged 10.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and an impressive 8.7 assists per game.

That’s his best quality, in my opinion — his passing. He’s able to set his teammates up well to score, and has always been good at that. But on top of that, he even scored more last season than Bayless did.

In the past two seasons, Rubio went above 40 percent in AST percentage, meaning that when he was on the floor, more than 40 percent of his teammates made shots were assisted by Rubio. That’s an impressive metric, and one that shows he was important to his teammates success.

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Rubio is a selfless player on the court, and a real point guard that I think the Sixers need. By no means is picking up Bayless for less than 10 percent of the salary cap per season a bad move, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg for the Sixers next season if they’re looking to show strides of improvement. An acquisition like Rubio would really set them up to win more.

Winning a ton is certainly not the goal next year, but having a better season is on the radar.