The Minnesota Timberwolves have beat the deadline to sign young point guard Ricky Rubio to an extension before he was set to hit the free agent market next offseason. The two sides reportedly agreed to a four-year, $55 million contract on Friday evening.
Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio has reached agreement on a four-year, $55 million-plus contract extension, a league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 1, 2014
As Wojnarowski points out, the deal includes incentives should the former No. 5 overall pick reach some thresholds moving forward. Those incentives are said to be worth about $1 million total.
Rubio is coming off the best year of his young career. He averaged 9.5 points and 8.6 assists per game, while shooting a career-high 38 percent from the field. That last statistic in and of itself has been the major knock on Rubio during his three-year career. He’s not seen as a sharp shooter from the point guard position. He is, however, one of four players in history to average over seven assists and two steals per game in each of his first three NBA seasons.
Rubio had turned down a four-year, $48 million extension offer before, pretty much indicating that his offensive numbers were held back by the presence of Kevin Love on the court.
With Love on longer in the equation, Minnesota needed to do whatever it could to lock up a home-grown talent. At the very least, it was able to do that with Rubio.
Teaming up with other youngsters such as Andrew Wiggins and Michael Bennett, the Timberwolves have a decent young core. It’s now important that these players grow together in order to build a competitive team in Minneapolis, especially considering the city is not a free-agent draw around the NBA.
Photo: USA Today