Rubio practices with Suns in Orlando
He’s in the Orlando bubble.
Phoenix Suns starting point guard Ricky Rubio participated in Tuesday’s practice as obtained video from the NBA provided by the media of him and his teammates in action at Walt Disney World Resort.
In the practice video that’s two minutes and 26 seconds long, Rubio is doing Euro-step moves to the basket and taking corner 3s.
The video was posted hours after Monty Williams declined comment on the status of Rubio, Aron Baynes, Elie
Okobo and rookie Jalen Lecque as the Suns gear up for their first scrimmage Thursday against Utah at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
“Again, I’m not going to get into who’s here and who’s not,” Williams said after Tuesday’s practice. “I’m going to refer
that to (Suns GM James Jones). I know the rosters came out, but again, that line of talking about who’s here who’s not here, which can lead to speculations. So I’m just going to defer to James on that one.”
The video footage Tuesday of Rubio was the first time he’d was seen the practice footage the NBA has provided the media. Rubio was not made available for Zoom media interviews Tuesday.
Rubio, Baynes, Okobo and Lecque didn’t make the initial July 7 trip to Orlando with the team and hadn’t been practicing with the team as of last Sunday, sources informed
The NBA released official team rosters Monday for the 2019-20 season resumption with those four players on the Suns’ 15-man roster.
Baynes, Okobo and Lecque weren’t in Tuesday’s practice footage. Players entering the bubble have to quarantine before being cleared to practice.
After the Suns’ practice and media availability Tuesday on Zoom, the team’s Twitter account tweeted a photo with Devin Booker and Rubio from this season with a message saying they’d on the court together for the first scrimmage:
“as·sist”
(verb)
TWO days until you see back on the court!”
Looking at a little more than seven minutes of video snippets from Suns practices available for the media to review from July 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, Rubio, BaynesOkobo and Lecque aren’t in any of the footage.
The Suns have Rubio back, but Williams wasn’t asked about it because it wasn’t known to the media on the Zoom call when he was taking questions.
There’s still no indication Rubio will play Thursday.
The Suns (26-39) may also be without Kelly Oubre Jr.,for the first scrimmage.
Undergoing surgery March 3, Oubre hasn’t played in a game since Feb. 24 ironically against the Jazz in Utah. He’s been rehabbing his knee in the bubble.
“He’s about the same,” Williams said. “He’s done a little bit on-court. He looks great. He just hasn’t done enough contact. It’s a tough situation for him because we’re going to have so many games back-to-back-to-back coming up and the practice times, as far as 5on-5 and bumping is concerned, we won’t have enough of that time.”
Oubre was having a career year in averaging 18.7 points a game. The Suns have two days in between their first and
this duo second scrimmage, against Boston.
Then they have one more scrimmage July 28 versus Toronto before playing their regular-season “seedings” opener July 31 against Washington.
From there, Phoenix plays every other day until its seventh game Aug. 11 against Philadelphia, which is the second of a back-to-back.
The Suns’ eighth and final regularseason game is Aug. 13 against Dallas.
“I’m not sure where he’s going to get to, but when he’s been in the offense with us when we script and we’ve done our drills, he’s dunking the ball, moving around and he looks like he’s in a good place,” concluded Williams, about Oubre.
The first scrimmage for the 22 NBA teams in the restart will have 10-minute quarters instead of the usual 12-minute quarters as the league is guarding against overworking the players who haven’t played in a regular-season game in four months and taking into account teams not having full rosters.
“I like the idea of a buildup,” Williams said last week. “I was hopeful we’d do that for a couple of games, to be honest, just to shorten the time on the floor, especially teams that didn’t have a full complement on their roster so you don’t tax guys.”
The Suns appear to be one of those teams that doesn’t have “a full complement” of players on their roster available to play right now.
“I’m glad we have one game that allows us to build up,” Williams continued. “... I’m hopeful with the 5-on-5 scrimmages that we have in practice and the three games that will get to play before the regular season, our guys can start to get a good rhythm and get into NBA game shape.”
Williams has been tight-lipped about who and who isn’t with the team, citing medical privacy reasons for not revealing the status of the roster.
“I’m not going to talk about who’s here, who’s not here,” Williams said last week.
“It’s a tough one for me because medically, I can’t talk about stuff. That’s where I just have to leave it. You guys (the media) know me. I don’t ever want to be rude to you guys. I understand you have a job to do, but there’s a limit on what I can talk about.”
The Republic reported last month two Suns had tested positive for COVID-19 before teams had to begin mandatory testing.
This was before Jones said July 6 some Suns would arrive in the bubble at “a later date.”
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