I thought Canis Hoopus had a salient tweet Tuesday about this whole notion of trading Ricky Rubio: "For a guy he doesn't seem to want to keep or like much as a player, Thibs has been amazingly reliant on Rubio throughout the season."

The biggest fear in all of this is — regardless of whether you like or dislike Rubio as a player — is that Tom Thibodeau is stubbornly determined to have his guy (Kris Dunn) run the show when it's far from clear that he can do it.

For all of Rubio's weaknesses (which I've exhausted thousands of words chronicling) he has a great many strengths (which I've also exhausted thousands of words chronicling). There would also be a certain amount of sadness in seeing Rubio go — because he arrived with such promise that never quite went fulfilled either individually or with the team, and also because he's one of those lovable local sports characters.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.