The Minnesota Timberwolves have hired former Lakers player, Mike Penberthy, as a shooting coach mainly for Ricky Rubio.
The news about the hiring came from Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. Zgoda went on in his article to say:
The Timberwolves have made it official, with training camp now just five days away: they have hired L.A.-based Mike Penberthy as a shooting coach to work with a team, particularly Ricky Rubio, who has struggled in that area in recent years.
Now that Kevin Love has been shipped to Cleveland, Rubio is going to have to step up and take over this team. He’s the veteran point guard who has to be the face of the franchise now and he still has a lot to work on. Hiring a shooting coach could do wonders for Rubio who is known for his lack of a jumpshot. Add a better scoring game to Rubio’s already great passing game and his offensive lethality could skyrocket. If the defense had to respect Rubio’s shot more, then that could mean open looks for Andrew Wiggins, Zach Lavine, Thad Young, and company.
Mike Penberthy played 56 games for the Lakers in the 2001 and 2002 seasons. He may have had a short stint in the league, but he had shooting averages of 41.5(FG) and 39.6(3PT) percent. He’s no Ray Allen, but he still had better much better percentages than Rubio has so far. After some 1-on-1 shooting work however, Rubio’s mechanics could improve and we all could see a much improved Timberwolves team.
