Shane Battier went to the 2nd round three times, and is currently in the conference finals. Rudy Gay has never been to the 2nd round.
Battier was better on draft night. A hell of a lot better. If we're using present day skills as the way to judge players, Rudy Gay >> Hakeem, MJ, Bird, and Magic combined.
No, thus Rudy Gay ain't that good. If he was, the Grizzlies team with Rudy Gay coming back and Battier leaving should have been notably better, even with Zach Randolph not quite 100%. If Rudy Gay was a max-level player, he should have been such an improvement over Battier that it is more than enough to overcome Zach not being 100%.
Rudy had a lackluster play-off performance this year. He a good player, but is not clutch. He still better than Battier as an overall individual player though.
Very similar to what I throw into the old trade machine, taking into account that Orlando wants more than our standard offer... This is as if Orlando's asking price for Howard gets higher as more teams will be available to trade with this summer: Houston: Howard Hedo Orlando: Gay Lowry Dalembert Patterson #14 Memphis: Martin Morris That leaves us Scola to play along side a franchise center again, or the possibility to amnesty him to make room for Deron Williams, providing us cap space to resign Camby / Lee or sign Gee to play the 2. Williams/#16 (Wroton) Gee/Budinger Parsons/Hedo Motie/Morris/Smith Howard/Camby Over the cap, but 2 Allstars. Konichiwa b****es.
He's a good player, one of the best small forwards in the league, but he is not a max-level player. Teams get handicapped when they pay players, like Joe Johnson or Rudy Gay close to Melo or Kobe money. It's going into the future with one hand cut off. Some even consider that Kobe's contract is a bit massive for a team take on within a stricter salary cap. It's harder to build a strong contender, when there's a man eating up a good proportion of cap space and he's not even an elite player who can elevate the team to another level. Elite player should be Lebron, Kobe, Durant, Howard, Love, Rose, Melo, and Paul. That's about it for the highest contracts possible. Borderlines: Griffin, Aldridge, Williams, Rondo, Parker, Nowitzki, Bynum, Amare (declining, possibly), Westbrook, and few other faces. That's it. You cannot give out these lengthy and huge contracts to players who can elevate a team past say the first round or even into the playoffs. Moreover, you definitely cannot give to a guy who is not a big box office draw meaning the team is struggling to sell seats.
Yes, and Shane Battier was THE reason those teams went to the 2nd Round. Battier had the opportunity to play on better teams than has Rudy Gay. Don't anyone DARE defend that horrendous Draft Day decision by Les and Carroll Dawson! Not entertaining that for one second.
Shot attmps, touches...just semantics. Just because they haven't had that many attemtps, and because guards and forwards generally shoot more, doesn't meant Gasol and Nene can't get more shot attempts. The key part of my post was where i said they'd build the team around them, or play to their strengths. Dream and Ewing got 20 attmpts. Yes, a lot of it had to do with their skill, but also because they were the clear focus of their team. Even Kevin Willis managed to put up 15 shot a game at one point, so Gasol sure as hell can get 17 or 18, if that's the plan. He was close to 15 and increasing them as he hit his prime, but then had to take a backseat to Kobe in LA. Nene, may not get as many, but he should be able to get 13-14.
Edit: We're better without him and his ridiculous contract. That's the point. I'll take him at 7-8 M though.
Battier's 2011 Grizzlies have substantially the same roster as Rudy Gay's 2012 Grizzlies. Is Rudy Gay a better player now compared to Battier in his prime? Sure. Has that translated to Rudy Gay helping his team succeed? Not really.
At the time, I was reluctant to give up on the potential that a #8 implied. If I knew then what I know now, I'd be completely for that trade. You don't get many bites at a championship and when you have Yao and McGrady on your roster, you want to go after it right away. That was a hundred times the right decision to trade for Battier. If Gay turned out to be a transcendent star I might be conflicted, but he didn't. I'd much rather swing for the fences with 2 franchise players and veteran role-players than have my 2 franchise players wasting their time babysitting rookies who don't know enough to help win a ring. In the end it didn't work out in getting the championship, but making the trade to maximize an opportunity to try was completely worth it.
Exactly. If Rudy had 3yrs at $27-30 million left, other teams would beat the doors down going after him.
Not really. Both Dragic and Lowry posted as good or better numbers than Gay last season overall, and were substantially better for certain stretches.
So, what exactly can Memphis get for Rudy Gay? A similar level vet talent like Iguodala? Isn't the point of trading him cutting salary? If so, then maybe a mid-lotto pick (8th from Toronto, a team with substantial cap room?) might be what Memphis can expect.
