They were slightly better but just saying if the trade was never made there is a good chance Memphis still makes the WCF. I just don't agree with someone saying Prince is a better player than Gay right now or even a terrible fit.
It was a financial move. When you had a chance to unload his contract, you had to do it. I thought Grizzlies would never be able to move him and stuck with his atrocious contract until the end. They did lose some talent in Gay, but I am not sure that talent would convert to wins though.
A good chance you're deriving from what, a scientific study from pull-out-of-your-ass university? That simply didn't happen. What did happen is what a lot of folks said would happen, to the chagrin of the 4 or 5 remaining Rudy Gay fans. Removing Gay's detracting presence on offense made the Grizzlies a better team, period. Not only did they subtract his presense, but it allowed Conley & Gasol to play bigger roles in the offense, and they make Memphis a much better team than Gay does. Now, we can believe your guess that although they would have been worse with Gay there and with Conley & Gasol taking lesser roles, maybe they would have just magically gotten better anyway for no reason that you are able to specify - but that's just kind of silly.
I'm not pulling anything out of my ass. As I said earlier they were playing good basketball with Gay this season. Also throw in the fact that in both series they faced teams with key injuries and yes I believe they still could have been in the WCF.
Maybe you should pay attention. The fact of the matter is Gay didn't make the team appreciably better. They ended up getting similar offensive production to what Gay provided this season. Their defense didn't get it done and Randolph sucked. If Randolph or the D perform like they had been, they get past the Spurs.
They played better basketball without him, and advanced in the playoffs without him. The same thing happened in 2011. I'm not certain why you think "well MAYBE in an alternate universe!" is a compellign line of argument when every single data point is lined up against you. Sure, maybe in an alternate universe many crazy-ass things would happen, and the overall mediocrity of Gay's impact on the Grizz wouldn't matter, and there will be a peaceful resolution to the Syrian conflict, and Dwight Howard will sign in Houston and the Rockets will win eleventy billion titles. Who cares? It's not the one we live in; and in in this one, losing Rudy Gay was an unqualified success for the Memphis Grizzlies.
With or without Gay Memphis wouldn't have got by the Clippers and especially OKC without the injuries to each team's 2nd star player.
What part of the main reason they were in the WCF was because of key injuries to other players don't you understand? Guess you are one of those that believed T-mac is the reason Houston never got out of the first round until he was out that year
It's hilarious how you come in here after your Grizzlies were exposed for being the frauds that they are, which is why they just got swept. The goal is to win a championship and the Grizzlies are not legitimate title contenders. They will have nice regular seasons, but will disappoint in the playoffs. Their playoff run this year was fool's gold. I'll say it one more time since you're apparently slow: They probably don't get out the 1st round if Griffin is healthy and definitely don't make it out the 2nd round if RWB plays. They struggled in every game against OKC without Westbrook. They just got swept by the first healthy team they played in the playoffs. 0 victories against a healthy opponent in these playoffs. They were playing 3 vs 5 on offense with Prince and Allen, which allowed SA's players to ignore those two and collapse on their bigs making life miserable for Gasol and Randolph. Anybody can see that they missed Rudy Gay and needed him out there against the first real competition they played against in this post-season unless you're one of those delusional people that believes Prince is just as good or better than Gay. They couldn't even shoot 40% last night and had to rely on Quincy Pondexter to be their leading scorer. Also, your boy Tayshaun Prince tore it up in these playoffs averaging 7 ppg on 35% shooting and here's a quick sample of his defense from last night as well...no wonder he was benched:
Even as terrible as the Grizz played, they still had chances to win 3 of those games against SA. In the regular season, the Grizz were 1-0 against the Spurs with Prince, and 1-2 with Gay, including 1 blowout loss. They were the same team either way.
That's exactly why trading gay is the right decision. Do you really believe they would win a championship with Gay and current squad? Giving Gay's contract to someone who deserves will give them better chance to win a title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Daea1llX0 im not saying Gay wouldve been the guy that they need to win a championship, but they have no one that can close, take over the game. they win when the whole squad plays well, but if it comes to close games, they don't really have any offense at all. rudy gay is the person that they could go to at the end to close out these games..
With Gay, they may not even be in position to close out many games in the playoffs. Look at it this way, Memphis is a slow-tempo grind it out type of team that uses less possessions. Gay wastes possessions away taking the most inefficient types of shots, and shooting it inefficiently. How do you overcome that consistently in a playoff series when the games slows down even more and each possession becomes even more precious? Especially when he doesn't play much defense either.
It doesn't get much more dishonest or ignorant than this. The Spurs rested Leonard, Ginobil, and Duncan this game and the Griz barely won by 2 points, and this is what's being used as evidence, lol, smh: http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400278823
Im not sure what you argument is Kwame, are you saying the Grizz became worse after the Gay thread? Becausr their record after the trade states otherwise. Fact is Grizz went on a tear and raps went like 0.500 after they took on a max salary. Gay just isnt the player you want on your team if you want to win games.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Tune into @<a href="https://twitter.com/espn_firsttake">espn_firsttake</a> at 10am on ESPN 2 I will be the special guest today</p>— Rudy Gay (@rudygay22) <a href="https://twitter.com/rudygay22/status/339736401614626816">May 29, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The only way Kwame would be satisfied is if the Grizz won the championship, just like how he was proven wrong when Battier won with the Heat when he said no player could win with Battier playing more than 20 minutes. It takes that much to convince this fool. Kwame loves to beat a dead horse.
So you ignore the 2 losses they had with Gay? I'm saying they weren't winning with or without Gay. You keep acting like I'm saying they were better without him. They were virtually the same team either way.
