He wasn't taking them with the defense primarily focused on him, nor was he struggling close to the basket. He's shooting about the same from 3, and from the FT line post injury as his career averages.
I think he lost some athleticism. People forget that this is his 8th year in the league. He ain't the same guy athletically that he was earlier in his career. You don't remember the shot he made over Lebron? Plus, his mid-range jumper, Zach and Marc, did little to draw the defense away from him, but he is so long that he shot over the defense. Now, he can't do that anymore.
borderline All-Star. efficiency wise, he was above average once upon a time, but barely. He was a talented young player scoring a bunch of points, seeming to be improving. He got a big contract, on the idea that that improvement would continue (see Wall, John, hopefully that ends better.) Then he was a talented, not so young player, who's efficiency had fallen off a bit, and he was probably a bit over overpaid and overrated, but still a good player. He played good defense sometimes. Then he fell off a bit more. This year, he's been an extremely inefficient chucker, not an overpaid but still useful player anymore, no, he's been a waste of possessions, a below replacement level player who hurts his team by jacking up loads of bad shots and destroying ball movement. His 3-point shot has been improved this year, so that's nice. sadly, it constitutes a small part of his offense, (to the extent that the improvement may be a small sample size error) and his finishing at the rim has been comically bad. Getting traded, would presumably, cause him to do some soul searching. If he goes back to being more of a team player, drops his usage, and improves his shot selection, and this gets him back to where he was in his best years in Memphis, the Kings will have a legitimately good, but somewhat overpaid, player. If he becomes for the Kings the player people thought he was becoming several years ago, the Kings will have a legitimate max contract player. They'd become a threat to go .500 the rest of the year. If he continues to be the player he's been this year, or worse, continues on the downward trend he's been on, he'll help the Kings fight for the #1 draft pick. The Grizzlies, and to a lesser extent, the Raptors, both have/had good defenses. Those defenses won them games. But it was easy to see Rudy led the team in scoring, and think that he was the reason why they won, when really, he didn't have much to do with the thing that actually got them the win. The Kings have no such strong defense to fall back on.
Toronto thought that they put themselves in a good tank position for wiggins but they ignored the destructive power Gay has on a team. Sac played it smart, they will get the most balls for the lotto.
A lot of players lose some athleticism by their 8th season. In fact, most players probably do. The real stars, though, either have enough talent or develop enough new skills to make up for this inevitability. Rudy Gay is not one of those.
His athleticism is still there. He's still the same length. The Grizz did plenty to draw the defense. It wasn't just Gasol/Randolph drawing double teams at time, but the fact that Gay didn't get doubled as much.
While scanning around the web on how Toronto fans feel about the Gay trade, I found this hilarious bit on sporting event ratings in Toronto http://canadiansportsfan.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/november-ratings-roundup/
With Gay gone, one would think they try to get rid of Derozan. They said on Grantland that the Raptors couldn't find any suitors for Gay except the Kings. Granted, Demar's contract isn't any horrendous, but he's a pretty similar player to Gay. He keeps the Raptors afloat just enough, and he's not an efficient player. Could they even package him with someone to make an attractive offer? I just don't see any teams that would even be remotely interested in him.
This is a horrible trade for the raptors. I know they were losing games and Rudy gay us and up and down player but he's a reliable scorer night in night out despite getting blocked embarasslling at times. Raptors just down graded big time
You clearly are missing the part where the Raptors are actively trying to be bad. It's a fantastic trade for the Raptors.
Anybody notice the Kings got 2Pat to help DeMarcus Cousins sign an extension, and traded him off after it?
DeMar is having a good season, though. He's improved every year, although in tiny increments. Unlike Gay, he stays humble and keeps his mouth shut when he feels an urge to say stuff like "I'd never come off the bench on a bad team like the Raptors". I think his value is much higher than Gay's and they could expect decent assets for him. Like a pick or some prospect. For example, if you are Atlanta, wouldn't you give Dennis Schroeder and Lou Williams for DeMar? I would.
Anybody notice how TRob is scoring more, scoring more efficiently, rebounding better, and playing better defense than 2Pat this year?
