I doubt he will even be in the same class as VC, Manu, and Pierce. Those 3 guys are able to handle the ball and facilitate. Gay is never going to be able to do that. What separates the elite wing players from the rest is their ball handling ability. It is something that is developed at an early age.
Forget it. Rudy Gay won't ever be PP, Melo or VC. Like I said, Antawn Jamison at best. This is what he has a small chance of becoming.
so your saying that john stockton was overrated too? he never won any rings. you were that same kid who was talkin about turkoglu having better defense than vince arent you? i honestly dnt know who would give you rep. you have little basketball iq.
My argument is simply that the team, in that position (ie: coming off a lottery season, with dire need for youth and athleticism) simply did not get back enough value in the trade. It was incredibly short-sighted. Keep in mind, my position doesn't preclude taking Gay as a favorable possibility. I think he could have filled a nice role on this team going forward and infused some much needed energy into a lineup that was essentially dying. My point is only that the trade wasn't bad because Rudy Gay is some supposed future superstar (ie: the convenient strawman) - it was bad because they didn't properly make use of such an asset. The fact that you were in the lottery in a given year should probably be a hint that you just might want to hedge your bets for the future and take advantage of the free opportunity for young talent.
Take it for what it's worth, but Calvin Murphy believes Oscar is BY FAR the greatest player he has ever played against, and the best in his opinion to ever play the game...
BTW, can we please get past this Oscar Robertson nonsense? Anyone who touts 'team success' as the absolute determinant in player comparative value is either being intellectually slothful or just isn't very smart to begin with.
How about somebody start a thread on Oscar and take the discussion there. Let's keep this thread on Rudy Gay.
Right.....because even though I proved it to you with stats somehow I'm still dead wrong. I'm referring to the Hedo vs Carter defense debate. I give you facts, with the stats you give me your opinion. Welcome to my ignore list though. Well that's a nice Opinion by Calvin, but Oscar is not necessarily overrated because not many people talk about him, but he's overrated by kids most of the time because they are in love with his eye popping stats and they think he's automatically a Top 5 or 10 player because of that when he's not. In other words, He CAN be overrated. Rudy Gay will be a perimeter player and always will be. From what I see/hear Grizzlies fans are usually ticked off at him because he decides to shoot pull up jumpers instead of attacking to the rim. Along with that, I also heard he's incredibly low IQd basketball wise and doesn't know a thing about defense. I don't see Antawn Jamison since he's more of a post player then a perimeter player, even though he can play both ways. I think Rudy Gay is Alex English AT BEST. It's incredibly doubtful he'll get there, but if he reaches his full potential he'll be just as good as English, if not, Better. One thing they currently have in common is that neither can defend a paper-bag.
Maybe Gay is bulking up to be more physical with his drives like Pierce or Melo but I think his biggest weakness his lack of quickness and ballhandling. He's got pretty good size, speed and shooting. I disagree with the Jamison comparison. Jamison's got great scoring instincts and feel around the basket; Gay's more like Rashard Lewis - a big SF who can do play some PF. IMO, Jamison > Lewis
So how did you think they could've better made use of the #8 pick? If you look at the the recent history of #8 picks, not many of them turned out better than Battier. To say Battier and jettison of Swift's contract isn't worth a #8 is seriously overrating a #8 pick.
This is not true. The average NBA salary (aka the Mid Level exception) is more than half of that. Two Mid Level Exception players can not "win something" or make "a team that wins more than 25 games". Turkoglu got the full MLE this year (on average, 7 mill per season). Considering Gay is about 7 years younger, I'd say he's easily worth 9-10m per season. Nevermind that he's actually working hard in the summer.
Somebody can and the others cannot play better after they bulked up. A good example would be TMac. Before the 05/06 and of course his Orlando when he was in good shape, slim and explosive he was real at his best. Then he became heavier and had real health issues with his back and knee and couldn't elevate that high. Mostly SGs who are naturally build like a truck eg. Lebron can cope with this kind of weight. High flyers like Tmac wasn't meant to be with his thin calves.
Man, thats alot of pounds to be packing in for a player depending on his speed ans explosiveness to get to the basket. If you were never a power guy to begin with what makes him think he can change now? This will def. hurt him insteading of helping, just like Artest, Bibby, Oakfar.