Or simply not have given him that extension, since his injury issues were well-documented before that extension. But that's immaterial, because unlike Gay, Roy was actually good when Yao and T-Mac still could play.
Rudy Gay's 2nd year he averaged 20-6-2 on 55% true shooting with a PER of 17.3. Brandon Roy averaged 20-5-6 on 53% true shooting with a PER of 19.3. Battier averaged 9-5-2 on 56% true shooting with a PER of 11.6 Yes brandon roy was better than Rudy Gay, but I think Brandon Roy is a little over rated by this board. Rudy was much better than battier. Rudy gay is not James Harden, but he is a guy who can score 20 at a 55TS% and get 6 or so rebounds. He is not a max player but someone who should be making 8-10 mil.
Here's the problem. Rudy Gay lovers claim that he's great, which is not true. Rudy Gay hater claim that he's no good, which is not true. He's somewhere in the middle of that. People deal with such extremities regarding Rudy Gay and it makes no sense.
Rudy Gay would not have been better than Battier was at his role on the rockets playing next to Tracy and Yaol, which was to play defense, don't handle the ball, spot up for the corner 3. He wouldn't be suited for Battier's role on Miami last year. For many reasons he was uniquely ill-suited for that, especially as a young player.
If you watched ANY basketball 5 years ago, you would not be saying this. Brandon Roy was a legit all-star since his 2nd year. Rudy Gay to this day has not been all-star worthy yet. If you think that Roy pre-injury and Gay were anywhere near close, then I think you're just flat out wrong. Roy was AWESOME. Gay? Not so much.
Where did I mention anything about Brandon Roy? Where did I say Rudy Gay was close to Brandon Roy? Where did I say ANYTHING about Roy? I said Gay is neither "great" nor "no good". I said he is somewhere in between...because that's the truth.
And Roy was a big-game big-shot maker! If healthy, Roy would still be a top 5 SG easily in this league. Gay, never too impressed.
The problem with Gay is he was one of the worst defenders in the league, and at the SF spot you just can't have that because it houses the most potent scorers in the NBA like Iggy, KD, LBJ etc. Also, Memphis was already built to be a low post team once everyone realized Marc Gasol was gonna be really good, Gay's specialty is the mid-range shot so rather than helping the team he hurt it because he took spacing away from Z-Bo and Gasol. There's a reason the team performed better with old man Batt than they did with Gay.
Gay also averages more turnovers than assists. He's a terrible passer. Roy was a pretty good passer IIRC.
Offensively? Absolutely by Gay's 2nd year he was better than Battier. Battier was an excellent defender still at that point. Unfortuntately that was the beginning of the end for Yao. If you could have had Battier and Gay, I'd have loved it as Battier complemented the starters well, and Gay would have been that 2nd perimiter scorer we needed when McGrady wasn't out there.
agreed, this team plus roy with a rookie contract was a championship contender. Brandon Roy was an all star in his first season.
I'm a gay lover and I think he sucks at nailing it from downtown, but he's good at taking it to the hole.
What? I've said on numerous occasions that I never thought it was a good idea to trade Gay for Battier...I'm just not blind to the facts that he's incredibly overrated by some here.
