I know you're angry that your team got swept after giving you false hope by making it to the WCF. But your own coach wanted to keep Gay and indirectly admitted that he wished he had him just yesterday. The reality is that this playoff run by the Griz was fool's gold. They're a flawed team that plays 3 vs 5 on offense and has very little perimeter scoring on their roster. They probably don't get past the Clippers if Griffin is healthy and they definitely don't defeat the Thunder if RWB plays. They struggled against OKC every game without Westbrook. You can twist or interpret the situation anyway you want to make yourself feel good, but the reality is that the Griz had ZERO victories this post-season against a team that was fully healthy. The little hope or opportunity Memphis had of making a legit title run has evaporated since they're essentially stuck with what they have. The window has slammed shut. Have fun watching Tayshaun Prince struggle to do anything on either end of the court for two more years.
when was the last time you saw Gay hit a game winner...its been a really long time...(if am not mistaken, he had so many opps this season with Toronto, and choked...) Rudy Gay would not have helped..
Why would I be mad? This team has out performed any expectation any reasonable fan could have had. You say fool's gold...ok. Doesn't change the fact they made it to the WCFs. I think YOU are the one trying to make yourself feel good. Puffing your chest out like Rudy Gay is some sort of savior. No, we are not stuck. With Rudy Gay, we would be stuck. Unable to resign Tony Allen, unable to resign Bayless. Unable to bring in someone else. As it is now, we can use our MLE to bring in a wing player while keeping Allen and Bayless. We also can count on either the improvement of Ed Davis or use him as trade bait for anothr player. Plus we now have the ability to make a power move by amnestying Zach Randolph to open up max caproom if they want to go that route. So, yeah. I ain't mad. These are steps. Now we know we need to take it up another level talent-wise to get to the finals. I am confident in our front office to make the moves necessary to get things done.
The problem with Rudy Gay is NBA games are 48 minutes long instead of just the last 30 seconds. He's on the floor more than 35 of those minutes, is a very inefficient offensive player who takes 17 shots and doesn't defend well. The dumbest thing the Grizzlies did was give him that $80 million contract 3 years ago. It's a decision teams face all the time: Let a guy walk for nothing or overpay him. We all know now what they should have done. There is a reason they went 15-3 right after Gay was traded.
As I stated earlier, u replace talent with talent. The grizz didn't replace the talent of rudy gay regardless of his salary. They did get future flexibility which is cool. Unless they upgrade the 2/3 they're headed to a mid seed flame out. Loking at the draft, there are some good 2/3 where they will draft. Teams like memphis always have to keep the payroll in mind.If I were the grizz, I might try to get brooks out of brooklyn.
He hit like 10 game winning shots after he was traded to Toronto this season. Also, Demar Derozan's numbers shot up as a result of all the attention Gay was commanding on the perimeter. The current core is just not good enough to get the job done. In relation to the role players, Bayless thinks he's a lot better than he actually is. Pondexter is nothing more than a spot-up shooter with poor ball handling skills. Neither plays much defense. Allen and Prince are zeroes on the offensive end. Thus, Allen, Prince, Bayless, Pondexter, Austin Daye, and whoever you can get for the mle is not going to be able to replace the production of Gay and Mayo. The Griz should have kept those two and should have kept Vasquez as well instead of relying on a guy like Dooling, who wasn't even in the league for most of the season, as backup pg. I also seriously doubt that Z-Bo is going to get amnestied and if he does, good luck finding another guy to give you 20-10 on a nightly basis. Their current core, even with some small role player upgrades, is just not good enough to make them a legitimate threat to win a title. The bench is still going to be weak, the offense is still going to be predictable, they have no closer, and their core pieces just don't have enough to put them over the top. Z-Bo is not getting any younger, Gasol doesn't have much more upside, and Conley can't give you enough perimeter scoring/playmaking. You'll have nice regular seasons, but will disappoint in the playoffs. You want to know what a legitimate championship contender looks like: Conley/Vasquez Allen/Mayo Gay/Mayo Z-Bo/Arthur Gasol/Speights That team has no real weaknesses or flaws. It's a team with great wing play, two extremely talented bigs down low, two serviceable backup bigs who can hit mid-range jumpers, two really good pgs, and an excellent 6th man in Mayo. It would be a team that combines good offense and defense...dynamic wing play with punishing post play...a team that would control the glass, have a lock-down wing defender, and a bonafide closer. That team would create matchup problems for anybody it faced and that's a team that could compete with a healthy OKC, the Spurs, and Miami for a title. Almost half of those players, however, are gone and that window is closed. In the end we'll see who's right, but my track record is pretty good (see the NBA Gambling Thread). I made a very nice profit betting for and against the Grizzlies this post-season. I'm glad you have faith though. I don't.
And Grizzlies with replace Gay's talent by actually keeping true difference makers like Tony Allen with the money they saved. $18mil/yr buys A LOT OF talent. And by talent I mean real talent, not Rudy Gay level talent.
LOL @ the Rudy Gay clan... Where were y'all when the Grizzlies were balling after the trade? They lose to the Spurs (no shame in that) and then the clan comes back together? Please... I'm no Memphis fan, but y'all are ridiculous. Aside from the fact that the team probably doesn't even make the WCF with Gay's inefficient play, was the trade a failure unless they won the freaking Finals? Once again...LOL...
Nothing changes. Grizzlies added flexibility getting rid of Gay's contract. I expect Randolph will be next. Conley and Gasol are the true keepers here. They need a stud wingman to run with those two, and they will be set...
It wasn't between allen and gay. Whatever you want to say or declare, getting ed davis,tayshaun,and daye is not replacing rudy gay. No one in their right mind would say they upgraded or even broke even. There is not an indicator or stat to justify a guy capable of taking and making contested shots. The spurs 2/3 players were sagging and digging the ball out in the paint. They didn't respect allen,prince and them dudes to make shots or beat them off the bounce. As a result, randolph and gasol had a lot of hands and bodies around them.
I knew it was over for Kwame and he was donning the vinyl zipper outfit when he last chimed in on this subject claiming:that despite the fact that shipping Gay out was addition by subtraction on the court, off the court it was a disaster because " Onlly a masochist or an idiot would claim that holding onto rudy gay's $18 million a year (instead of Tayshaun's 7 mm) was more beneficial to the Grizzlies salary cap future Which one is kwame? Or more importantly, does anybody ****ing care? I don't!
No, their team just got better and cheaper, and once again, went further than they've ever gone before (the previous time was of course, also without him). But they didn't upgrade! You can't say that, because Rudy Gay is SO "coveted" that he was dumped for salary cap room and spare parts. And it doesn't matter if you win games, it's about "talent", so you can make highlight film plays! Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HUwMDH_ohRc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Heard Rudy Gay and his crew got into it with J prince and his people last night in vegas at the marquee.
Rudy Gay is better individual talent than they brought in. He might not be an efficient plus PLAYER, but he has that TALENT ceiling where there's SOME chance of getting star production when needed. (In '09 Rockets advanced in playoffs WITHOUT Tracy McGrady, but it's not smart to think Rockets couldnt have benefited a LITTLE more with him.) Though Rudy Gay IS gonna make $18 million next season. This IS (supposedly) a more fiscally conscious league. I'd bet now 2 out 3 teams WOULD do the Gay trade in that same exact package if it was brought up. If you told a team "You WILL get the CONFERENCE FINALS if you make the trade", then its more like 6 out 7 teams. Thats just the nature of the game now. (extra tidbit: James Harden's highest paid year on his Houston contract will still be LOWER than any of Gay's next 2 years)
Prince is making what, 7M? Gay's making 19M. This isn't NBA2k, when you evaluate players in the NBA you need to take salary into account. Not taking salary into account is the main reason Colangelo traded for Gay, and this is why Memphis made it to WCF and Colangelo will be out of a job. Sure, maybe Gay is more talented than Prince. But his style of play LOWERS everyone else's, instead of ZBO or Gasol or Conley taking the shot at the post or in the 3 pt line Gay's right out there shooting a mid-range J. Prince may not be the amazing defensive player he once was, but he's certainly a better defender than Gay. Prince is someone who will still be effective even if he plays off the ball, Gay's virtually useless if he's not shooting.
And at the end of the day, Tayshaun Prince will retire with an NBA title, an Olympic Gold medal, several NBA all-defensive team memberships - likelihood of Gay achieving any of these things is very low...unless he's a journeyman backup on a title team sometime down the road. The others he will never do. But at least he''l have his dwindling handful (I think it's about 4 posters now?) of internet fans, defiant to the very end and well beyond (the end was earlier this year when the Grizzlies were able to ditch him for parts and improve in the process).
Nobody is comparing Prince career we are talking about right now at this moment. Loved Prince since he was Kentucky but he is nowhere near that level. Memphis was in 3rd place before the trade so it's not like they all of a sudden sky rocked up the standings after the trade. They were a good team before and after the trade
