Rudy Gay traded to Kings

In short: Gay is famously inefficient offensively and mediocre defensively, neither of which addresses a need for the Kings.

Getting a quality player for spare parts and no future assets is rarely a bad idea. But when that player is hugely expensive, it needs to make perfect sense. It doesn’t here. Sacramento is perhaps guilty of the same thinking that got Toronto in trouble, that a pure talent infusion will offset the poor fit of said talent.

The only way this is not the case is if Gay proves to be a considerable help to the Kings on the court. And this is something that is tough to imagine occurring.

The Kings didn’t pay a big cost to acquire Gay in terms of basketball assets. They traded three deep bench backups and their second-best point guard for their new best small forward, and everyone else is irrelevant. But that just isn’t the point.

For the second time in less than a year, Rudy Gay has been traded. Once the Grizzlies’ franchise player, Gay has now been sent from Memphis to Toronto to Sacramento in the span of 11 months. As Tom Ziller noted, the return package for Gay has dwindled each time, to the point where this is mostly a salary dump for the Raptors.

Nevertheless, Gay is still a well-paid, well-known player and he could bounce back in a new environment. To assess the damage, we’ve brought on the following people to join me in answering some questions about the deal.

But Colangelo, apparently needing to make the playoffs to save his job, got starry-eyed and gave up Davis, Calderon’s expiring deal and a second-rounder to land the high-scoring Gay.

The Raptors traded assets for Gay 10 months ago and dumped his salary completely on Sunday. Things change quickly in the NBA.

Gay has now been traded twice in the last two seasons, and he has been the subject of much scorn for his inefficient ways on offense. Despite undergoing eye surgery to improve poor vision in the offseason, Gay has continued to shoot poorly while using up a lot of possessions, which is a major reason why the Raptors wanted to move him:

The trade naturally brought about plenty of reactions from around the interwebs, and needless to say, Raptors fans are pretty happy the shot-happy Gay will no longer call Toronto home:

That plan has been trashed soon enough under first-year general manager Masai Ujiri. The Raptors are off to a 6-12 start and just as the season began, reports surfaced that Toronto would give the current roster until December before looking into a rebuild.

Update: Gay will make sure Sacramento debut on Wednesday.