Any move that takes the ball out of Cousins’ hands seems like a bad one.
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They just acquired underachieving forward Derrick Williams, and DeMarcus Cousins has been outstanding this year. The Kings dealt away starting point guard Greivis Vasquez, probably their only distributor of any kind, which means the starting lineup now needs to accommodate increased shots not just for Gay but for Isaiah Thomas, who presumably moves from sixth man into a starting role, as well. New owner Vivek Ranadive doesn’t seem like some glory-grasping neophyte who just wants a big name, but maybe that’s exactly what he is. Just what the Kings’ motivation is in this deal is unclear. Still, it was somewhat stunning that a team 1 1/2 games out of first place would trade away its leading scorer and nominal star. First-year general manager Masai Ujiri is as new-school as they come and Toronto was believed to be shopping Gay almost from the moment Ujiri came on board. The Raptors traded for Gay less than 12 months ago, but that was a previous administration. There’s a greater emphasis on efficiency than ever, and nobody who shoots 38 percent with a usage rate of 30.4 percent is going to last very long on the more analytical teams. It’s a different world now, as the reported trade to send Gay to the Sacramento Kings reminds us.
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Perhaps Gay would have been one them, cashing in on $100 million contracts in the era before maximum deals and making yearly trips to the All-Star game thanks to his gaudy-looking 18.0 career scoring average. A few, like Iverson, are absolutely Hall of Famers. They were all effective in their own ways and, like Gay, occasionally excellent.
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That’s not to say any of those guys are exactly like Gay or that any of them were bad players.
Kings rudy gay trade professional#
It was a good time to be a score-first, score-most-only player in professional basketball. Even into the early 2000s, Allan Houston could pull down $20 million a year from the Knicks, who appear to still pretty much operate under this ’90s mentality today. Glen Rice and Mitch Richmond could be perennial All-Stars. Seeing Rudy Gay get tossed around the league like this is odd for anyone who hit their prime of NBA fandom in the 1990s.īack then, guys like Glenn Robinson could get 10-year, $68 million contracts without ever stepping on the court and Allen Iverson could become arguably the league’s biggest star. Rudy Gay Reportedly Traded to Kings as Star Continues Weird Fall From Grace.