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The Memphis Grizzlies traded away Rudy Gay yesterday in part of a three-team trade with the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons.

The Grizzlies sent Gay and Hamed Haddadi to the Raptors. Toronto sent Ed Davis to the Grizzlies and Jose Calderon to the Pistons. Detroit sent Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye to the Grizzlies.

We knew that the Grizzlies were entertaining the idea of trading Gay. Gay has around $53 million left on his three-year contract including this season and Memphis would have likely had to deal with harsh luxury tax penalties if they tried to keep him.

It was a similar situation that the Oklahoma City Thunder were in before the start of the season with James Harden.

The Grizzlies will save money acquiring Prince who will take Gay’s starting spot and make only $7 million on average the next three seasons. Daye is a promising young big man who is in the last year of his rookie contract.

Davis is maybe the biggest haul for Memphis in this deal. He’s just 23 years old still in his third year in the NBA and has a fantastic PER of 18.1 this season. He was averaging 9.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in 24.2 minutes per game with the Raptors this season.

The immediate thought when you hear the Grizzlies are trading a former All-Star in Gay away is that the team will take a step back. Memphis got off to a great start this season and currently is 29-15, fourth in the Western Conference.

Many people even thought this might be the year the Grizzlies could make a run to the NBA Finals. They have something that very few teams can handle with their big frontline. They’re a great defensive team that forces a lot of turnovers and they don’t turn the ball over themselves.

Two years ago the Grizzlies knocked off the one-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs then nearly got past the Thunder, taking them to seven games in the next round. That playoff run was without Gay by the way.

That has to be a big reason why Memphis was okay with shipping Gay out. They have proven in the past that they can still be an elite team without him and maybe even a better one. It was still unknown whether the Grizzlies were really better with Gay in the lineup or if they’d be better off with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol as the clear one-two punch.

The Grizzlies made their decision now and will move forward with one of the most lethal big man duos in the legal as the focal point of their team. Bringing in Prince to replace Gay in the starting lineup and big depth with Davis and Daye will help ease the transition too.

Prince is a real chemistry guy who made his name in this league winning championships as the fifth man of a starting lineup consisting of four other All-Stars. He won’t have any trouble committing to defense and doing whatever he needs to fit in.

The Grizzlies will start to resemble the team that made that great playoff push two years ago. That’s the plan any way.

We can safely assume that the Grizzlies are still going to be a tough matchup for the Spurs. The size and Randolph is what gave the Spurs trouble two years ago and that hasn’t changed.

Matching up with the Clippers may be more difficult for the Grizzlies. They lost to the Clippers in seven games in the first round of the playoffs last year. Gay did not have a good series while Chris Paul dominated.

The matchup with the Thunder will be an interesting one to look at. There is still a good chance the Thunder and Grizzlies will meet again in the playoffs this season. Gay was someone who could every now and then go blow for blow with a superstar like Kevin Durant. They won’t have that now and will have to rely solely on defense and great team ball to get past a team like OKC.

The Grizzlies definitely didn’t take a big step back by trading Gay, maybe just a baby one at worse. Memphis keeps with its culture and made the right financial decision for the future. They should still be a top four team in the Western Conference this season.

Gay was always a fringe star player in this league that left you hoping for more whenever he showed glimpses of greatness but he never had the ability to do it every night. Teams don’t usually go far in this league with a player like that as their best player. Memphis made the tough decision to move on. In the end, it was probably the right one.

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The Memphis Grizzlies are still looking to trade former All-Star forward Rudy Gay, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

The Toronto Raptors are most interested in acquiring Gay according to reports and are looking to send Memphis a package highlighted by Jose Calderon and Ed Davis to get him.

The Grizzlies – who have the fourth best record in the Western Conference – already made a trade this season to free up cap room in the future. Had they not made any moves, they would have been hit with some heavy luxury tax penalties down the road.

Gay is making $16.5 million this season and set to make $17.9 million next season and $19.3 million in 2014-15.

If the Grizzlies do trade Gay to the Raptors, it would affect the Oklahoma City Thunder in a few ways.

Memphis is currently one of only a handful of teams that can give the Thunder a real run for their money. They have great size in the frontcourt with Gay, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol and it’s hard for the Thunder to match up with. OKC isn’t able to play as many small lineups with Kevin Durant at the four basically.

Trading away Gay would obviously hurt the Grizzlies somewhat this season. While he hasn’t had his best season this year, he is still the team’s leading scorer at 17.2 points per game.

The Grizzlies did take the Thunder to seven games two years ago in the playoffs without Gay. But remember how great Randolph was playing that year and how much deeper Memphis was that season.

There is a good chance this season that the Thunder and Grizzlies could meet again in the playoffs in the second round. Without Gay, Memphis would definitely be an easier out for OKC.

The other thing that could happen because of this trade is Toronto could make the playoffs. The Raptors are currently five and a half games back of the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and adding Gay could boost them up into contention for the postseason.

This affects the Thunder because OKC owns Toronto’s upcoming 2013 first round pick in the NBA Draft, but only if that pick falls between four and 14.

The 2013 NBA Draft class is being called one of the weakest in years so postponing receiving that pick from Toronto could be a good thing for the Thunder in the long run.

This potential trade is just a rumor at this point. If it goes down, it would definitely shake up the landscape of the league pretty good.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are 18-25 on the season and currently out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference.

The Lakers have been unable to take advantage of their best four players under first year head coach Mike D’Antoni.

D’Antoni has made the decision to bring former perennial All-Star Pau Gasol off the bench because in his offense, Gasol and Dwight Howard aren’t playing well together. Howard has had one of his worst seasons in years too and Steve Nash is in the same boat.

The Lakers need to change something and that could come in the form of a trade. Amazingly, this season is not totally lost yet as they are only 4.5 games behind the Houston Rockets for the 8th seed in the Western Conference.

ESPN’s Marc Stein is reporting that multiple teams are speculating that the Lakers could engage in a 3-team trade to bring Rudy Gay to LA. The potential 3-team deal would send Gasol to the Boston Celtics and Paul Pierce to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Gasol and Gay have been tied to trade rumors virtually all season. The Grizzlies thought they were going to need to save money to avoid future luxury tax implications by getting rid of Gay but in light of their most recent trade, now may not have to.

Pierce has been linked to only some trade rumors and with the Celtics starting to really struggle, we will see his name thrown out there more and more.

This would be a gigantic trade swapping three former alpha dogs of their teams midway through the season. Other names would likely be involved but these three would be the biggest part of the trade.

Bringing Gay in for Gasol isn’t something that will drastically help the Lakers over night. Gay would be a better fit under D’Antoni and allow for the small lineups to continue with Earl Clark at the four but it won’t make the Lakers title contenders again.

The trade deadline is Thursday, Feb. 21.

James Harden, Blake Griffin and Andre Iguodala were the last three players to make the final cut for Team USA. Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon and Anthony Davis were the final three cut and will serve as alternates for the team.

Jerry Colangelo revealed that there were nine players who were locks to make the team a week ago: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler.

The Oklahoma City Thunder become the first NBA team ever to send three players from their roster to play for Team USA in the Olympics.

Harden made the final cut, beating out Gordon in what was a close decision.

“I think he surprised people,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said. “Two months ago he was on the radar screen, but not shining brightly necessarily. Given the opportunity, he finished so strongly this season, he gave us something to really sit back and think about. He has size, he has length at his position.

“Defensively, he’s more than adequate,” he continued. “He comes up with a lot of loose balls, a lot of steals and he is a scorer. And by the way, he can also shoot it. I think there’s a little bit of a difference between the two. Tough choice we had to make, Eric Gordon, James Harden. Harden deserved it for the reasons I mentioned and we expect him coming off the bench as he did and he’s accustomed to and to play whenever he’s called upon.”

Durant was an obvious choice for Team USA. Durant did not make the team four years ago and was one of the last cuts back then when he was only 19 years old.

“Well first of all, this young man was born to play the game. He’s a coach’s dream,” Colangelo of Durant. “He has great character, he has great passion for the game. And then his skills are off the charts. He plays with such enthusiasm that it’s difficult to keep him off the floor and in the World Championships he just rose to another level.”

Westbrook became a no-brainer when players like Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade pulled out of the Olympics because of injury. Westbrook was a part of the 2010 World Championships team with Durant.

“No, there isn’t [a more explosive player],” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I love Russell. It’s an honor to coach him. He is such a versatile player and as good an athlete as there is on this planet playing basketball. He plays with an abundance of energy and courage. I’m a big Russell Westbrook fan.”

The Miami Heat were the only other team that could have also had three players make the roster. Four years ago, LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh were all on the team and that was when it was rumored they decided to all try and play together when the time came.

The Olympic Games begin July 27. The first game for Team USA will be July 29 against France. Team USA will play five exhibition games before the Olympics start with the first one being July 12 vs. the Dominican Republic.

Here is the final roster:

Over the past few months, potential hopefuls for the final roster have been dropping like flies. Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will all not be playing this year.

Team USA will still have a pretty good roster and will be the favorites to win the Gold Medal. Jerry Colangelo announced last week that nine of the 12 roster spots were already secured.

Those nine players are: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler.

According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Blake Griffin is also a lock now to make the final roster leaving two spots to be fought over between four players: Rudy Gay, Andre Iguodala, Eric Gordon and James Harden.

It is likely that the final two spots will be determined by two position battles: Gay vs. Iguodala and Gordon vs. Harden.

Gay vs. Iguodala

Both played on the 2010 World Championships team. Gay played some center for that team while Iguodala was the perimeter defensive specialist.

Looking at the 10 locks for the roster now, 3-point shooting seems like something the team would want to add. Gay is a better 3-point shooter than Iguodala by far but the versatility that Iguodala brings might give him an edge too.

Gay has more size but it is not significant enough. I believe Iguodala will make the team instead of Gay because Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski will want more versatility.

Gordon vs. Harden

This is a great battle between two of the best young shooting guards in the NBA. Gordon has had slightly better numbers throughout his career so far but Harden really came on last season.

Gordon didn’t play much last season and is dealing with some issues this offseason about wanting to leave New Orleans. Harden is working on an extension with the Thunder and would join Durant and Westbrook as the third representative from the Thunder, which could work against him since they like to spread out these kinds of honors.

I think Harden gets the nod at the end of the day. His game is really tailored to the international style and I think Colangelo is really partial to him.

If Harden makes it then the Thunder would be the only team in the NBA sending three players to represent Team USA. Serge Ibaka will also be representing Spain.

Here is my final prediction of the roster:

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will be representing their country in the 2012 Olympics this summer for Team USA Basketball. USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo announced that nine of the 12 roster spots are secured.

Durant and Westbrook are among the nine along with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler.

That will leave three spots left for five players to compete for. The five players left are Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon and James Harden.

Many potentials have dropped out from the team, most recently No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis and Lamar Odom.

“We will not be adding anybody,” Colangelo told Fox Sports. “We feel good with what we have.”

When you look at the nine secured spots, only two of those players play the four or five in the NBA in Love and Chandler. LeBron, Durant and Anthony could each play the four in international play but one would still believe Team USA needs some more size.

Griffin should make the team because of this and possibly Gay as well, who has more size than Iguodala and is also a better perimeter shooter.

That will leave one last spot for Gordon, Iguodala and Harden to battle for. The roster needs a shooter which would make Gordon or Harden most appealing but since they will be so small, a player like Iguodala could also be a good choice.

Right now, Gordon is probably the better spot-up shooter than Harden and would most likely get the nod but people shouldn’t underestimate Harden. It’s easy to remember his play in the NBA Finals and forget what he did this season before that.

Harden really made a leap this year inserting himself into “Top 5 SG’s in the NBA” conversations. The fact that Durant and Westbrook are going too could make the choice of Harden more likely as well.

“I’m very confident with the roster we will have,” Colangelo said. “We have a few days now to decide if we want a shooter, you’ve got Harden. Do we want a defensive specialist? There’s Iguodala. And Rudy Gay is versatile. He played (center at times) for us in the World Championships. We have people who are versatile.”

The final roster will be revealed Saturday night at 7 p.m. EST on NBA TV.

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