Why Rudy Gay would have been a perfect fit with OKC Thunder
The Paul George trade catapulted the OKC Thunder up the Western Conference hierarchy, while legitimizing them as a serious championship contender once again. However, the Thunder still could use another two-way player to ease the burden on the team’s two superstars.
There are definitely plausible concerns with signing Rudy Gay. He’s a 30-year-old coming off a torn achilles, has been known to be a bit of a ball hog, and will command a sizable salary next season if the OKC Thunder want to sign him.
However, for a Thunder team that just shoved all its chips to the center of the table, signing Gay is a no-brainer, once Sam Presti and his staff perform the necessary salary cap gymnastics to make a deal happen.
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Rudy Gay Benefits:
Gay may have his warts, but he provides two special and coveted skills in today’s NBA. Gay began his career as an average defender. But, he has improved on that side of the ball every year in the league. In the 30 games before Gay tore his achilles, the Kings had a defensive rating of 104.8 points per 100 possessions when Gay was on the floor. This would rank as the 8th stingiest defense in the league.
On offense, where Gay has made a name for himself, he can score the ball in countless types of ways. Gay epitomizes a true isolation scorer. Gay can knock down fade aways, splash 3-pointers at a league average 34.5 percent, and when inclined play facilitator
Before Gay got injured, he was scoring 18.7 points per game, grabbing 6.3 rebounds and swiping 1.5 steals. Only ten other players in the league can claim to have those averages, and they are all all-star caliber players.
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Why Rudy Gay would have worked in OKC:
While Russell Westbrook and George pack a furious one-two punch, the Golden State Warriors have shown the world that two stars is simply not enough. Adding Gay would have amounted to another player who can create his own shot. A benefit because Westbrook wouldn’t have to expend energy spoon-feeding him easy looks.
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If the Thunder could’ve made it work under the NBA’s salary cap, a lineup of Westbrook, Andre Roberson, George, Gay and Steven Adams would stifle opponents on defense and rain buckets on offense.
Now an NBA elder statesmen, Gay is much more judicious with his shot selection. As a result he’s a much wiser player than he used to be.
Almost every team is either capped out, or uninterested in ponying up money for a 30-year-old veteran. This strapped market may leave Gay no choice but to accept an under-the-market deal from the Thunder. According to ESPN’s Royce Young, Gay prefers the Thunder to all other teams.
If the two sides can come to an agreement, Billy Donovan will have himself quite the team next year.
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NOTES: *This piece was written before the Thunder signed forward Patrick Patterson, making it unlikely they would have
the money to sign Gay. Subsequently, Gay signed with the San Antonio Spurs making this a moot point, but I still liked the idea of Gay in OKC.