Rudy traded to Sacramento Kings

[tcf15]

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA26s
Rudy Gay is headed to the Kings, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. He has been pulled out of the Raptors lineup for tonight.

 

[joober jones]

Maybe now we'll see Rudy Gay: Never Give Up

 

[Gurleyman]

Kinda sad what's happened to him. Well, not sad. He's making a lot of money. But he has become an NBA punchline, while Paul George has become the player everyone thought Rudy could become.

 

[James]

bloggers, children of simmons, love looking at rudy in a vacuum and crapping on him. I think sac got good value without giving up picks, allows Thomas to take the reigns and get 30+ mpg. Thomas/mclemore/gay/williams/cousins - not bad ( not good enough in the west).

 

[BearJWS]

Rudy to Sacramento is like going to Purgatory.... Sacramento is probably even a worse franchise than Toronto. Poor Ruby... He has to play with Cousins, who's probably the worst teammate in the NBA today.... Sigh...

 

[jfuchs91]

A change of scenery might be good for Rudy. He gets a lot of criticism to the point where people view him as a net-negative, which is absurd. He's still a very talented player, and in Sacramento, where he won't have to carry the scoring load, he should become a more efficient player.

Hopefully his situation will be similar to Monta Ellis; people viewed him as a inefficient chucker who hurt his team more than he helped. He goes to Dallas this year and is playing great. The Kings' organization itself is relatively dysfunctional, and Boogie Cousins isn't fun to play with, but they're assembling a nice squad.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Kinda sad what's happened to him. Well, not sad. He's making a lot of money. But he has become an NBA punchline, while Paul George has become the player everyone thought Rudy could become.

Shhhh! You are never to speak about how Rudy has never fulfilled his enormous potential around these parts.

 

[Gurleyman]

Shhhh! You are never to speak about how Rudy has never fulfilled his enormous potential around these parts.

He was close. On verge of legit all-status in Memphis. I think voodoo dolls got us after we peaked in 2008-09 or so. BG/CV flopped in Detroit, Rip and Caron got hurt and tailed off rapidly. Emeka couldn't stay healthy. Rudy had his problems.

At least Ray got a couple rings in there.

 

[aceboon]

He was close. On verge of legit all-status in Memphis. I think voodoo dolls got us after we peaked in 2008-09 or so. BG/CV flopped in Detroit, Rip and Caron got hurt and tailed off rapidly. Emeka couldn't stay healthy. Rudy had his problems.

At least Ray got a couple rings in there.

He was right there during the year he got injured and then in the lockout year. Zach Randolph suffered an MCL tear early in the season and missed most of the regular season, and Rudy fit like a glove with Gasol/Conley and the Grizz got the 4th seed. I thought he got a bad rap when the Grizz got eliminated and people were to quick to jump on the single common denominator of Rudy being on the roster compared to the previous year when they went to the 2nd round, when there were way too many factors contributing to the Grizz being eliminated. Randolph was a shell of himself playing essentially on one leg, they got nothing from the SG position in that entire series with the Clippers as Mayo didn't show up and Allen already was inept offensively, and then Conley bombed in Game 7. But after that there really is no defending his play, he's been awful 100+ games now and damn near unwatchable as a player with his approach to scoring.

 

[Waquoit]

Kinda sad what's happened to him. Well, not sad. He's making a lot of money. But he has become an NBA punchline, while Paul George has become the player everyone thought Rudy could become.

Whose fault is that?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Rudy just doesn't seem like a winning player. He simply doesn't have the type of game that makes his teammates better.

Great individual talent, but that doesn't necessarily translate to winning.

People here are going to hate this, but he's like a poor man's Carmelo.

 

[Joobie]

I realize I may be crossing a sacred line here, but I wasn't that impressed with Rudy's game while he was here & was kinda surprised when, briefly, he became one of the NBA's darlings. Sorry he is on the fast track to obscurity, but not really surprised...

 

[Deepster]

I realize I may be crossing a sacred line here, but I wasn't that impressed with Rudy's game while he was here & was kinda surprised when, briefly, he became one of the NBA's darlings. Sorry he is on the fast track to obscurity, but not really surprised...

I'm right with you. And I cringe every time some young 'un posts about Rudy being in the discussion for greatest Huskies of all time.

 

[Husky68]

Put him on Celtics with their young coach, improve his shot selection and shooting %, how to space floor - he becomes the 3rd or 4th option and is very good as that. Look at the kid from Ohio State playing well, use what Rudy does well and get him to understand how to hide/improve what he doesn't. Don't remember lot of complaints that Jordan was crummy 3 point shooter or that Ray Allen has no post up game.

 

[James]

I realize I may be crossing a sacred line here, but I wasn't that impressed with Rudy's game while he was here & was kinda surprised when, briefly, he became one of the NBA's darlings. Sorry he is on the fast track to obscurity, but not really surprised...

Fast track to obscurity ? Then why was he the number 1 global trending topic on twitter for 6 hours yesterday ? To say you weren't impressed with Rudy as a 2nd team all american is strange also.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I realize I may be crossing a sacred line here, but I wasn't that impressed with Rudy's game while he was here & was kinda surprised when, briefly, he became one of the NBA's darlings. Sorry he is on the fast track to obscurity, but not really surprised...

I agree with you somewhat on the first part but not the second. Rudy didn't become the consistent superstar we expected him to be in 2006. Granted, that team was awash with talent, but there were occasions that begged for him to step up, and he didn't.

On the other hand, I fully expected him to become a stud in the NBA and was not surprised that he was eventually awarded a max contract. As others have mentioned, it's disappointing that he's become part of the narrative of UConn alums as albatrosses in the NBA (along with BG, CV, Thabeet, etc.).

 

[Waquoit]

All you needed to know about Rudy is "The Yawn."

That he's on The Wall and KEA isn't bothers me everytime I look at it.

 

[Gurleyman]

The strange part for Rudy is that he was criticized at UConn for not taking over games and not asserting himself - his criticism in the NBA is that he is a selfish ball-stopper and an inefficient chucker. If he played more like he did in the NBA while he was at UConn, and vice versa, he'd have had a better career.

 

[James]

The strange part for Rudy is that he was criticized at UConn for not taking over games and not asserting himself - his criticism in the NBA is that he is a selfish ball-stopper and an inefficient chucker. If he played more like he did in the NBA while he was at UConn, and vice versa, he'd have had a better career.

Sounds easy. Wait, what quantifies a 'better career'? He's going to eclipse 10k points pretty soon shooting 44% fg. Selected 8th overall, the year before rudy ,Channing frye was the 8th pick. Oh and he's 28 he's career isn't over...(see monta ellis). Sorry to the purists who can't bear the site of him, numbers can't quantity star power or potential. lets not sit here and act like he's been shitt1ng the bucket since day one.

 

[Waquoit]

Oh and he's 28 he's career isn't over..

It's over, Jimmy. It's OVER!!

This Grantland article gives the facts:

The Raptors canvassed damn near the entire league in their quest to become the second team in two seasons to dump Rudy Gay well in advance of the trade deadline...Gay is 27 and declining... The current version of Gay is basically a harmful player. He used 30 percent of Toronto’s possessions with a shot, turnover, or drawn foul — a gargantuan usage rate reserved for the league’s biggest scoring stars. He’s also shooting 38.8 percent for the season. That is a historically rare combination of shot chucking and brick laying... Just don’t expect Sacramento fans to be excited upon news of the deal, as desperate Toronto fans were last season. Everyone knows better now. It’s up to Gay to prove the league wrong.

 

[James]

Please you know how many articles grantland was pumping out sh1tt1ng on monta ellis ? Where are they now ? Oh they've turned into rudy gay articles. Just like that.

 

[UConn Dan]

Welcome back to 'Merica, Rudy!

 

[Waquoit]

Please you know how many articles grantland was pumping out sh1tt1ng on monta ellis ? Where are they now ? Oh they've turned into rudy gay articles. Just like that.

Yeah, that's it.

 

[caw]

Rudy was never a great shooter, but he was capable. His shoulder injury derailed his shooting and it hasn't come back.

For some god-forsaken reason the Toronto coaching staff convinced him he needed to bulk up and play the four this year. While he has been a pretty solid defender and rebounder, he doesn't have the speed/quickness or lift he had just last year. So he can't shoot from the outside and is now having trouble finishing athletic plays near the rim.

The best thing a new coaching staff could do is take a month and just have him run, get him on a new diet and get him back to athletic Rudy. Then at least you have an athlete out there. After that work on his shot selection.

 

[Gurleyman]

Sounds easy. Wait, what quantifies a 'better career'? He's going to eclipse 10k points pretty soon shooting 44% fg. Selected 8th overall, the year before rudy ,Channing frye was the 8th pick. Oh and he's 28 he's career isn't over...(see monta ellis). Sorry to the purists who can't bear the site of him, numbers can't quantity star power or potential. lets not sit here and act like he's been t1ng the bucket since day one.

I like him - personality-wise he's an easy guy to root for - and want him to do well somewhere. But there's no hiding from the fact he's gone from a guy on the cusp of all-star status to a player nobody wants while still in his prime. I have NBA league pass and watch all our guys as much as possible, and mostly avoid his games because he's just not much fun to watch. Has Rudy been better than some other lottery picks in recent years? Of course. Heck, Adam Morrison went #3 at his position, and he's certainly been a lot better than that. It's seeing BG and Rudy regress that's been tougher to handle - moreso than seeing guys like Thabeet and Armstrong who just simply didn't pan out and were drafted much too high.

Zach Lowe is an excellent writer for Grantland - Simmons is snarky and isn't always fair, but Lowe is probably one of the best guys out there.