Replying to Rudy Gay to Toronto in Three Team Deal

Score update....

Detroit 1-2 with win over Spurs

Toranto 2-2 with OT win over Pacers

Memphis 2-2 with win over Warriors

Some crazy games last night.

Happy for Pistons win over Spurs and my hope is that they will be too exhausted to win tonight against the Bucks!

Detroit doesn't have to get sucked in to any big deals this summer if free agency doesn't bear fruit. They're going to (likely) be a lottery team, and can just keep building the team via the draft while continuing to save money and, if any of the current players they have are worth keeping for the future, can be re-signed. Either way, this bodes well for their future.

 

I really feel Memphis made the right move, even if fans or players on the team disagree with it at the moment. Gay was the leading scorer, but he was soooooo inefficient while doing it. 

 

So far, records WITH the players they got in the trade (so not counting games when teams were without both the players they traded away and the players they got in return:

 

Memphis: 1-2, with an ugly loss at home to the Suns, who've been atrocious on the road this year.

Toronto: 1-2, but with a very tough schedule (LA Clippers, Miami + Boston).

Detroit: 0-2, with losses @ Knicks and at home vs the Nets. 

Raptors: Got a ticket draw in Rudy Gay.  Will it be worth the price of admission?  Time will tell.  Might help them attract other players  too.

 

Detroit:  Got solid PG to play with Brandon Knight and hopefully some of it will rub off on him.  Calderon & Bynum contracts expire, so who knows where they go.  Prince just signed contract so moving next 3 years out while having several young forwards not much of a risk there.  Not very risky trade...just a trade.

 

Memphis: What Ted said.  

Raptors: You brought up the similarities between Derozan and Gay both exceptional athletes but so is Terrance Ross who now is going to lose even more playing time so that confused me a great deal. Also neither of them get to the free throw line, Derozan is terrible from 3 and I think Gay's production from outside will drop without an inside presence for teams to double down on like he had in Memphis with both Gasol and Randolph.

 

Detroit: Calderons expiring contract is nice but this is a terribly weak FA class so all it's going to mean is that Detroit is going to overpay someone else who doesnt deserve it.

 

Memphis shed Gay's contract and got Prince to fill in for him. He is a much better defender but much less potent offensively than Rudy. Davis is a good player and might become really good. I would say that Memphis won this trade, they shaved cap, got two good pieces for a big contract and will probably maintain the same win pace that they had earlier. Odd to do a deal like this though when you are a team that is supposedly a title contender and then you go and trade your leading scorer so you can shave more cap room it's risky breaking up a team like this and messing with chemistry but I trust John Hollinger

Gay didn't fit in with Memphis, contract and otherwise. And Rudy Gay has never really proven himself in this league. His scoring is so dependent on his slashing ability. He can't hit jumpers consistently. 

 

Memphis looked to clear up cap space, while allowing Gasol and Z-Bo to be the unanimous first and second options on this team. They got rid of some of their bench, but Ed Davis has a lot of potential, and Prince, potentially, could be a much better fit with this Grizzlies squad. He's not an excellent shooter, but he can still hit open jumpers, and defensively he'll be a much added bonus. Daye was just filler. 

 

Detroit made a great deal, also. Cleared cap space for next season (again, Calderon is in the last year of his contract). Knight is a solid defensive PG, but he's nowhere near the play maker that Calderon is. Detroit wants to make a postseason run, and Calderon could be the piece to help them with that goal, especially with Rondo and now Sullinger now out for the season for Boston.

 

Toronto might prove people wrong, but at least from what I've seen of him and DeRozen, they play nearly exactly the same, and don't seem to be a great fit. 

although gays contract is crazy he is still an all star type player and memphis basically killed their team the last few weeks starting off by trading away their only 2 good bench players for luer. i dont understand what detroit was thinking with this trade they have brandon knight so i dont see how trading away prince and daye for calderon makes sense. toronto clearly won here they have had space for a big name player with a big contract for a little bit of time now gay alongside demar derozan and kyle lowry getting the start which i think he deserved anyway plus their young but talented front court

Not exactly breaking news, but I figured it would be something fun to talk about here. 

 

Memphis: Sends Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi to the Raptors

Memphis: Receives Ed Davis and a second round pick from Toronto, Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye from Detroit.

 

Toronto: Sends Ed Davis and a second round pick to Memphis, and Jose Calderon to Detroit.

Toronto: Receives Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi from Memphis.

 

Detroit: Sends Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye to Memphis.

Detroit: Receives Jose Calderon from Toronto.

 

So question is, who won the trade? Rudy Gay is the best player right NOW in this deal, but Ed Davis may end up being the best player overall in the future. Here's my two cents:

 

Memphis- Rudy Gay was overpaid to begin with. For a guy with his salary, he wasn't a particularly efficient scorer, and defensively he wasn't anything special either. Between removing his ridiculous contract and adding a solid player in his stead (Prince) and a guy who could be special in the future (Davis), they came out of this very well all things considered. 

 

Toronto- Got the best player right now (Gay), but what's the vision for this team? They already had a player exactly like him in DeRozen, so you have to figure that he's on his way out. Getting rid of Calderon paved the way for Lowry to finally have the starting role to himself. But overall, I just don't think this trade made a whole lot of sense, apart from adding a big name player. 

 

Detroit- Personally, I have them as the winners of this trade for now, but I may change my mind depending on what Dumars does with this team during free agency this summer. Prince gets to go play for a winner, while they remove his costly contract and bring in a great point guard in Calderon who can make this whole team better, and has only one year on his contract anyways. Bringing in a better player while clearing cap space should make any team happy. 

 

Your thoughts?