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Can an offense survive with two sub-par 3-point shooting wings who prefer to work from the free throw line down? Kyle Lowry is a very good scoring guard, but is he content with consistently feeding DeRozan and Gay post-up opportunities while Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson just try to stay out of the way? And what does this mean for Andrea Bargnani - a player who only has value when he has the ball in his hands? Dwane Casey is a good coach, but he’ll have his hands full trying to craft an offense that will have any spacing or ball movement whatsoever. DeMar DeRozan, who is the other player locked in with Gay long-term for the Raptors, is another wing player who loves to post up just like Gay does. Still, it’s not Gay’s skills that warrant questioning, but rather the fit with his new teammates in Toronto.
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He has holes in his game, but he can score around the rim and he can use his athleticism to always get you a shot. With all that in mind, Gay is a nice acquisition. Even if they somehow did, would Toronto actually be able to land a better player than Gay at a more reasonable price tag in the always inflated free agent market? Kooky exchange rates aside, it’s important to remember that Toronto wasn’t slated to have any cap room this offseason or next. Is Gay overpaid in a general sense? Sure, but he’s not overpaid for Toronto. In a vacuum, Toronto did great here by trading a few months of Calderon for two and a half years of Rudy Gay. Sent: Jose Calderon to Detroit, Ed Davis and 2013 second rounder to Memphis The answer to that, apparently, was not worth the luxury tax. It’s not unfair to ask how much he was really worth to Memphis on the floor. This isn’t an isolated example - Memphis made their deepest playoff run in 2010-11 without Gay’s services. Prince might make them even better defensively, and the Grizzlies are 29-15 with Gay shooting 40 percent from the field and having a below average PER (14.4) this season. Again, it’s not like any white flags are being waved here. The downside may be that it’s not popular in the locker room, but the inevitability of it all might make it easier for the players to understand. If for some reason Memphis wants to rip the band-aid off all at once and trade Zach Randolph, Davis and Arthur would be more than capable substitutes at the 4.Īs is, Memphis actually managed to get stronger up front and cut salary in their two deals, as they now sport the league’s best big man rotation with Randolph-Gasol-Arthur-Davis. Promising, productive young big men on rookie contracts are some of the most valuable assets in basketball, and acquiring Davis allows for even more future flexibility as well. Perhaps more importantly, Prince will make roughly $22 million less than Gay in future salary, which saves Memphis from the luxury tax hell they were bound for if they didn’t break up their core.Īll that is enough to make the trade sensible, but getting Ed Davis makes it a steal. Prince isn’t as talented as Gay, but the gap in actual production (especially defensively) isn’t so overwhelming as to make you believe the Grizzlies are significantly less capable of contending than they were before. By swapping Gay with Prince, the Grizzlies effectively accomplished everything they wanted to accomplish. Memphis wasn’t supposed to have any leverage, but their haul in this deal certainly doesn’t reflect that. Sent: Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi to TorontoĪcquired: Ed Davis, Tayshaun Prince, Austin Daye and a 2013 second-round draft pick So how did they do? Let’s hand out grades for each team in this deal. As for the Pistons? They took the enviable position of third wheel, which is usually the best way to score value in a trade. The Grizzlies simply had to get under the cap for the future, and the Raptors had to cash in on Jose Calderon’s expiring deal before it was too late. Usually the need to deal is lopsided - think Denver having to trade Carmelo Anthony or Orlando trading Dwight Howard - but the need to make this blockbuster trade was shared by both Memphis and Toronto. Trades born from necessity are often the most interesting to evaluate.
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Today, we analyze the three-way deal between Memphis, Toronto and Detroit. The Extra Pass is a new daily column that’s designed to give you a better look at a theme, team, player or scheme.