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Happy, Not Thrilled, with Gay

Andrew Damelin

Writer, Fantrax

As a Toronto Raptors fan, I was torn when the team announced it acquired Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzles for Ed Davis and Jose Calderon. General manager Bryan Colangelo had continued his string of short-term-oriented transactions that would likely elevate his team to a low playoff seed at best. Once again BC had ignored the axiom of bottoming out in order to become a true contender; if you're mediocre, you have no chance of getting past the first round or getting a high draft pick. But if you're terrible, at least you can attempt to build through the draft.

At the same time, the Raps got the most talented player in the trade - a player entering his prime, with two and half years left on his (albeit massive) contract (Gay is owed $37M after this season). Toronto also got a return on Calderon's expiring contract, and sold off Ed Davis at the peak of his value. Though Davis is tremendous at finishing around the basket, his defense is suspect and he cannot hit a jumpshot from any distance. In 24 minutes a night as a Raptor he averaged 10 points and seven boards. Davis may become a more valuable asset with more time and minutes, but with such a limited skill set his ceiling isn't that high.

Back to Gay. Not since Vince Carter have the Raptors had such an athletic, smooth, finesse scorer who can create his own shot with regularity. With his point guard-caliber ball handling ability, at 6'9 he is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. Defenders can't play too tight, otherwise he'll blow by them. If he catches the ball inside the three point line, they can't sag off because he'll make the jumper. But most devastatingly (that's a word. I checked), regardless of how tight you play him, he has the ability to stop his dribble penetration and pull up for the midrange jumper. Even if the defender has stuck with him, he has to recover quickly to challenge the shot. But even if he does, he can't affect the shot that much because Gay gets so high in the air. Like I said, it's a nightmare.

So why am I lukewarm on Gay? It's because he only occasionally chooses to implement his exceptional talents. Watching him closely since he's become a Raptor, Gay coasts through significant portions of games, especially the first, second and third quarters. He's not as engaged defensively, and on offense he doesn't work as hard for quality shots. He has all the ability to get to the rim and finish, and is lethal from 20 feet in, yet he has chosen to jack five three-pointers a game for the Raptors, hitting on 20% of them. Gay hasn't shot better than 31% from three in four years, but over that span still put up an average of over three per game. You can tell in the intangibles - his eyes, body language, movement off the ball, and tangibles - shot selection, percentage - that his effort varies significantly over the course of a game. It's maddening. Gay has all the tools to be a star, but hasn't chosen to use those tools consistently enough to get there.

Not since Vince Carter have Raptors fans seen so much skill.

Not since Vince Carter have Raptors fans seen so much unutilized potential.

Andrew Damelin was a finalist in The Score's Drafted competition and is a sportscaster and sports writer. Email: andrewdamelin@gmail.com. Twitter: @Transition_D

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