I have a couple of questions question for
@gourimoko ,
@godfather and others who want us to get Rudy Gay.
1. Do you think Rudy Gay would be that effective playing off the ball? Throughout his career till now, he has always thrived with the ball in his hands. What makes you guys so confident that he would be great playing off the ball?
Well, the thing about the Cavs is that we need someone who can play with the ball in his hands; hence the need for either a point-guard or a "playmaker," but to your point, we need someone who does not require the ball in order to be effective at all times, nor can this player rely on dribbling the air out of the ball to isolation or create for himself or others given the role of this player as a 4th option.
I don't consider Rudy Gay a "playmaker" in the traditional sense of the term; however, he's putting up 3 APG per game and can play the 3-4 (or 3-5 against the Warriors). He's also able to create for himself, so running with the second unit Gay could ball out against lesser competition.
But most importantly, and to your point; Rudy Gay is not really the kind of player that dribbles constantly looking to create for himself. Equating this to isolation frequency, we can see that Gay is ranked 43rd out of the top 50 players in the NBA with respect to isolation plays. Comparable players are Evan Turn, Giannis, Wilson Chandler, and Jimmy Butler (all floating around 12.3%).
2. Won't getting another high volume shooter affect the dynamics of the team? There were issues with integrating Love in the offense until last season before Ty took over. Adding another guy who needs the ball in his hands and has been a high volume shooter doesn't seem like ideal.
To be clear, Rudy Gay only takes 14.7 FGA this season, and last season he took slightly less.. That's on a depleted Kings team. You could envision him taking 12-13 FGA per game with no problems whatsoever and focusing more of his effort on getting boards and dishing out 1-2 more assists per game.
So with that said, I wouldn't argue Gay is a high volume shooter
any longer. I mean, certainly in his Toronto years, yes absolutely; but these days, Gay seems to be slowing down quite a bit. He's on the tail end of his career, and it shows in his shot attempts and production.
With that said though, he's still fairly efficient at 50% eFG% and a .556 TS%; both of which are great numbers for a 4th option.
3. And I still don't see how Rudy Gay will help us negate or restrict KD, because he has never been known for defense.
Of course you don't see this... You don't see it because it's impossible..
Seriously though, you're 100% correct -- Rudy Gay on KD is a still a bad matchup for us. But Gay, who is 6'8 and 260lbs is a hell of a lot better of an option on Kevin Durant than JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, or Kyle Korver, let alone Richard Jefferson -- bless his soul..
But, here's the controversial part of all of this... If we're really going to beat the Warriors; LeBron is going to need to guard Kevin Durant. If Kyrie Irving is expected to chase Steph Curry around for 40 minutes and put up 30/5/5 then James is going to have to guard Durant at the same time.
We all would prefer to have James on Green, but, unless Gay can handle that matchup, then James will likely need to guard KD.
And with that said -- keep in mind, LeBron can guard Kevin Durant. Durant is not quick enough to beat James off the dribble consistently, and he's not strong enough to back down James in the low post. Durant's only hope against a guy like James is to shoot over the top of him, which he doesn't do well under pressure - or, to hope to get bailed out for a foul.
The KD-James and Curry-Irving matchups are HIGHLY favorable for the Cavaliers. We have the two best players on the floor in a Finals scenario, and give us Rudy Gay we might have a positional nightmare for them.
I agree that we need an athletic wing and it should be the priority. I just don't see Rudy Gay as the ideal option for it.
Rudy Gay is not ideal at all... Period... But he's optimal given the circumstances; our cap situation; the lack of assets; the matchup we're about to face.
Rudy Gay is a 6'8 veteran wing who can play the 3-4, can handle the ball, isn't a bad defender, can create for himself when Irving/James rests, and is comfortable playing with a dominant big man (he can treat Love just as he would Cousins).
Rudy Gay is someone we can plant on Draymond Green with no concerns whatsoever in that matchup either way.
Gay is someone we can run endless pick-and-roll with, one through five, PnR these motherfuckers to
death..
Again, a 31 year old guy on the tail end of his career is not what I would call "ideal." But Rudy Gay is definitely what I would call making lemonade out of lemons... And that's kind of the situation we have right now with Iman Shumpert and Cedi Osman as the only tradeable assets we have.