Some of the potential trades posted on this thread might be some of the funniest things I have ever read.
I was gonna say this also! Outside of LeBron, Granger is probably the SF i'd want the most in the NBA for this team, but he is impossible sadly.
I would support this trade, depending on who goes out. I'm becoming more and more interested in Conley, simply because our point guards have been utter failures at getting Oden the ball when and where he needs it. Maybe Conley would be different. Also, comparing Travis to Gay is pure comedy. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=dazhku Trade out Bayless, Outlaw, and RLEC. Get back Gay, Conley, Darko, and Jaric. Memphis clears a ton of cap space and gets two dynamic young scorers. We fill needs at the small forward, power forward, and point guard spots. Conley/Blake/Sergio Roy/Rudy Gay/Batum/Webster Aldridge/Darko/Diogu/Randolph Oden/Przybilla
This year, in 52 games Travis had 27 games he scored in double digits. I took his game log points and extrapolated each game to Rudy Gay's average minutes. I got 41 games out of the 52 where he scored in double-digits - and unlike Gay - he is not the #1 or #2 option on his team - he is usually the 3rd or 4th option. Sorry - but this argument just does not carry real water if you actually take the data and extrapolate - Rudy Gay is playing a lot worse this year as the #2 option to Mayo on his team then he did last year. Think of how he will fit as the 3rd or 4th option on Portland - and I just do not see where, given his current form - he is any better than Travis. He just isn't - he is a less efficient scorer who is a lot more prone to turn-overs. EDIT - just to make it more interesting - I took the game log - and extrapolated the field-goal attempts Travis took to Gay's average play-time. I now averaged the results of these extrapolated attempts - and I get 13.8 attempts per game - which is still lower than Gay's 16.3 per game. Add the fact that Portland's pace is slower than Memphis - and it shows clearly that Travis would have scored just as consistently as Gay does if he had the minutes and pace that Gay does - and would have still done it more efficiently and with less turn-overs.
So my question is, does Gay bring more to the table than just scoring? I'm not really interested in adding someone who only scores.
he's a jump shooter with a poor defensive reputation who doesn't block many shots and doesn't get to the line much. whatever he is he's certainly not a physical player.
He rebounds the same percentage as Travis (of course, Travis does it on a team that features two of the best rebounders in the game in Oden and 'Billa - so I am guessing he will not be as good a rebounder here) and he turns the ball over more. If there is one thing Rudy Gay has for him - is that you have no clue what he will look like under a coaching staff that knows how to develop young players - and Portland, for better or worse - sure does have a killer coaching staff that knows how to do that. From the little I have seen him - he is a more fluid player - but this means little - Sergio is damn fluid with the ball and that does not really translate to much...
i haven't read them all, but gay's trade value isn't as high as it was last year and something like rudy/bayless/outlaw/take-your-bad-contracts-for-raef isn't an offer memphis brass would laugh at.
Gay has the fluidity and instincts a player must have to make the jump to star/superstar level. That's the optimistic view of him. The pessimistic view of him is that he doesn't seem to focus on all aspects of the game all the time, so his chances of putting it all together are in question. The upshot of these things is a player who's not really any better than Outlaw, at the moment. He possesses much more upside IMO but, unlike a Durant, I have never been sure he'd translate that upside into results. He's a major risk player and not an impact player right now.
