http://slamonline.com/online/nba/2008/12/game-notes-grizzlies-at-thunder/ Also I liked this part about Conley ...
shocker! which is why I think Minnesota was good to trade Mayo...head case primadonna + he'll bolt to a bigger market anyways.
This article gets me thinking about a couple of things. First, maybe some of you were right about Pritchard pursuing Gay. He could be available for the right price. So what is the right price? Secondly, I think that many fans are not crediting the negative affect that Mayo has had on his teammates. Conley struggled. He has adapted and is now playing very well, but that seems to be attributed to not playing next to Mayo. Gay and Lowry are having a difficult time this year as well.
What is the obsession with Gay (not saying you, but there're a couple of posters who pine for him)? He's a gunner who is pretty useless for everything else. That is NOT what we need. We HAVE just about the perfect young SFs for our team. Batum is better than Gay at most things not involving volume shooting. I don't think it's accidental that Memphis's decline coincides with the Gay/Battier trade. (They were crappy before the infamous Gasol trade - and he was unhappy which is why they traded him.)
I remember before the draft arguing (on that other board) that I wouldn't touch Mayo with a ten-foot pole, given his past, and getting slammed for it. "Oh, Mayo has changed, he's maturing"... blah blah blah. Maybe I was actually correct. What a shocker. It could turn out to be a non-issue though, losing is hard on any team, and I don't really think we need anything Memphis has. Having two Rudy's on the same team would just make the Rose Garden chants horribly confusing.
If Gay and Mayo won't work out, and Memphis likes Mayo over Gay (which they should), then Luol Deng for Rudy Gay would make a lot of sense for both teams. A trade in the Kidd for Harris, or Kidd for Marbury mold, just a position for same position swap when things aren't working too great.
I haven't seen Gay play much in the pros, but in the NCAA tourney he could pretty much do everything: rebound, block shots, shoot, take his opponent off the dribble, even play defense. He's an athletic freak - and that's compared to NBA, not college players. So, it's your pov that's confusing.
You guys are making too big a deal out of this. Mayo seems like a guy that's going to learn and mature. He was confronted by his teammates, if he does it again it's an issue, but it's not now.
How do we know that Mayo was the bad guy here? Maybe Gay chose to keep the ball and attempt a high-difficulty shot when he could have passed to Mayo for an easy shot.. Maybe it was the 2nd or third time in the game he did that. Maybe Mayo's teammates were empathizing with him but said he needed to address the situation in private. By the way I'm not saying we should trade for Mayo, I'm just saying I've never read anything that made me think he was a bad guy.
I was watching that play. Rudy was totally selfish on that one...it was like a Jack fastbreak from last year where there were eyes only for the basket, even on a 2-on-1. The defender had already committed to Gay, and all Rudy had to do was drop the ball off to his right and Mayo would've had an easy two, maybe and-one. As it was, Rudy tried a circus shot that got bailed out by the foul call. You could see Mayo raise his arms like "wtf, man?" and then the camera cut away, so I couldn't see Rudy's response. I didn't see Mayo's bad attitude last night as much as Rudy's "me gettin' mine" attitude. Mayo actually looked good playing a little point...he has really good court vision.
Again though, you've got to consider age. Gay is still learning the game. He's 22. He's going to be inconsistent when put in certain situations. He's already proven to be excellent scorer. His athleticism is just simply awesome. He's got the tools to be a star. Put him on an actual team with more experienced players, a solid coach, and I like his chances at improving other aspects of his game. I like the idea of having two excellent perimeter players. Gay and Roy would be an amazing tandem.
yup losing sucks and not many handle it well. It's my view that most NBA players are prima-donnas so it's not surprising that their guys are having some issues dealing with losing in Memphis We'll see if this is the sort of festering issue that allows you to legitimately make the claim that you were right about Mayo's character... but it's way too early for that right now. Not only is he playing on one of the least talented teams in the league (which has got to suck), but he's also playing out of position giving up considerable size nightly. He is shooting/scoring amazingly well though... did you predict that too? STOMP
Working off the Idea that Memphis is open to Trading Gay (which I do no believe) http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...3416~2754~2015&teams=22~22~29~29~29&te=&cash= Memphis Trades: Rudy Gay, Marco Jaric Portland Trades: Travis Outlaw, Channing Frye, Nicolas Batum + First round Pick in 2010 Memphis does this to mainly get rid of Jaric's horrible contract but KP is fine with this since this trade will give Portland 4 legitimate All Star Caliber Starters with the possibility of Bayless or Sergio developing into our PG of the Future. I'm not sure if Memphis would do this without us using Rudy instead of Batum but i feel that with Jaric's horrible contract we may be able to keep Rudy.
I was hoping the devil wink would have tipped you off that the comment was to be taken with a grain of salt. Also, the "Maybe" which occurred at the beginning of my sentence may have been overlooked. I thought he'd be in the discussion for rookie of the year. He's always put up the numbers and he's on a bad team.
I guess he's forgotten stuff since College. Happens to us all. So is Jamario Moon. I guess by "confusing" you mean you disagree with it. But it's not just me.