Matt Devlin just tweeted that as a result of all of the players involved passing their medicals Rudy Gay is available to play tonight and will debut vs. the Clippers.
Horrible game by the Clips. Just lifeless out there. Dunno what is up with them. Great game for the Raps and Rudy Gay. Perfect introduction. Amir & Aaron were key. WTF is up with Caron Butler? What a dick.
I think the Raptors will be very happy with Rudy Gay. He's going to be much better than expectations, IMO.
Yeah I think the Rudy Gay trashing has been pretty out of control. I agree that hes flawed in the ways that his critics say he is, but hes far from completely useless. Seems pretty damn money down the stretch, can get scorching hot, never struck me as a negative on defense (though hes certainly not as good as he could be). Hes been quite inefficient but I think hes coachable and a coach who puts their mind to it could improve the lack of efficiency. Dunno what it will take to get him to start making the right pass (maybe he doesn't have the skills/vision) but that could really elevate his game. Maybe exactly what he needs is to be the best guy on his team?
Kind of surreal to hear Isiah Thomas & Sam Mitchell commenting on the Raptors... where's Butch? http://www.nba.com/video/games/raptors/2013/02/01/0021200684-lac-tor-recap.nba
I think it's all justified. As for him being money down the stretch, I completely disagree. He's cost the Grizzlies several very important games in crunch time, including a 2-3 of the losses to the Clippers in last year's playoffs. The fact that he's hit a game winner or two in his time in Memphis is just a product of coach Hollins constantly drawing up plays for him in the clutch, something that most Grizz fans hated, given that he only came through once in a blue moon. As far as him needing to be the best guy on his team, I don't think that was a problem for him in Memphis. He clearly wasn't the best player, but he still took the most shots, got the ball the most, and had most of the offense flowing to and eventually stopping with him. It's not like Gasol was being a ball-hog. That guy is the epitome of unselfish and doesn't care if he goes scoreless, so long as the team wins. Randolph takes a good number of shots, but a lot of those are off of rebounds. Mike Conley is the definition of a facilitator, and Tony Allen is on the court for defensive purposes only. In short, he was the go-to-guy for the Grizzlies, and he hurt us in that role.
