Sacramento Kings Not Concerned About Rudy Gay’s Poor Stats


Statistics were Rudy Gay’s biggest enemy during his brief stint with the Toronto Raptors. Given a fresh start in Sacramento, Gay and the Kings’ brass claim they’re not worried about the ugly numbers. Per the Sac Bee:

“Gay, 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds, is the biggest acquisitionfor Kings first-year general manager Pete D’Alessandro because of his talent and contract ($17.9 million this season with a player option for $19.3 million next season). The Kings have lacked top players during their stretch of seven losing seasons, with the greatest void at small forward. Since trading Ron Artest after the 2007-08 season, the Kings have had a revolving door at small forward, something D’Alessandro hopes ends with the acquistion of Gay. Though Gay is shooting a career-low 38.8 pcercent, he is averaging 19.4 points this season, offensive production previous Kings coaches have begged for from the multiple draft picks and bargain-priced free agents the team has used at the position. Assuming the players dealt to Toronto pass their physicals, Gay will add scoring and athleticism to the Kings’ lineup beginning tonight. ‘You look at the man, you look at the body of work,’ D’Alessandro said. ‘This is a very, very good player, and we’re really excited to have him here for that reason. This is part of the process. We’re not there; it’s not a quick a fix. We’re saying let’s bring in talent and let’s see where it takes us.’ Gay isn’t surprised he was traded again. New Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri is remaking the Raptors and had already jettisoned high-priced center Andrea Bargnani in the offseason to create more financial flexibility. But Gay said he was thrown off by the timing. ‘We were in L.A. (Sunday) getting ready for a game and all of a sudden (he was pulled from the lineup),’ Gay said. ‘It was really all of a sudden.’

‘Yes, this year has not been a good year for him, shooting 18 times a game, shooting 38 percent from the field,’ head coach Michael Malone said. ‘But I think playing alongside a guy like DeMarcus will open up things. They didn’t have that kind of a post presence in Toronto. They had that in Memphis.’

DeMarcus Cousins leads the NBA in usage rate at 32.6. Isaiah Thomas is tied for ninth at 28. Gay is eighth at 28.3 from his time with Toronto this season. The question becomes will there be enough scoring chances for the trio? Only Oklahoma City has two players in the top-10 in usage rate (Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant). There’s also Player Efficiency Rating, which is the overall rating of a player’s per-minute statistical production. The league average is 15 every season. Cousins is sixth in the NBA at 26.27 in PER. Thomas is 10th at 24.14. Gay is 116th at 15.98. That doesn’t worry the Kings at all. ‘A lot of these things I don’t know what they mean,’ said Kings coach Michael Malone. ‘I know Rudy Gay is a talented player. I know when he was in Memphis and they were a competitive team and he was a big part of their success.'”