I've never read anything by this guy, but he seems like a very good, well researched sportswriter. A Canadian friend of mine sent this to me and asked what I think. Then pressured me to play GM once I told him that part of me hated it, but I think we probably should trade him.

I didn't play the full numbers game (and I know Calderon is a UFA after this year, but I think he's really good, a little old, but is a good shooter and him and Marc obviously have a lot of experience playing together...and, before you say anything, I really think him and Conley would do really well on the court at the same time so I'm going with that) ---

Rudy Gay & 2013 #1 to Toronto for Jose Calderon, 2012 #1 (8), 2012 #2 (they have 2) & 2013 #1 (non-lottery protected)

That leaves us with 2 #1s this year. Surely we can't mess them both up, right? Right? 2009 never happened, right?

Chop away; that was just off the top of my head.

http://www.tsn.ca/story/?id=397869

It's long, but I'm quoting anyway.

Quote:Text Size
So the word is out: the Raptors want Rudy Gay.

While it's hardly news to anyone that follows the Raptors that they are willing to sell their pick in the upcoming draft to secure a veteran talent at small forward, the internet was abuzz yesterday when Gay's name was linked to the Raptors by ESPN's Marc Stein and Chad Ford in a late-afternoon blog post.

Gay is rumored to be on the trading block this offseason after he failed to mesh with the style of play that drove Memphis to their unexpected Playoff success in 2011, which Gay missed while he was rehabbing a season-ending shoulder injury. Gay has the most lucrative deal on the Grizzlies roster (with $53.7-million owing over the next three years) and for a team that is highly reluctant to pay the league's luxury tax, his salary may simply not make sense for them going forward.

Right now the Grizzlies have three players that make in excess of $10-million per season (Gay, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol), with point guard Mike Conley just a notch below that threshold. In today's NBA, under the new, more restrictive collective bargaining agreement, that simply isn't tenable for a club that isn't on the precipice of winning an NBA title. Plus, Memphis has three key free agents to deal with this summer (O.J. Mayo, Darrell Arthur and Marreese Speights) and lots of little holes up and down their roster that could use some attention. Shedding Gay's salary would go a long way towards easing the financial burden being felt in Memphis right now, and it is expected that, as much as anything, cap relief is a must for any deal involving Rudy Gay.

The Raptors, then, are uniquely poised to acquire Gay, because they have just under $12-million in cap space right now, a decent lottery pick and some cheap assets that they can use to fill out an offer. If they hand Memphis their eighth pick, Ed Davis, James Johnson and Solomon Alabi, the Raptors don't lose any of their key roster pieces and Memphis gets some flexibility and young assets to play with and evaluate. The Grizzlies can choose to keep or ditch certain free agents based on the incoming players and they get a lot of breathing room between their salary obligations and the luxury tax.

It's possible the deal could include one of Toronto's pricier players (like Amir Johnson, Jose Calderon or Linas Kleiza) if Memphis took a shine to any of them, and it's also possible Toronto could package their two second round picks for the 25th pick that Memphis owns, but that's all speculation and not really worth breaking down at this point. Just know that there are lots of workable combinations that these teams could manufacture if they are motivated to get a deal done before the draft.

And make no mistake, both sides would want this done before the draft.

On the one hand, Toronto wants to configure this deal under Gay's 2011-12 salary of $15-million, not the $16.5-million figure that kicks in after July 1st. While obviously they would have to pay his future salary regardless, they don't want to have to find more salary ballasts to make the deal work. Memphis, too, would want this done before June 28th because they would want to be the ones making the eighth pick on draft night. That's why, one way or another, we're going to know whether or not this deal gets done within the next 21 days.

Now comes the question that haunted my Twitter feed yesterday: Should the Raptors make this deal?

Well, that's a difficult question to answer, especially without knowing the specifics of what would be going out and what would be coming back in any configuration. All you can really speculate on is a) Does Gay fit the Raptors? b) Is his salary too onerous to take on? Or c) Is he a better option going forward than whomever the club could select with their eighth pick?

So, let's break it down. Gay definitely fits this Raptors squad, and would yield immediate results if he were brought on board. He's averaged nearly 20 points per game over the last four years, he can create his own shot off of the dribble, he can hit shots from anywhere on the floor and he is an underrated defender on the wing. The Raptors desperately need a player that can pull defenses off of Andrea Bargnani, that can hit the three and can operate with the ball in his hands at the end of games - all of which Gay can do. He'd also allow DeMar DeRozan to slide into the third scorer's role and would make Toronto's wing position as athletic as it's been since the late 90's.

That salary, though, is gruesome. $16.5-million next year, $17.9-million in 2013-14 and $19.3-million in 2014-15. He would be making 50 per cent more than the next richest Raptor going forward (Bargnani), and that disparity only increases over the life of the deal. Understand, there is a reason such a talented player is on the trading block, and this is it.

Here's what I'll offer as a counterpoint, though. Bargnani, relative to his production, is a bargain. Well, actually he's probably paid exactly what he should be paid, but on the open market he'd be paid more. Put it this way, if Danilo Gallinari is making the same money as Bargnani, then Bargnani is a bargain. Him, combined with the rookie-scale deal of Jonas Valanciunas, help balance-out the cap debt of Toronto's frontcourt with Rudy Gay on board. It doesn't totally account for Gay's astronomical contract, but it makes it (a little) easier to swallow.

Basically, acquiring talent that you didn't draft is expensive. That's always the hard choice for a team in Toronto's position. You want to take the next step as a franchise, but to do that you need an injection of talent, and that usually means signing or trading for an expensive asset. There are thresholds that make such expenditures prohibitive, and one could make a compelling argument that Gay crosses that threshold, but in my eyes his fit is so ideal (and not everyone will agree with that sentiment) that I can see the logic behind Toronto's pursuit of him in a trade.

Which brings us to the eighth pick -- the one asset that would almost assuredly need to be in any deal involving Gay and the Raptors. This becomes a philosophical debate, one that revolves around the seductiveness of building through the draft -- of having those highly-valued rookie-scale contracts on the books and hoping that each pick pans out -- set against the reality that the draft offers no guarantees and that every serious franchise needs a healthy mix of young talent and veterans. People will argue until they're blue in the face that one way or the other is the only way to go, but the truth is that both are gambles and neither one is guaranteed to pay off. As an organization you have to make certain choices, certain sacrifices, and make sure that those decisions are part of a logical, well-established plan of attack that has subsequent steps in place to justify them. I know that there is no one at the eighth pick that I'm in love with, but I would have said the same thing in 2006 when Rudy Gay was selected there. So take that for what you will.

Until we know more specifics about what's actually on the table for this potential deal, there's no point in breaking it down any further. There are potential parts of this deal that make tons of sense for the Raptors and there are potential parts that make a lot less sense, and it's in the minutia that those distinctions will be revealed if such a trade is ever consummated. Colangelo, though, has a history in Toronto of forcing deals through when he becomes fixated on them (and some wound up being very poor pursuits in the end), and if he's fixated on bringing Gay to Toronto, you can expect him to fight tooth-and-nail to make that happen.

If he wildly overpays for Gay, or any asset, then these last two years of patience and development may wind up having been for naught. If he can manufacture a mutually-beneficial trade, though, then the Raptors could take a serious step forward next season. We'll find out which way this all plays out in 21 days. Stay tuned.

NOOOO!!!!! NOT THIS GUY!!!!!

That is the exact thing I have been saying for the past couple of years. It's not that Rudy isn't good, it's just that the salary contraints on the Grizz are too demanding to get any better than what they are now. They can't add anybody of worth to this team through free agency and the draft picks are too high to likley bring an immediate impact player to the team.

(06-08-2012 09:20 AM)salukiblue Wrote:  That is the exact thing I have been saying for the past couple of years. It's not that Rudy isn't good, it's just that the salary contraints on the Grizz are too demanding to get any better than what they are now. They can't add anybody of worth to this team through free agency and the draft picks are too high to likley bring an immediate impact player to the team.

Yup... the team we have currently is an first-round playoff team. We don't have any money to get better, and the draft pick won't bring anything significant.

Rudy was paid to become our star player and to lead this team. I don't think he's that type of player. He's extremely talented, but I don't think he'll ever reach the potential that many expect.

Memphis is not the type of organization that can build through free agency. I really think we need to take some chances with the draft (even if history proves that we're pretty bad at it).

Memphis traded Pau (granted he wasn't liked by much of the fanbase) when he was an All-Star (and subsequently All-NBA and a key part of two NBA titles) that ended up getting (via trade and cap room) Marc and Zach.

Initially most thought Memphis was getting bent over with the trade, but in effect the ablity to get two players for one, and the blossoming of Marc proved to eventually give Memphis the better end of that trade.

That is what the plan would be with Rudy.

Lakers won 2 championships and a lost in the finals with Pau being a key asset... Let's hold off on saying we got the better deal please...

(06-08-2012 10:24 AM)Tiger2Ways Wrote:  Lakers won 2 championships and a lost in the finals with Pau being a key asset... Let's hold off on saying we got the better deal please...

I understand, but who would get the better deal in a Pau for Zach and Marc trade today?

Pau = Rudy

Grizzlie fans have failed with both.

(06-08-2012 09:32 AM)ksigtigerdood Wrote:  Memphis is not the type of organization that can build through free agency. I really think we need to take some chances with the draft (even if history proves that we're pretty bad at it).

If the Memphis is a hard sell for free agents, and the Grizz don't draft well, how in the world are they gonna get better? Trades?

The only problem with this deal is that you are looking to add another European player (Calderon). European players in the NBA are not center pieces for championships, Nowitzki not withstanding. The European game thrives outside in, with jumpshooting and such. The Euro players are good skills wise, but they suffer when matched up with the athletes of the NBA. In the regular season, they can give you good minutes and a decent record. But in the crunch of the NBA playoffs, the athleticism overwhelms the skill (ask the Spurs). I'm not saying that the American NBA players are not skilled, but that the unique combination of athleticism and skill is lacking in most European players, and it shows in the NBA.

The NBA game is build on the skills of superior athletes. In the playoffs, what gets rewarded is strong moves to the basket, and what is built off of that. Think about it, if you trade Rudy for Calderon, will the Grizz be able to better compete with OKC? I don't think so.

(06-08-2012 10:27 AM)salukiblue Wrote:  

(06-08-2012 10:24 AM)Tiger2Ways Wrote:  Lakers won 2 championships and a lost in the finals with Pau being a key asset... Let's hold off on saying we got the better deal please...

I understand, but who would get the better deal in a Pau for Zach and Marc trade today?

Lakers needed a quick fix while Kobe was still Kobe and they got 2 championships, so they already cashed in on their deal, while we are still figuring things out... If pau Newberry plays another game for the Lakers, they still did THE ULTIMATE goal... we haven't yet, but our deal want bad long term, but we didn't get the advantage in that trade. (or better yet, it has yet to be determined)

(06-08-2012 10:27 AM)salukiblue Wrote:  

(06-08-2012 10:24 AM)Tiger2Ways Wrote:  Lakers won 2 championships and a lost in the finals with Pau being a key asset... Let's hold off on saying we got the better deal please...

I understand, but who would get the better deal in a Pau for Zach and Marc trade today?

It's not really a question of if we (or really they) got the better of the deal or not. It's a question of whether the Grizz would have been better off if a) they had not made the trade or b) they had made some other actually available, as opposed to theoretically feasible trade for Pau. The Lakers were looking to get better immediately. The Grizz were looking for pieces that could be put together over the longer term. Both got what they wanted out of the deal.

Agreed. Kinda the point. If Memphis had kept their once and futue all-star Gasol (and I am a BIG fan of Pau) would Pau, Conley, Gay have been a sufficient nucleus? Who would the Grizz have drafted that year instead of Love?

Interesting to think about how things would have changed.

(06-08-2012 03:21 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  Agreed. Kinda the point. If Memphis had kept their once and futue all-star Gasol (and I am a BIG fan of Pau) would Pau, Conley, Gay have been a sufficient nucleus? Who would the Grizz have drafted that year instead of Love?

Interesting to think about how things would have changed.

We'd have had to resign Pau somewhere in there.

The only way I'd do that trade is if we got Amir Johnson and the 8 for Rudy. I'd take Jeremy Lamb or Terrance Ross with the 8 and Teague or Jeff Taylor with the 25. We'd have enough cash to get a backup PG in free agency too.

(06-08-2012 07:37 AM)klg316 Wrote:  NOOOO!!!!! NOT THIS GUY!!!!!

Yeah, I watched that video like 14 times after reading that article; just kept asking myself what that guy was thinking right now.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what jose calderon adds to our team. He's basically a slightly bigger, less quick mike conley. We should trade our theoretical best player for a backup and a pick???