The Switch Has Flipped for Rudy Gay

The narrative surrounding Rudy Gay has changed considerably since the Sacramento Kings traded for him during the 2013-14 season. 

Gay started that year with the Toronto Raptors, and while he was still scoring plenty of points, he was not doing so in an efficient manner. Since coming to Sacramento, however, the 28-year-old has become a different, and better, player. 

Gay's no longer an inefficient chucker. Now he's an effective scorer who understands his strengths and caters his game around them. 

Out of Sorts in Toronto

The Toronto Raptors acquired Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2012-13 season. The forward was Memphis' best scorer at the time—averaging 17.2 points—and the Raptors were hoping to get the same kind of production out of him.

Indeed, the Raptors did get a player who could score at the same clip—in fact, Gay's scoring increased once in Toronto, elevating it to 19.4 points. But the way he compiled those numbers wasn't good. 

In Memphis, Gay was seen as a piece of the pie. In Toronto, he was the whole pie, the player the Raptors staked their fortunes on. 

Prior to the trade, despite being Memphis' leading scorer, Gay only had a usage percentage of 25.7 percent. To put that into perspective, it would've come in at No. 22 in the league among players who appeared in at least 20 games. 

Yet once Gay made the switch to the Raptors, that number skyrocketed. Toronto used him on 29.1 percent of its possessions. Based on the same criteria used above, that usage percentage would put Gay at No. 8.

The former makes a lot more sense than the latter. Gay is a good player—he's really good, in fact. But he's closer to a top-20 player than he is a top-10. 

Instead of seeing this, Toronto tied even more of its fortunes to Gay the following season. In the 18 games he played with the Raptors prior to the trade to the Kings, Gay was used on 30.8 percent of Toronto's possessions. 

But, as Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland points out, not only was he relied on to an unfathomable degree, but he was also turning into one of the league's most ineffective chuckers: "As a Raptor, Gay was using an insane 31 percent of Raptors possessions (a mark higher than Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and LeBron James); he was easily on pace to set his career high in that category. Coincidentally or not, Gay was also on pace to bottom out in a lot of efficiency measures."

Goldsberry linked to this video:

To elaborate, Gay was hoisting 18.6 shots per game with the Raptors, but he was only shooting 38.8 percent. His player efficiency rating was below average, at 14.7, and he posted minus-0.8 offensive win shares. 

Getting Away from His Strengths

Part of what makes Gay so good is his athleticism. Despite his 6'8", 230-pound stature, the guy is incredibly fluid in his movements. He can get where he wants to go on the court, dribble the ball as well as a guard and elevate when he needs to. 

In other words, he's an all-around player on offense. He doesn't need to rely on shots only within a certain range of the basket or perimeter shots because of an inability to create for himself. However, Gay was doing far too much of the latter with Toronto.

During the first part of 2012-13 with Memphis, Gay was more aggressive in attacking the hoop. Of his field-goal attempts, 44 percent came within 10 feet of the hoop, and his average distance on field goals was 12.3 feet.

Yet after the trade, his field-goal distance increased—to a career-high 13.7—and naturally, his number of attempts within 10 feet of the hoop decreased, all the way to 38.6 percent.

That trend continued the following year with the Raptors, although to a lesser extent. Prior to arriving in Sacramento, his average field-goal distance was 12.2 feet, and his percent of shots within 10 feet of the hoop was 46.9 percent.

	Percentage of FGA at Rim	Percentage of FGA within 3-10	Average FGA distance	FGA per game
Memphis	.234	.206	12.3	16.4
Toronto	.220	.197	13.1	17.6
Sacramento	.249	.230	11.6	15.3

Simultaneously, while not attacking the hoop, Gay also became increasingly reliant on three-point shots. Of his field goals, 17.6 percent were three-pointers, with the forward knocking down 37.3 percent of them.

Maximizing His Potential

The Kings saw Gay's inefficiency and shot selection, but they also must have seen a player capable of so much more. Gay had the potential to be an effective scorer. It was just about putting him in a position to succeed.

Here's what Sacramento general manager Pete D'Alessandro had to say about Gay's efficiency following the trade, per SB Nation's James Herbert (h/t Goldsberry):

"

We look at him differently than maybe others do. I feel like a lot of times with certain players, it’s where they’re getting the ball, it’s where they’re scoring, it’s the position they’re put in. And I think we have a good idea, we’re talking as a staff a little bit, we have a good idea of what positions that we’d like to put him in.

"

So that's what the Kings did—put Gay in positions to succeed. And it worked. 

For one, instead of being the whole offense, as he was in Toronto, Gay was once again just a key piece. His usage percentage dropped from the astronomical 30.8 percent down to 26.6 percent. Even though his usage decreased, his scoring increased, from 19.4 points to 20.1 points per game.

Naturally, that can be attributed to increased efficiency. Gay's field-goal percentage jumped nearly 10 percent, from 38.8 percent to 48.2 percent. He also upped his PER from a below-average 14.7 to an above-average 19.6. 

A big reason for that is Gay began using his all-around game more frequently. He began attacking the basket on a regular basis, with 47.9 percent of his shots coming within 10 feet of the hoop. This caused his average field-goal distance to decrease to 11.6 feet. 

Of course, that was only part of the story. Gay ended up opting in on the final year of his contract, staying with the Kings for the 2014-15 season, and he's kept up his stellar play.

Translating to Team Success

The Kings are off to a 5-4 start, and Gay is a large part of that success. The forward has kept up his efficient play. He's averaging a career-high 23 points per game. But he's shooting 46.1 percent from the field and has a career-best PER of 23.1 and true shooting percentage of 58.7 percent. 

He's also getting to the free-throw line with more frequency than ever before. He's averaging 7.9 free-throw attempts per game and has a free-throw attempt rate of 49 percent. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he's knocking down 87.3 percent of those attempts.

And he's doing all of this on 16.1 field-goal attempts per night. So not only is he averaging over three more points than he did with Toronto, but he's also putting up over two fewer shot attempts per game. Talk about efficiency. 

While Gay was arguably one of the things holding Toronto back last year—indeed, the Raptors went 41-22 after the trade—he's responsible for a lot of Sacramento's success this season. When he's on the court, the Kings have an offensive rating of 104.3 and a defensive rating of 97.8. When the small forward is on the bench, the offensive rating drops to 99.6 and the defensive rating increases to 112.9.

It's gotten to the point where Sacramento head coach Michael Malone tweaks his rotation around making sure Gay or center DeMarcus Cousins are in the game.

"What I’m trying to do now is have one of them on the court at all times," said Malone. "I think we’ve struggled when we have both of them out. Having one guy that you can go to and play through at all times is important for our team. So take Cuz out, leave Rudy in, then when I put Rudy back out, leave DeMarcus in just so we have one of our main scoring threats on the floor at all times."

It makes sense, too. But it's also a funny juxtaposition compared to what Gay meant to the Raptors. One man's trash is another man's treasure. 

Oh, how the narrative has changed. 

Unless noted otherwise, quotes obtained firsthand. All stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.

What do you think of Rudy's play with the Kings? Let me know on Twitter @SimRisso