NBA Rankings: Top 10 small forwards for 2014-15
5. Rudy Gay:
2013-14 Stat Line: 73 games, 34.7 MPG, 20.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.3 SPG, .455/.330/.822 shooting, 18.3 PER
I know what you’re thinking. How in the name of unholy bricklayers is Rudy Gay this high on the list? He’s an overrated, unapologetic gunner who puts his own shots ahead of the team. He doesn’t even believe in looking at the stat sheet! And while all of these things would have been valid arguments had he stayed with the Toronto Raptors, anyone who still thinks Rudy Gay is overrated clearly didn’t watch what he did with the Sacramento Kings last season.
That’s right folks, the Raptors weren’t the only ones who benefitted from the Rudy Gay trade. After averaging 19.4 points on 18.6 field goal attempts per game (and shooting 38.8 percent from the field) in Toronto, Gay was shipped to Sacramento after just 18 games of the 2013-14 season. In the 55 games that followed with the Kings, Gay averaged 20.1 points on 15.3 field goal attempts per game, shooting 48 percent from the floor and posting a PER of 19.6.
To put that in context, Paul George averaged 21.7 points on 17 field goal attempts per game last season while shooting 42 percent from the floor and posting a PER of 20.1. Now, nobody’s saying Gay is anywhere near the two-way destructive force that the newly christened PG-13 is, but offensively, Gay had a much more efficient second half of the 2013-14 season – on fewer shot attempts – than George did. Yet most think of George as a solid offensive player while Gay is still labeled as an inefficient gunner. One day, Kings fans. One day you will catch a break.