Fansided

One trade every NBA team needs to make

By Tom West

MIAMI, FL - JANUARY 19: Hassan Whiteside (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - JANUARY 19: Hassan Whiteside (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ON – DECEMBER 20: Rudy Gay (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON – DECEMBER 20: Rudy Gay (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

Portland Trail Blazers

There are several teams who can pursue the talents of Rudy Gay and the Trail Blazers are one of them. One trade possibility, as suggested by Matt Moore of CBS Sports, is to exchange Ed Davis and Allen Crabbe for Gay.

Davis is a hard working backup big who’s proving himself this season with solid averages of 11.4 points on 62.3 percent shooting, 12 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per 36 minutes. On top of that, he even holds opponents to shoot an entire 9.4 percent lower than normal within six feet. While he’s limited offensively, he can make a difference in the paint with his rebounding and defense and can be placed into the rotation among Cousins, Kosta Koufos and Willie Cauley-Stein. For $7 million a year for the next three seasons, his contract is fairly cheap, too.

As for Crabbe, the Kings get another shooter to add to their rotation with the likes of Marco Belinelli and Omri Casspi. Crabbe has more than tripled his scoring from a season ago with a career-high 11.3 points per game, while shooting 37.7 percent from three and 45.3 percent from 16-24 feet. If the Kings re-sign him when his contract expires this summer, he should be another cheap off-ball threat to add to the bench.

For the Blazers, they get a top scoring small forward to take some pressure away from their backcourt duo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum that are responsible for well over 40 combined points per game. Gay also gives them a great option when they go to small-ball lineups with Al-Farouq Aminu at power forward to space the floor. And if the Blazers do decide to move on from McCollum to alter the makeup of their guard-dominant team, acquiring Gay maintains their offensive firepower, albeit with different methods to a ton of threes.

We can’t know what offers the Kings have received for Gay, so we also can’t know what offers this idea will be up against. Depending on how the next 10 days play out, this could be a deal that’s worthwhile for both teams going forward.

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