Don't look now..
I understood why the trade had to happen. I didn't like it for the fact that the Raptors had to give up Ed Davis, for I liked what he was doing on the team, but I know the old cliche: In order to get something good, you have to give something good.
Rudy Gay is a special talent, but I feel now and did then that there should never be three consecutive non fast break possessions where Gasol or Randolph don't touch the ball on the low block. It's just to efficient maybe the most efficient look is those guys getting more touches whether they pass out or keep it there.
I watched Rudy make some great plays tonight against the Cav's, a Lebron like full court pass rim to rim, a few ridiculous pull ups, a crazy recovery block among others. But he does things that are terribly inefficient, like after getting a easy postup bucket overpowering CJ moles he faded away the next play and missed when he could have done the same thing he did the previous possession when he got a shot 10 feet closer.
Yeah, Gay can do anything he wants on the court, but that's the whole problem; he's got such a versatile skillset that he doesn't focus on what the D is giving him and mixes it up too often. You don't want him to use the same move every time, but you need to exploit any weakness the D is showing.
Look at Michael Jordan against the Suns in the Finals, he recognised that Dan Majerle couldn't guard him, so he took him to the rack every time for high percentage looks, and against Portland they backed off so he kept taking what the D was giving him.
I hope Gay figures it out sooner or later, but it's too soon to dismiss him as a failure, he's still finding himself in Toronto.
There were many people on these boards that disagreed with the Grizzlies for trading Rudy Gay. I was a big fan of the trade for Memphis in that it gave them a true identity. Took them a few games to get into it but they have won their last 8 games.