Why Sending Rudy Gay To The Clippers Makes No Sense.
By Rafe Wong
The rumor is out that the Sacramento Kings are interested in seeing trade offers pertaining Rudy Gay, and one of those offers might be coming from a division foe.
According to Chris Broussard, sports analysts for ESPN, the Los Angeles Clippers are interested in Gay in the hopes of adding more depth to the small forward position. With that being said, should the Kings pursue a trade with the Clippers that includes the Kings starting forward?
In my opinion, there is no realistic trade scenario where I see the Kings benefitting from trading Gay to the Clippers.
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With the exception of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan, players that seem untradable, the Clippers do not have many assets that will interest the Kings to sending Gay down to SoCal.
The only player on L.A., in my opinion, that seems enticing to the Kings is Clippers starting two-guard J.J. Redick. If the Kings do decide to participate in trade talks with the Clippers containing Gay, Redick has to be included.
Redick this season is showing that he one of the best shooters in the NBA today. Through 45 games so far he is averaging 16 points per game off 47.5% shooting from the court and 48.2% shooting from the three-point line.
If the Kings were to make a trade in which Sacramento receives Reddick in return, it would be a big boost for the Kings at the two guard spot. A position where the Kings have struggled mightily this season.
Although trading Gay for Redick straight up might be intriguing for either team, according to the NBA Trade Machine, the deal cannot be performed due to it being a conflict in the Clippers salary cap.
A realistic deal that could happen is that the Kings send both Gay and Ben McLemore in exchange for Reddick and Lance Stephenson, which the trade machine said was acceptable.
In this case, each team would be receiving both a shooting guard and small forward in return. For the Kings, they would receive a sharpshooter in Reddick and an all-around talent in Stephenson.
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Honestly, though, I wouldn’t want to perform this trade if I was Sacramento. Although Stephenson is talented, he has shown other than on the Indiana Pacers that he is more of a nuisance to his teams rather than an asset.
Plus Rudy plays a significant role in the Kings offense. If he were to leave Sacramento it would cause the Kings chemistry on offense to stagnant a bit going forward, which could be risky already knowing that the Kings are already playing catch up in the playoff race.
Unless a third team enters the conversation, there does not seem to be a realistic trade that could be a game changer for the Kings if they were to send “The Great Rudini” to the Los Angeles Clippers. Therefore, hopefully, the Kings do not participate in trade talks with their division rival.