Sacramento was supposed to be the place where Patrick Patterson blossomed in the NBA. “But why search it when you have what you want right here?”
“Obviously, when my contract was ending, I thought about going into free agency and maybe seeing what happens,” Gay said at a news conference. Instead of testing unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career after this season, Gay opted to sign a three-year, US$40-million extension with the Kings in November. Gay had a player option for this season worth US$19.8-million. Part of the reason the Raptors wanted to get rid of Gay was to obtain financial certainty. Even though his shot chart looks similar, his looks are cleaner because he is not the primary creator. In those first 18 games to start the 2013-14 season, that number was at 30.8. More instructively, his usage rate - the percentage of possessions he shoots or turns the ball over while he is on the floor - is hovering around 26.6 with the Kings, thanks to Cousins’ unquestioned status as the top option. Gay shot 48 per cent from the field in his 55 games in Sacramento last year, despite misfiring more often from three-point range with the Kings, after shooting 38 per cent in 18 games with the Raptors to start the year. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. “Even if he’s playing, we want him at his natural weight, driving to the basket off of one leg.” “We see him as a guy who has a rhythm and a flow to his game,” D’Alessandro said. The philosophy: make the position adapt to the player, not the other way around. Gay shot a disastrous 43 per cent from inside eight feet of the basket while with the Raptors, according to Grantland’s Kirk Goldsberry, contributing to his terrible efficiency numbers.Ī year later, those extra 15 pounds are gone, even though the Kings still occasionally use Gay as their de facto second big man, next to DeMarcus Cousins. The change was supposed to make Gay more adept when he slid to power forward, but instead seemed to sap some of his athleticism. When the 2013-14 season began, Gay, then the Raptors’ first option on offence, was 15 pounds heavier than his normal playing weight. Article content We see him as a guy who has a rhythm and a flow to his game