Stuckey is not terrible when healthy he 's one of the best bench players in the NBA and you have CJ Miles behind Temple in the rotation which is simple not true imo since CJ along with AA and Casspi are our best 3 wings by far when you remove Gay..
You also say Indiana would be doing laps if they got that offer well I'm sure Toronto felt the same when they gave up little to nothing to get him only like us to find out what Memphis knew all along that Rudy is talented but his lack of mental toughness/heart completely negates th at and with a past prime limited Tayshaun Prince advanced further. We were also running laps when we gave up "trash" like Patterson/Vasquez/Salmons/Hayes to get him and helped (the move itself) Toronto become a powerhouse in the East.
I'm not saying CJ Miles/Stuckey is a great return but it's much better/as good as what Toronto/Memphis got for Rudy. Rudy Gay has become like Jason Thompson on here where he's apparently so valuable you cant afford to move him even if he never helps you actually win. We got enough fire power with Cousins/Casspi/AA/CJ/Stuckey/Collison to score you got 1 elite scorer and 5-6 other guys who can comfortable score in double figures given the chance.
I just laugh when people bring Rudy's past trades as indication that teams get better when they trade him because he is mystically this player that somehow sucks the life out of a team. Simply not true.
When Memphis traded Gay he was coming off a serious shoulder injury (reconstruction wasn't it) and anyone who has had one would know that it takes a fair while to regain the motion. His shooting percentage was down as a result. He was still regaining his feel for the game and motion in the shoulder. There is absolutely no evidence what so ever that the team was better with Prince than they would have been with Gay in the long term. Its just a symplictic analysis that gee they traded Gay and they started winning while still blatantly ignoring the comeback from injury factor.
Then he gets traded to Toronto where he gets asked to be a #1 option which he clealry is not and to top it off, to play PF which he also is not. On top of that he is on a team with 2 other scorers that need the ball to be effective and a big man that that scores himself. Somehow, 3.5 scorers in the same team didn't exactly fit and they had no bench depth. What they did was trade him to get that match depth because clearly he was not #1 option, nor was he a PF. It provided more balance to the team and more flow to the offence becase there was one less scorer on the floor that needed the ball. It had nothing to do with him sucking the life out of the team and everything to do with the fact that Gay and DeRozen are too similar as players and both needed a good number of shots to get their points. Tornoto rightly went with the younger, at the time much cheaper option. Its common sense.
With us it is clearly completely different that either of his previous teams. We are not asking him to be #1 option, nor are we asking him to play PF (Karl insanity aside). What we need him to be is exactly what he is. A very capable #2 option on a team who can play some really solid defence in the right system and the right coach. His FG% and his efficiency improved in Sacramento because he was not expected to be #1 option nor did we need him to be a PF. Last season not only was he played put of position for good chunks of the season, but he didn't get anywhere near as many shots as he normally would and he just checked out with all the drama that was going on around the team.
If Joerger can connect with Gay like Malone did and use him in a similar manner, then I have no doubt that we will see Rudy Gay of his early days in Sacramento. An efficient #2 scoring opption at SF who can play some good defense and create his own shot. He also had his career high assits numbers at some stage as well.
The problem seems to be that Rudy got so pissed off at the franchise in last 18 months and the circus surrounding the fanchise that he simply has had enough and wants out. To him there is no guarantee that Joerger will work out. Why is he any different that Malone, Corbin or Karl. He knows Joerger and might think he is a great coach but he simply cannot trust the ownership and their impulsive bullcrap to give this another go. If anything this team has got him to sign an extension at a bit of a discount only to fire the coach that was the very reason he re-signed here. Since then it has turned into a bigger circus than in the Later Maloof years of will they or won't they move the team.
The horse might have bolted with Rudy and the Kings but to think that we would get better by trading him for a bunch of role players or a bunch of 3 and D guys who provide no real point of difference is simply a fantasy. We were there before we got Rudy from Toronto and it was very ugly. Its not going to be much prettier this time around.