I'm gonna defend Collison here a little bit.
First, on Lawson: Lawson is actually kind of a special player in a way not because he's a superstar, but because he has very good game management/flow management skills. He manages tempo and momentum and morale almost perfectly. He's very good. You can see him even trying to counter the Gay effect.
Now Collison: he's good, but he doesn't have that particular skill, and when you have a Gay on your team, it gums up the works and can make the PG look bad. This is how a player like Gay actually makes his teammates worse. The "Gay efffect" is not just that he's a black hole. There's a massive emotional/mental effect where you can see our offense actually even hesitate to swing the ball to his side of the court because they know it's not coming back and there's no point in making cuts. Gay is making it tough for Collison to orchestrate the offense, and also to find his OWN shot. Because with Gay on the floor, it's Cousins, then Gay... then scraps for everybody else. Every time. Without Gay on the floor, our offense if MUCH more fluid and we are free to find the hot man, pound to Cousins in the high or low post, etc. In other words you have a responsive one-mind unit. With Gay out there you have that annoying friend that you have to worry about stealing that girl you are trying to get close to. It spoils the whole party.