This is an answer in which there needs to be a followup question: Why? I'd like to know a lot more of the why's, not as much of the what's. It gives you more of an insight into where he is heading. Personally, I don't see the great synergy with Cousins and Gay. Both are iso players, Gay moreso than Cousins. Neither is an elite defender, so they don't complement each other defensively. Gay isn't known for moving with the ball or for his three point shooting, both of which would complement Cousins more than his post-up and iso game. So far I just haven't seen the two of them being more than a mixture of isolated elements rather than a compound that is greater than the sum of their parts. I would love to hear from our GM what he is seeing that I am not.
that's because you're attempting to view each player in an individual vacuum, as opposed to viewing them through the prism of their pairing. demarcus cousins and rudy gay have less than a full season of experience playing together, and there were
plenty of encouraging signs in the wake of gay's arrival, regardless of whether or not you're willing to acknowledge them. many of the kings' offensive problems after the trade stemmed from attempting to shove three ball dominant 20 ppg scorers into the same starting line-up, and also from coach malone's fairly unimaginative offensive system. but when cousins and gay were able to establish a bit of a two-man game utilizing cousins' diverse skill set, it often resulted in assisted baskets (scroll to 0:10, 1:30, or even 0:28
here for examples of how cousins makes gay's life easier)...
while gay and cousins tend to be isolation-oriented, they are certainly above-average passers at their respective positions, and are certainly capable of creating space and open looks for each other, given a confident offensive system and the proper set of
role players around them to help execute it (passers, cutters, three-point shooters, etc.). on the subject of outside shooting, the kings can find additional help from three just about anywhere (and may, indeed, find it eventually in the development of ben mclemore). i mean, apart from stephen curry's and damian lillard's ungodly touch from outside, high percentage three-point shooting tends to be the province of role players. you don't necessarily need your primary scorers to light it up from outside. you more often need them to get to the rim, post-up, draw the attention of defenses, etc...
as popular as spacing the floor with tons of outside shooting has become, i think people tend to forget that simply surrounding a dominant big man with shooters has yielded exactly
zero championships. overall, the long-term success of such teams is varied. dwight howard himself has only been to the finals once, and he lost. demarcus cousins is certainly a more gifted offensive talent than dwight, but he needs help from a #2 on the wing who can create. rudy gay's post-up game is very strong, as are his midrange game and his ability to attack the rim. those qualities can create some dynamic situations on the court, with demarcus and without. rudy gets into trouble with some of those long two's he likes to shoot, but again, that can be reigned in with systemic help from coach malone and a stable of role players who are more equipped to help move the ball and less inclined to shoot it (which may be why we've heard less enthusiasm from PDA about re-signing isaiah thomas, which doesn't speak to his perception of thomas' talent level, but rather, how the puzzle fits together)...
as for what PDA has to say about "the why's" of trading for rudy gay, he's already given some indication:
Pete D'Allesandro said:
I read everything that everyone reads. We have our processes too and we see things differently. That's just the nature of that ever-growing and ever-expanding game. We look at [Rudy Gay] differently than maybe others do. I feel like a lot of times with certain players, it's where they're getting the ball, it's where they're scoring, it's the position they're put in. And I think we have a good idea, we're talking as a staff a little bit, we have a good idea of what positions that we'd like to put him in.
it really shouldn't be all that hard to decipher "the why" behind PDA's line of thinking above; and there have been other instances where the kings organization has made it clear that they view rudy gay as a #2 scorer, as a player who can take some of the heat off of demarcus cousins, and one who becomes
much more efficient at a decreased usage rate. he still take a few too many inefficient long two-point jumpers for my liking, but given time and the benefit of both additional experience and chemistry with the kings and with DMC, there are certainly enough positives for the team to move forward with rudy, particularly if he decides to opt-in to the final year of his contract. then it becomes a lengthier try-out to determine just how much potential a pairing of cousins and gay really has...
