Padrino
All-Star
the thing about usage rate is that, like most useful statistics, it requires context. it's not that rudy gay magically becomes a better player when he takes fewer shots. the fact of the matter is that there must be a reason that gay is taking fewer shots, and a reason that he's more efficient with the shots he does take. in sacramento, that reason is named demarcus cousins, a dominant big man who complements rudy gay and relieves some of the pressure off of gay's ability to score. in memphis, those reasons were named zach randolph and marc gasol, skilled bigs who similarly complemented rudy gay...
but in toronto, gay was faced with the problem of redundancy. kyle lowry and demar derozan have enough overlapping skillsets with gay that he was rendered an ineffective #1 option without complementary scorers with which to relieve some of that pressure. it's really not so complicated, nor should it be so surprising that such an experiment failed or that gay's finding renewed success in a more balanced starting lineup. and i suppose i deserve as much criticism as the next doubter for writing rudy gay off. one thing about rudy is pretty clear, though: he hasn't been and will likely never be a true #1. gay's at his best playing with dominant low post bigs who simply make life easier for gay and the rest of his teammates...
