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For the second time in 11 months, an NBA team is taking a chance on Rudy Gay as some sort of franchise-tilting scorer. The Sacramento Kings, flush with permanence in California’s capital and the end of the Maloof/Petrie era, have responded to its disappointing 5-13 start by trading for Gay in the hopes that he’ll resuscitate their middling offense as a stretch four power forward. The problem with this line of thinking is that Gay was the leading shooter and go-to guy for the league’s 19th-ranked offense in Toronto, though this doesn’t seem to bother new Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro. Nor does Gay’s price tag. The forward is set to make nearly $17.9 this season and over $19.3 million next season if Rudy picks up his player option, which he’s likely to do. In exchange for his services, the Kings will send a grab bag of players to Toronto including swingman John Salmons, big forward Patrick Patterson, undersized defensive-minded center Chuck Hayes, and solid point guard Greivis Vasquez. Vasquez is coming off of a 2012-13 season that saw him average over 14 points and nine assists as a starter for New Orleans, and is perhaps the only keeper of this haul in the short term. That doesn’t matter much to first-year Raptors GM Masai Ujiri, who will be able to trim over $12.3 million in salary from his books this summer should he decline to tender the qualifying offer match any offers for Patterson and Vasquez this summer, while waiving Salmons before his salary becomes fully guaranteed (John is due just $1 million if the Raptors cut him by July ). This suddenly makes the Raptors players in the free agent market, because even if they do decide to retain Amir Johnson and Tyler Hansbrough’s contracts this summer, the team will have double-figure cap space as it heads into the offseason.
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