Warriors Talked with Memphis About Rudy Gay … “Nothing There”
By Marcus Thompson
Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 at 10:26 am in Uncategorized.
According to a source, the Warriors engaged in preliminary talks with Memphis about star small forward Rudy Gay. But the talks didn’t produced much as Memphis is not interested in taking the Warriors’ less-desirable contracts (such as Richard Jefferson) and the Grizzlies want what the Warriors don’t have.
Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday morning that Memphis and Phoenix are engaged in trade talks. The story, citing sources, said the Grizzlies are shopping Gay. They did stop at the Warriors door.
Gay would be a coup for the Warriors as he would upgrade the small forward position and give the Warriors a difference-maker. But he also comes with a huge price tag: $16.4 million this season, $37.1 million over the next two seasons.
Warriors executive board member Jerry West, formerly the Grizzlies’ general manager, is high on Gay. And with Andrew Bogut’s return uncertain, the Warriors could use another dominant player.
But Memphis is looking to cut salary, which means they want young players, expiring contacts or draft picks. The Warriors have several young players, but no expiring contracts and no picks to trade.
Plus, the luxury tax-conscious Warriors aren’t interested in taking on a big contract without sending out one of their own. Certainly, any deal involving such big numbers would have to include Richard Jefferson (due $11 million next season) or Andris Biedrins (due $9 million next season (though without Bogut, Golden State may not be interested in giving up Biedrins right now).
There is “nothing there” now. But if Gay is still a Grizzly come the trade deadline, my that could could change.
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January 8th, 2013 at 12:26 pm
Good info. Thanks.
January 8th, 2013 at 12:59 pm
I’m a huge Rudy Gay fan. A big Jerry West fan as well. However, not sure I like Rudy on this team. This team is very selfless, and from what i know of Rudy, he doesn’t exactly fit that. But he does bring this team something it’s lacking, a one on one scorer. Not much Rudy can’t do with the ball, he can shoot, drive, and post up. I would give up Biedrens and either barnes or thompson for him. Not much more than that though
January 8th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
As a Grizz fan…I think a GS trade would be great, especially after they play tomorrow…but the standard has been three top 8 rotation players and draft picks. So if its Rudy and Hadaddi for Biedrins, Barnes, and Thompson (and maybe Green if you are leaving off a draft pick), I’d be down with that
January 8th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
=/ I wouldn’t trade thompson for gay straight up… i’d rather have a player that does one thing amazingly well versus someone that does several things ok. that’s just me…
January 8th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
I would take Gay for Jefferson and Barnes (not Thompson) as Warriors will be out a SG. If only Tyler can do better than Biedrins, Biedrins is currently needed because Bogut is still out.
January 8th, 2013 at 1:41 pm
Rudy Gay can do a lot of things (ala AK47) and pad the stat sheet. He excels pretty well in a lot of categories but nothing spectacular but still very good. I think he’s just the man that Warriors need as their starting SF. I don’t think Barnes will even reach Gay status in his career so he can go.
January 8th, 2013 at 1:55 pm
@Ram539 What if he does everything better than Klay except shoot? And he’s playing the 3 when you could potentially fill Klay’s role with a guy like Anthony Morrow for next to nothing. You make that trade any day of the week if it’s available
January 8th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
Naw I say we keep what we have. We are going to have to eat that Beidrins contract cud no one is going to take him. I like our team. Plus if U bring him in and trade Thompson, what now u lose 3 point shooting and gain an better athlete, but we need thompson and BArnes we have to work to keep the team together and not start all this trading crap
January 8th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
[...] what Marcus Thompson, Warriors beat writer for the Bay Area News Group , said about Rudy Gay being linked to the Warriors: According to a source, the Warriors engaged in [...]
January 8th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
The Dubs are a team with great chemistry. The possible downside of losing that chemistry is too much to risk for a trade that would brimg, at most, a marginal talent upgrade. Barnes isn’t, and might never be, up to Gay’s standard, but he will be a well-above-average NBA 3 & Gay isn’t a very good 3-pt shooter so Klay would be sorely missed.
January 8th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
Adding to my previous post: An off-season trade might make sense, but doing it in the middle of a successful season is too risky. Besides that, with his recent OK play, Andris’ expiring contract should be worth a lot more than a simple upgrade at the 3 by itself, without throwing in a quality player with great potential like Klay or Barnes.
January 8th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
They could’ve gotten Gay in the draft if they didn’t spend it on the Mini Brand “Ike Diogu”!
January 8th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Not true / gay was drafte one slot ahead of Ike. They could have had Bynum or granger though
January 8th, 2013 at 9:27 pm
Hmmm…no I don’t like it. I may be blinded but I don’t think our problem is lack of production from the three. I don’t know how good a defender Gay is but I really, really like what I see with Barnes as a defender. He takes it seriously and he does a nice job plus he has a long and strong future and most importantly he does not cost 16 million. Rudy Gay is good but he is not the guy who takes this team to the next level; heck if he was that good the Grizzlies would not be shopping him. They are arguably the 5-7th best team in the NBA and a shoe in for the playoffs…why do they want to get rid of their star? Just say no to bad deals and guys who need the ball. Warrior fans have already had to much of that.
January 9th, 2013 at 6:49 am
Wait, Barnes + Biedrins Match, with a line-up of Curry/Thompson/Gay/Lee/Ezeli sounds like an upgrade w a good bench too.
January 9th, 2013 at 9:29 am
Rudy Gay was drafted before Patrick O’Bryant. If I remember right, Houston was tied with us for that pick, but they won the coin flip. Then they traded with Memphis for Battier.
January 9th, 2013 at 11:43 am
2006 what a crap draft morrison at #3? sheldon williams at #5? randy foye at #7?? warriors got a pile of goo with POB but there weren’t many big man options that draft (only milsap at #47 2nd round is a good big)
January 9th, 2013 at 1:11 pm
John Lund couldn’t say “Gay” without hanging on to the “ay” It was like out of a Austin Powers comedy.
January 9th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
seriously? we have a 2 of 3 winning pct. and all of a sudden the idiots are out there crying, “Break up the warriors!” Trading Barnes Or Thompson would be foolish. And yeah you have to eat contracts (Andris, RJeff) but that’s paying for old GMs’ mistakes….let’s not make more and bring in a self-centered player like Gay….we had a great draft each of the past 2 years and now the rumor mill buzzes with notions of sending this guy here and that guy there….hey, how about David Lee? Any takers? Come on, people….rejoice….we’re winning and in a decade or so Andrew Bogut will actually dress for a game…we could still be playing Monta clearing a side to go one on one or Udoh, whose hands are almost as bad as Ezeli’s
January 9th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
How about trading Harrison Barnes, Charles Jenkins and Richard Jefferson for Rudy Gay and the Grizzlies’ #2 draft choice in 2013?
Including Jefferson in this trade provides a little offsetting Warrior salary relief for the next two seasons; and it provides the Grizzlies two young talents, and some reduction in payroll.
Once Bogut is healthy, the Warriors would have a spectacular 7-person rotation of Bogut, Lee, Gay, Thompson, Curry, Jack and Landry. Ezeli and Biedrins can spell Bogut, and Green provides back-up for Gay. The team still has the three guard rotation of Curry, Thompson and Jack; and Landry very ably backs up Lee.
January 9th, 2013 at 3:49 pm
GSW is playing really well this season, with good chemistry amongst all the players — including those who play SF. Based on that, we do not need Gay.
We have enough as is to get into the Playoffs. Adding a better SF, such as Gay, would not get us to the Western Conference Finals. Only a dominant center like Bogut would do that. What we need this season is for Bogut to get healthy.
What we need for the future at SF is for Barnes to continue to impove at the pace he has thusfar. We do not need the three-year cap burden of swapping Gay’s $18MM/yr for Barnes $3MM/year. No,sir.
January 9th, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Wheels starting to come off the good ship W’s. . .can you say doughnut hole?
Good teams become bad teams without an inside presence. . .
January 9th, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Grizz just beat the Warriors again tonight, and although Gay may be a good scoring option, the Warriors continue to get beat up inside when they try to play small with Landry, Lee, and Thompson up front with Jack and Curry in the backcourt. Jackson does not have a trump card to play the middle against big front lines like Memphis, Denver and the Lakers. West may have to find another center, since Bogut is useless right now. These small ball Warriors are bigger than Nellie’s, but they cannot go very far in the playoffs if they continue to give up offensive putbacks repeatedly.
January 10th, 2013 at 6:36 am
I would trade Jefferson and Beans for Gay in a New York minute. The only thing that scares me is Gay’s obscene contract. Of course, The Grizzles are a lot smarter than that.
January 10th, 2013 at 10:17 am
Warriors are good now, we just need Bogut to come back healthy. If Gay comes in and takes 15-20 shots per game, that will take points away from Curry/Thompson/Lee. I’d take the Splash Brothers 3′s over Gay’s 1on1 2pointers going 9-18. We can never beat a team like Grizzlys unless we get Bogut back. They got 7 offensive rebounds in 1 quarter against us and thats what killed us!
January 10th, 2013 at 3:01 pm
The only scenarios under which Memphis trades Rudy Gay to the Warriors are bad for Memphis, I don’t see them making a trade to the Warriors, and if the Warriors had to make Barnes part of this deal, for sure I don’t make it, Barnes has huge upside, not to mention he is relatively cheap for a few years, we need to see this team with Bogut in the lineup before any trades are made, and if we miss the deadline so be it.
January 11th, 2013 at 12:46 am
Are the Warriors bold enough to trade Bogut and Jefferson for Dwight Howard or Pau Gasol. The team needs a Center now, not next season (the bogus dream).
January 13th, 2013 at 11:40 am
Forget Rudy Gay, Barnes has way to much potential and the guy can play defense. Other than trying to move Jefferson, they should stand pat with what might be one of the best young and up coming rosters in the NBA.
January 13th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Trading for Gay with his huge $$ to replace Barnes with his low $$, good attitude, good D & huge upside would be stupid. We’d be getting another Ellis with a “me-not-team” obsession. End of discussion.
January 13th, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Turnovers- and not the apple kind- are killing this team. Denver was beat,a win for GS..then they got stupid,and Mark Jackson’s bad timing for a TO,was the final nail. After a 14-0 Denver run..why even care? He should have stopped the mo,long earlier.
A bad loss. No brain power was used.
January 13th, 2013 at 7:32 pm
I invoke to Meyers the powers to call in and order a T.O.,Al Davis like. Don’t blow this start.
January 18th, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Who needs Gay when we have Barnes can be the next Melo with the right coaching