Rudy Gay Trade Analysis: It's all about the efficiency

Efficiency.

It's not easy to find. Looking around the league, you can see that there are plenty of players who can make their point averages if they have ample opportunity to shoot the lights out.

But efficiency is a commodity that is rare indeed.

In last night's trade, Bryan Colangelo unloaded two of our top efficient players along with a second round pick to the Memphis Grizzlies. In exchange, we receive Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi.

If you're a Colangelo supporter (and there's very few of you nowadays), you'll look at this trade and say that the Raptors have attained a marquee player for two players who seemed to be playing at an all time high level. Jose Calderon with his triple doubles, the best free throw shooting percentage, best three point percentage, best assist %, and best assist to turnover ratio, is playing in a contract year and has indicated in the off season that he wanted to be moved to another team. Ed Davis, playing out of his mind, may return back to his former percentages soon enough.

Looking at the bigger picture, you've sent Ed Davis to the Western Conference and Jose Calderon to a Detroit team that is also in the middle of its own rebuild.

And heck, since when do second round draft picks really turn into anything for the Raptors? Other than Quincy Acy giving us some energy, it's pretty much consistent bust after consistent bust.

In Rudy Gay the Raptors get an athletic top scorer who has played 7 seasons and has gone to the playoffs. His clutch numbers are fairly strong. In Hamed Haddadi the Raptors have another big to replace Ed Davis.

Gotta tell you, it's hard to write that that supporting perspective. Because to be honest, this trade stinks to high heaven for me. We've discussed it several times at the HQ, and more importantly, this trade probably has been panned by just about everyone in the HQ.

Salary wise, the Raptors come out behind, locked into $37 Million over two years vs the $20 Million locked into Jose Calderon and Ed Davis' contracts..

True Shooting % wise, the Raptors just acquired a player who is 4% lower than DeMar DeRozan.

And then, the other, more troubling argument is that if Bryan Colangelo wants to move Andrea Bargnani, he just sold off two of his best bargaining chips.

Like Rudy Gay for his clutch abilities? That's the one area where the Raptors are even in comparing Rudy Gay vs DeMar DeRozan.

But against Jose Calderon and Ed Davis?

Look, I know that you're not going to use Ed Davis as much in clutch situations. Not only that, but these average true shooting percentages don't take into account usage rate, of which Gay is almost double the percentage of everyone else. However, if you think he's a consistent clutch player who can close out games, it'll take more than him to right the Raptors' ship.

For sure, Rudy Gay is going to be the kind of player that attracts double teams and will hopefully allow the Raptors to get more wide open shots. And maybe that's what supporters are counting on.

And with the Raptors losing 93-92 to the Atlanta Hawks, they could have used a more athletic wing. After shooting an abysmal 38.8% from the field, the Raptors kept it close by out rebounding the Hawks 52 to 36, creating 10 more shot opportunities.

However, tying the Hawks for turnovers at 17 seemed to be the Raptors' undoing, and why efficiency matters so much in this league.

Unfortunately, the Raptors traded that away in spades.

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