The Toronto Raptors acquired small forward Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies in a 3 team deal that also included the Pistons. Here's a rundown of what every team got out of the deal: The Grizzlies received Tayshuan Prince, Austin Daye from Detroit and promising center Ed Davis. The Pistons received point guard Jose Calderon. The Raptors receive Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi.
Pistons Grade: B+
The Pistons dumped about $15 million off their salary cap this summer by getting rid of Tayshuan Prince's contract, and with the contracts of Corey Maggette, Will Bynum, Ben Gordon, and Rip Hamilton expiring this summer the Pistons will have $36 million in cap room. This should give them ample opportunity to sign some key players to fit around their nucleus of Andre Drummond, Brandon Knight, and Greg Monroe. Also, the Pistons received talented point guard Jose Calderon, who's averaging 7.4 assists/game, who can help fill the Palace in Detroit which has been hard to do lately. With a struggling Eastern conference, the Pistons are also four and a half games out of the eighth seed, so Calderon could provide what's needed for Detroit to make a push for the playoffs.
Raptors Grade: C-
The Raptors received small forward Rudy Gay, who compliments their already young core of Kyle Lowry, Demar Derozan, Jonas Valenchunas, and Terrence Ross. But, it seems as though Memphis' front office laid the bait out and Toronto leaped at it. Gay is averaging a mere 17 points a game along with 6 rebounds, while really not making any significant impact at the defensive end. Pretty good player and compliment to the Raptors, right? Well there's a catch, Gay is being paid $35 million over the next two years. If the Raptors don't reduce their payroll next year they'll be over the luxury tax. The deal made sense in a way because no free agents ever go to Toronto and Gay is an exciting player, but they gave up a promising center who was being paid a small salary, and the Raptors have dug themselves a hole with Gay's contract and there will most like be little play to show for it.
Grizzlies Grade: B-
The Grizzles are currently sitting at the fourth seed in the Western conference, and they just made two salary dumps in about two weeks. Fans in Memphis are not happy with owner Robert Pera trying to save money while the team actually has a legitimate shot to go deep in the playoffs. On one hand it seems like the Grizz are giving up, but on the other they've made two smart trades. The first was a salary dump that got rid of non-impact players, and this one sent Gay elsewhere while he was being largely overpaid for being a scorer, but was averaging less points than millions he was making a year(17.22 points/game, $17.88 million a year.) Memphis also received a versatile, promising center Ed Davis who has come on of late and is averaging about 15 points and 8 rebounds over the last two months.
