“We had a meeting, and coach aired everything out,” Prince said. They beat Washington, then fell to Phoenix and Atlanta before Hollins decided to address the situation with his team and the media before a Feb. It was no surprise, then, that the Grizzlies started slow with the new players on board. But there was this feeling of, ‘Man, how is this trade going to be for our team?’ ” “With the new management, I don’t know what the guys were thinking. “When I first got here, the first couple of games we played, there was a feeling in the air of, ‘Hey, we had Rudy here for a while, we had great chemistry, we were on the up and up, and we kind of just gave it away,’ ” Prince said. Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins was leading that chorus, saying both before and immediately after the trade that Gay was the sort of player that - bottom line be darned - they couldn’t afford to lose. The fans and some media weren’t the only ones questioning the move. Hence the unexpectedly quick recovery from the post-trade blues. We could’ve laid down, but that’s not who we are. We have a different team, and I think we did a great job of coming together. His versatility is his calling card, that ability to decide every time out which part of his game - playmaking, scoring, defence, rebounding - is needed on that night. Prince’s presence has been huge, as he clearly has a few good years left after winning a title with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, a gold medal in Beijing with Team USA in 2008 and playing in 118 playoff games and all. Memphis, which beat Oklahoma City 90-89 in overtime on Wednesday night, is 17-5 since the trade after going 29-15 before the deal went down. Sure enough, with new Grizzlies CEO and former agent/Sacramento Kings assistant general manager Jason Levien heading the group that also includes former analyst John Hollinger (vice president of basketball operations), former agent Stu Lash (director of player personnel) and incumbent general manager Chris Wallace, the move that was widely seen as a business decision has worked out quite well on the basketball front. Yet amid all that chatter, key parts of the process were overlooked, specifically the Grizzlies’ view of Gay’s inefficient game and the perceived merits of adding a champion like Prince and young players on rookie contracts that are more valuable than ever under the new deal. Was this - much like Oklahoma City’s decision to trade James Harden to Houston in October - the sort of cost-cutting spurred by the new, more-restrictive collective bargaining agreement that would gut small-market teams and dash the championship dreams of the players and their fans? Gay was owed a combined $37 million on his contract if he played out his next two seasons, meaning the books simply had to be balanced if the Grizzlies were going to survive financially. When 34-year-old Grizzlies owner Robert Pera approved the move just three months after buying the team and putting a new front-office group in place, the trade was seen by some as the dawn of a new day in the NBA. You wouldn’t think it would be this way now, but it is.”
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“When it first happened, everybody was down about it, especially because Rudy was like a brother to us. It’s a lot better - a better mindset - playing like that. “You’re (getting) the whole team playing one way, and guys sticking to what they do and playing together, playing for each other and playing defence and playing inside-out basketball.
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“I think we’re a better team, man,” Grizzlies all-star forward Zach Randolph said. 30 deal that sent Gay to Toronto and brought back veteran small forward Tayshaun Prince and young players Ed Davis and Austin Daye. Strange though it may seem that one of the Western Conference’s best teams could trade its longtime leading scorer and manage to improve, that has been the case since the Jan. And their new owner and management team, as it turns out, may not have sacrificed this season after all. The Memphis Grizzlies may be better off without Rudy Gay.
Rudy gay memphis roster full#
In an NBA season full of surprises - from the Lakers’ desperate push to make the playoffs to Miami’s march toward the all-time winning streak of 33 games and everything in between-there’s one more worth noting.