A part of that frustration stems from having to pack up your bags, uproot your family and move to lands unknown. In case of Rudy Gay, the trade to the Raptors isn’t as much of a stretch for him. The NBA is a close knit community; most of the players come up through the ranks of the NCAA and thus have had the opportunity to be teammates and rivals with each other even before making it to the big time. But in Rudy Gay’s case, the connection is quite deep and begs retrospection.

The Draft Pick that almost was

In the 2006 NBA draft, a young 20-year-old player declared himself eligible. He was a lanky swingman who was built in the mold of a middle class man’s LeBron James. The first pick was called, and he did’t hear his name. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. And with the 8th pick in the 2006 NBA Draft Rudy Gay was drafted by the Houston Rockets and traded away to the Grizzlies with Stromile Swift for Shane Battier. The Toronto Raptors had the first pick in the 2006 draft and they chose Andrea Bargnani. A few days ago the 26-year-old who could have become a Raptor at 20 had he been drafted first overall, came back full circle as Rudy Gay was traded to the Raptors for Jose Calderon.

“I like when players call me out occasionally,” Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo said. “And when I first spoke with Rudy the other night after the trade had been consummated, he asked me point blank, “Why didn’t you just draft me in the first place?’ “Well, we got ya. One way or another we got ya.”

The stellar debut

As Rudy Gay checked in his first game for the Raptors, he had a standing ovation from the crowd. They played the LA Clippers and Rudy was the star of the show as he had a game high 20 points with a couple of alley oops and a buzzer beating three to end the third as he led the Raptors over the Clippers, 98-73. ”I love Rudy’s game,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. ”He’s going to be great for the Raptors.”

“It was just good to get a win,” Gay said. “There are so many other things going on. It’s the first time I’ve had to go through it. It just felt good to play basketball. ‘It felt great to be accepted like I (was) today. It just makes you want to play hard.”

Compassionate Coach Casey

Rudy wasn’t sure if he would play vs the Clippers as the Grizzlies and Pistons had to complete paperwork and the required physicals before their new players took to the floor.

“Coach [Dwane Casey] asked me,” Gay said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, well, if we get this through, you wanna play?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ Any way I can get everything else that goes with being traded off my mind, I would have done.”

Raptors coach Dwyane Casey made it a point to make Rudy’s adjustment comfortable. “Obviously basketball, it will handle itself, but [Casey was] just trying to acclimate me to different people in the team, different people around the organization and just talking to me about the past and just different degrees of separation, how he knows the same people,” Gay said. “You gotta start the relationship there before we even get to everything else.”

Down with DeMar DeRozen Rudy Gay knows fellow swingmen DeMar DeRozan and Alan Anderson from summertime workout sessions.

“DeMar’s a great player,” said Gay. “He’s by far the best two guard I’ve ever played with. I think for us to be really good we have to have that kind of interaction together. This is the start of it. With more practice, more games together, the better it’ll get.”

In the beatdown of the Clippers, DeMar DeRozan had 19 and seven assists. One may think that two wing players may take things away from each other when they play together. One main reason for that to happen is when the two develop animosity. But Rudy Gay and DeMar Derozen have known each other for quite some time and share a healthy comfort zone with each other

Rudy is probably what I needed,” DeRozan said. “You never know. He helps me so much and with him helping me I can help everyone else in a way.

“I just feel comfortable. He takes so much pressure off me. I wasn’t even tired after Friday’s game to be honest,” DeRozan said.“First of all, I’ve known Rudy for years now. We’ve played (and played together) in L.A. a lot and once you have that time and relationship and have watched a guy play — I’ve watched Rudy since he was at UConn and I’m sure he has watched me — but when you know each other like that like you don’t need to be teammates for a year or whatever to figure it out.”

Assistant coach John Davis

Rudy also spent four years with assistant coach Johnny Davis in Memphis.

Keeping with Kyle Lowry

“Before the trade even happened I asked [Lowry], ‘What do you think about the team?’” Gay said. “And he told me, ‘If you got here, we have a chance.’ And that’s what made me comfortable about the possibility of being here. Now being here, 24 hours later, I’m here getting wins.”

He and point guard Kyle Lowry first met in eighth grade playing AAU basketball before becoming teammates as rookies with the Grizzlies. They played two and half years together. Rudy is also the godfather to Lowry’s son.

“We didn’t know anything about this league,” Gay said of their time in Memphis. “And now that we’re back together and been through different teams and been through playoff runs and we both know how to win and how to play, it’s so much better when you have maturity. “We didn’t get the opportunity to really blossom together and now it’s just going to be an opportunity for us to blossom even more together,”

Raptors rocket on offense and meddle with mediocre defense

On one hand the Toronto Raptors are 11th in offensive efficiency on the season. “Everyone’s stretched out now,” said Anderson. “It’s hard to guard from one side to the other. You got DeMar, you got Rudy, you got [Terrence] Ross, you got me, you got Kyle … so you hit ‘em from every angle.”

On the other hand they have the 26th-ranked defense in the league. But Rudy Gay can change that to an extent. “I was impressed the way we came out with a defensive focus,” said Casey, when the Raptors held the Clippers to a 35 per cent shooting. We all know what potent offense Rudy Gay brings. And for his career, Gay has posted 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. He is a massive upgrade on Rudy Fernandez. “If you look back and see at the end of the games, I guard the best player. I take that challenge,” Gay said. “None of that really matters to me, what people say. I know at the end of the day, I want to win. Whatever it takes, whether it’s getting a stop, hitting the last shot, I’ll be the person to do it. I think more than anything a franchise person has to understand that it’s a team game. I’m not coming here just to score a lot of points. I’m coming here to make my team better.

The Toronto Raptors are the fourth-largest city in North America. They have the Blue Jays, the Maple Leafs, and as an afterthought they have the Raptors. The Raptors made a heavy move in committing to Rudy Gay. And this season their offense has stepped it up a notch. As a team their identity has been of a bottom feeder since the Vince Carter days, but now they have a hungry superstar who was traded in the prime of his career and now arrives at a team with which he has a lot of connections already. They are just behind Boston, Philadelphia and Detorit for the 8th playoff spot with a 17-30 record. Anything is possible in the NBA and the Celtics’ 23-23 hold on the 8th spot is no longer safe with the Raptors being led by Rudy Gay.

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