The San Antonio Spurs forward Rudy Gay will become a free agent this summer, possibly marking the end of his time with the team. After signing with the Spurs in 2017, Gay reinvented his game and emerged as a solid and reliable contributor.
In four seasons with the team, Rudy averaged a solid 11.9 points and 5.6 rebounds. While he’s definitely been productive, re-signing Rudy isn’t so clear-cut. There are a number of pros and cons that San Antonio should consider before they make a final decision on retaining his services.
Rudy provided the bench with some much-needed offense this season, averaging 11.4 points per game. In fact, he was San Antonio’s leading bench scorer and the fifth-leading scorer when you exclude LaMarcus Aldridge.
Gay also shot the ball well from three, connecting on an impressive 38.1 percent of a career-high 4.4 three-point attempts per game. That led the team among regular rotation players.
While Rudy provided the Spurs with scoring, he could also be too aggressive in looking for his own shot. Gay averaged an alarming 10 shots in just 21.6 minutes per game, occasionally disrupting the offense by taking ill-advised shots.
This was especially a problem when he wasn’t hitting shots, particularly two-point field goals, where he shot a team-worst 45.1 percent. Worse yet, he took shots away from young Spurs players such as Lonnie Walker IV and Devin Vassell.
Perhaps his aggression was due in part to him playing for a new contract. However, were he to return next season, Gay will have to do a better job of playing within the offense.
