Trades Ten Years Later - Rudy Gay to the Kings

The Sacramento Kings receive Rudy Gay, Aaron Gray, and Quincy Acy. The Toronto Raptors receive Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson, and Chuck Hayes.

Welcome to the early launch of “Trades Ten Years Later,” the world’s most self-explanatory sports blog! The first post is a particularly long one because I was unfortunate enough to come up with the idea right before the ten-year anniversary of a hugely significant trade. A schedule for this week can be found at the end of the post.

Aiming to be set up for a full launch by the end of December. Subscribe prior to 2024 to be a permanent member of the “Early Launch Group!” We will learn together what being in the “Early Launch Group” means for you.

December 9, 2013.

The Names:  The Sacramento Kings receive Rudy Gay, Aaron Gray, and Quincy Acy. The Toronto Raptors receive Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson, and Chuck Hayes. 

The Team Context: On December 9, 2013, the Sacramento Kings were 6-13 (14th in the West). The Kings had been one of the West’s premier teams at the start of the 2000s, with a legitimate claim to be the best team in the NBA for the 2001-2002 season, but had declined to existentially bad by the 2010s. With Sacramento’s arena growing increasingly dated and attendance dwindling in response to the awful on-court product, the Maloof family had explored relocating the Kings to Anaheim, Seattle, and even Virginia Beach. In the spring of 2013, the Maloof family sold their controlling interest in the Kings to a new ownership group led by Vivek Ranadivé, making this the first season of a glitzy new era in Kings basketball. Construction began to progress on a new Sacramento arena, Mike Malone and Pete D’Alessandro were brought in as coach and general manager, and the team prepared to contend in the 2013-2014 season, igniting dormant basketball optimism in the city. But an opening night win was followed by five losses as the Kings began to realize that they’d need to make more changes to compete. 

The Raptors were 7-12 (9th in the East), on their way to maintaining their hallmark mediocrity. The 1990s expansion team had brief success around the turn of the century with Vince Carter prior to the acrimonious dissolution of that relationship. The highwater mark of this run was a playoff round win in the 2000-2001 season; the Raptors had not won a playoff series otherwise. More recently, they had put together competitive teams led by Chris Bosh, but his departure to create the Big Three in Miami with Lebron James and Dwyane Wade left the team rudderless once again as general manager Bryan Colangelo attempted to piece together competitive rosters. While generally performing better than the Kings by regular season record in the preceding years, neither team was making the playoffs. However, on May 31, 2013 (the same day that the sale of the Kings closed), the Raptors hired reigning NBA Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri as their new general manager, poaching him from Denver and launching what was described as “the preliminary assessment stage of what looks to be a long-term transition period.” Ujiri’s first summer in charge consisted of trading Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks after his contract had proven to be healthier than his body and making minor moves at the margins of the roster. The Raptors were inconsistent to start the season, coupling flashes of promise with brutal defeats. On December 3, they led the then-unheralded Golden State Warriors 88-70 going into the fourth quarter, only to lose 112-103 after the Warriors made 8 of 11 three-pointers to end the game (the Raptors went 8 for 20 from three for the game). 

The Player Context: The centerpiece of this trade was Rudy Gay, an 8-year veteran who started his career with the Memphis Grizzlies and emerged as the team’s star, signing a 5-year, $82 million max contract in July 2010. After that contract was signed, the Grizzlies were sold to Robert Pera, who quickly balked at the scary numbers on that contract and sent Gay to Toronto in January 2013. Gay was fairly effective in Toronto for the remainder of the 2012-2013 season, if inefficient, but that effectiveness declined at the start of the 2013-2014 season. Rather infamously, Gay banned the customary distribution of scoresheets to Raptors players in the postgame locker room - while this was theoretically to prevent players from focusing on personal stats instead of team wins, it came during a stint where Gay was “probably the most guilty of this,” shooting 38.8% and taking 18.6 shots per game while averaging 2.2 assists, including a particularly notable 11 for 37 shooting performance with two assists. 

Aaron Gray was a depth center who turned 29 two days prior to the trade’s finalization. He spent his prior two years in Toronto after starting his career in Chicago and New Orleans, posting a career-high 16.6 minutes per game in the 2011-2012 season. Quincy Acy was selected by the Raptors in the 2nd round of the 2012 draft and posted encouraging numbers in a small sample rookie season. Both Gray and Acy had played sparingly for the Raptors in the early days of the 2013-2014 season.

While nobody in the Kings’ package had the individual star power of Gay, each of the four had been a major part of the rotation that season, though none had been with the team for long. The longest-tenured King in the trade was 33-year old veteran John Salmons, who started his second stint with Sacramento in June 2011 after previously signing as a free agent in 2006 and being traded during the 2009 season. Next was 30-year old 6’6” backup center Chuck Hayes, who signed with the Kings prior to the 2011-2012 season after six years in Houston to start his career. Another former Rocket, 24-year old Patrick Patterson, had been traded to Sacramento in February 2013 as part of a package for former top-five pick (and future “disappointing top-five pick”) Thomas Robinson. 26-year old Greivis Vasquez had the unique distinction of being the only member of the trade from the Vivek Era, as he had just been acquired five months earlier in a move that sent Tyreke Evans from Sacramento to New Orleans. Together, the four had averaged 86.1 minutes per game for the Kings in the 2013-2014 season. 

The Trade: Months into the Ujiri reign, it was clear that Rudy Gay was not a fit with the Raptors as presently-constituted. Both Gay and rising Raptors star DeMar DeRozan were ball-dominant players who needed the ball in their hands and ample floor spacing to do their best work. On the macro scale, Gay was likely to be overpaid for the remainder of his contract, including his sure-bet $19 million player option for the 2014-2015 season. His injury history was a concern and his performance wasn’t making the team better. The Raptors saw an opportunity to finally transition their organization into a necessary rebuild, empowering their young guards of DeRozan and Kyle Lowry and preparing for the future. League sources reported that the Raptors reached out to “every team that made at least some theoretical sense” to find a trade partner for Gay, but “everyone said no, and they did so abruptly.” 

Months into the Vivek Era, the Kings were typical Kings (bad and disappointing). Most of the team had played poorly to start the season, both individually and as a group. While there were exciting young players on the Kings, particularly star center Demarcus Cousins and 24-year old, 5’9” point guard Isaiah Thomas, the rest of the roster was depressing. The new leadership of the Kings had sought opportunities to make a splash and bring excitement back to Sacramento basketball. Although Gay had been a poor fit alongside DeRozan and Lowry in Toronto, he had been a franchise player for the Grizzlies quite recently. The chance to see Gay return to form for such a small return couldn’t be missed. 

Although the trade wasn’t finalized until December 9, news began to break the day before, causing the players involved to miss Toronto’s game on December 8 (a win against the Lakers). Amir Johnson, starting at small forward in place of Gay, scored a career-high 32 points on 14/17 shooting. The Kings were off that day, so Patrick Patterson was preparing to watch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire at a Sacramento movie theater with his parents when his agent called to let him know he was traded to Toronto. “Damn, it’s cold as shit in Toronto,” Patterson thought to himself before turning off his phone and watching the movie, only informing his parents of the trade after the film. 

Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports reported the trade first. 

The Reaction: Kings fans were cautiously optimistic to acquire Gay at a talent discount and financial premium. With already limited cap space, a short term expensive contract that filled the team’s hole at small forward in exchange for spare parts was seen as a high potential, but risky move. Some were just excited to see churn, both as a symbol of the front office’s engagement and efforts and to remove some less-beloved players like Salmons from the team. One person was specifically willing to express continued faith in Vivek. In contrast to Sacramento’s mild intrigue, Raptors fans experienced “ecstatic release” in response to the trade. While some would miss Quincy Acy, the general sentiment was euphoria over the departure of Gay. One fan did have kind words for both Acy and Gay, but said Aaron Gray “can burn in the fiery pits of hell, though.” 

The neutral view was in favor of the trade from the Raptors’ side. Gay’s reputation had gradually rolled off a cliff over the preceding 18 months, so Toronto was seen to have done well simply by getting him off their roster in exchange for NBA players who shot fewer than 37 times per game. However, this was basically seen as the extent of the basketball benefit. Rob Mahoney, then of the then-functional Sports Illustrated, said “this was not a constructive deal for Toronto.” Zach Lowe, then of the then-living Grantland, said the deal was “about dumping Gay and getting the cap space” rather than any of the particular players involved. All observers viewed one of Toronto’s primary benefits as preparing to tank for the rest of the season under the leadership of Dwane Casey, who was coaching on the last year of his 3-year contract. By effectively tanking, rather than ineffectively competing as the Raptors teams of Gay and Andrea Bargnani had done, Toronto could make a high pick in a loaded 2014 NBA draft. As neatly described by Daniel Reynolds, “the Raptors are aiming to be bad. Dwane Casey is still going to coach them into the ground. The mirage of the top 5 pick, the allure of alien potential witnessed in Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and the like, starts to more clearly resolve.” 

The Results: Acquiring Rudy Gay did literally nothing to change the Kings’ fortunes, as they closed their 2013-2014 with a 28-54 record identical to that of 2012-2013. On the bright side, the core instinct of their acquisition was correct. Gay played much better as a King than as a Raptor, scoring more points per game on fewer shots. Rather than Gay’s player option being a foregone conclusion, “the Kings recruited Gay like he was a free agent” to ensure he opted in, ultimately agreeing to a further three-year contract extension. After the season, Aaron Gray became a free agent and signed with Chicago, while Quincy Acy was traded to the Knicks along with Travis Outlaw for Wayne Ellington and Jeremy Tyler. 

On the other hand, trading away Rudy Gay entirely transformed the Raptors. The team that was “aiming to be bad” went 41-22 after the trade to finish first in the Atlantic Division with a 48-34 record. The Raptors had never won more than 47 games in a season. They topped this total the next year at 49-33, posting a 103-64 record in the two calendar years following the trade that constituted the best record in the Eastern conference over that span, then elevated further by winning more than 50 games every season until the pandemic-shortened 2020-2021 season (but including the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season, where the team went 53-19 in 72 games). 

The Raptors’ primary benefits derived from the larger opportunities afforded to DeRozan and Lowry. DeRozan was named an All-Star for the first time in 2013-2014 and Lowry made his first All-Star team in 2014-2015, with both players making the team in the following three seasons. Second-year player Terrence Ross was able to step into the starting lineup and flourished as a 3-point shooter and defender. But beyond the addition by subtraction, the Raptors also performed addition by addition with the four players received in exchange. John Salmons and Chuck Hayes continued to play limited roles, but were lauded for their veteran leadership as the two oldest players on an otherwise young team. Greivis Vasquez performed well in a sixth-man role and was re-signed by the Raptors the next summer. Patrick Patterson was the greatest success story, playing four seasons in Toronto with heavy minutes off the bench. Injecting all four of these players in exchange for the net-negative Gay and the lightly-used Gray and Acy elevated the Raptors’ depth and gave Lowry and DeRozan the necessary support to flourish.

Toronto’s winning trade grew more lopsided in the years to come as the value of the pieces involved continued to shift. After the 2013-2014 season, the Raptors flipped John Salmons to Atlanta for Lou Williams and Lucas Nogueira. Salmons played 270 more minutes in his career, while Williams won Sixth Man of the Year in his one Toronto season and Nogueira was a solid backup center in the 1,754 minutes that comprised his NBA career (all as a Raptor). Next offseason, Greivis Vasquez went to Milwaukee in a draft night trade for 46th pick Norman Powell and a 2017 first-round pick. Powell’s years of contributions to Toronto would make the trade more than worth it even if the first-round pick weren’t used on OG Anunoby (it was). Anunoby continues to be a borderline star in Toronto despite his regular presence in trade rumors. 

Conversely, the acquisition and subsequent retention of Rudy Gay ended up being far less beneficial than the Kings hoped. While Gay arguably spent the best statistical years of his career in Sacramento, the team never eclipsed 33 wins in his time there. Mike Malone was fired as coach a month after Gay signed his extension and Pete D’Alessandro was removed as general manager shortly thereafter, replaced by Vlade Divac. When George Karl arrived as Sacramento’s coach in February 2015, Gay greeted him with a hearty “welcome to basketball hell.” He was rumored to be in trade talks during the 2015-2016 season, reacted negatively when learning of these rumors from media reports, and then announced he would not be opting into the final season of his contract, saying the decision “wasn’t rocket science.” Gay’s final season in Sacramento ended on January 18, 2017, when he tore his Achilles in a 106-100 loss to the Indiana Pacers. 

The Aftermath:

Rudy Gay signed with the Spurs as a free agent after leaving Sacramento and ultimately spent four years in San Antonio. The Spurs made the playoffs in his first two seasons but never advanced. In 2021, Gay signed a two-year with the Utah Jazz that included a third-year player option, guaranteeing $18.6 million. He opted into the third year after two seasons of decline and was moved in a series of trades before ultimately being waived prior to the season. He was never named to an All-Star team in his career. His final NBA game (for now?) was a 127-115 loss at home to the Portland Trail Blazers - he went 2/5 with one assist in 9:33 played. He is making $6.4 million to not play this season.

Vivek Ranadivé’s reputation continued to deteriorate among Kings fans and within the league. In December 2020, he finished last in a survey among 31 league insiders ranking team governors from best to worst, finishing just behind Robert Sarver. The Kings failed to reach the playoffs through the 2021-2022 season, reaching the unfortunate milestone of a 16 year playoff drought that became the longest active streak in major American sports and the longest streak in NBA history before it was broken in the 2022-2023 season.

Aaron Gray signed with the Detroit Pistons after leaving the Kings, but suffered a cardiac episode due to a blood clot in his heart and retired before playing another minute in the NBA. He worked as a Pistons assistant coach for a few years post-retirement. His final NBA game was a 104-99 loss to the Phoenix Suns where he had six offensive rebounds (and Quincy Acy had an additional five). 

Quincy Acy rejoined the Kings one season after being traded to the Knicks. He had limited stints in the NBA with the Mavericks, Nets, and Suns and in the D-League with the Texas Legends, then played internationally with the Shenzhen Leopards, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Olympiacos. He started his assistant coaching career with the Texas Legends for the 2022-2023 season, then joined the Wichita State Shockers for the 2023-2024 season to join the staff of his college assistant coach Paul Mills. His final NBA game was a 132-95 loss to the Denver Nuggets where he played 16:26 and had ten rebounds and one assist while taking zero shots.

Patrick Patterson played with the Raptors through 2017 and then joined the Thunder for his age-28 season. In his first season with the Thunder he played in every game while averaging a career-low in minutes. He joined the Clippers for his age-30 season and spent two years there before retiring and launching Undisputed Pictures in October 2021. At press time, that announcement is the most recent post in the “News” section of the Undisputed Pictures website. Patterson’s final NBA game was a 117-112 loss to his former Thunder, playing a team-high 42:06 while scoring the eighth-most points on the team. 

Following his trade to the Bucks for Norman Powell and a pick, Greivis Vasquez played 23 games with the Bucks and 3 games with the Nets. In 2019, he was hired as an associate head coach for the Erie BayHawks, the G League affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans. By 2022, the BayHawks were the Birmingham Squadron and Greivis Vasquez was no longer a coach. His final NBA game was a 110-108 loss in the Nets third game of the season, playing 6:47 against the Bucks team he had just left. 

Chuck Hayes played out his contract with Toronto and then closed his playing career with two more NBA games, returning to the Houston Rockets for the 2015-2016 season. He worked for the Nuggets’ front office in the season following his retirement and then rejoined the Rockets in a player development capacity from 2017 until 2023, when he was hired to be the Director of Basketball Operations for the Golden State Warriors. His final NBA game as a player was a 116-110 win over the Kings, where he had 7 rebounds and made his last NBA field goal off a James Harden assist. 

John Salmons began the 2014-2015 season with the Pelicans and was ultimately waived in connection with a deadline trade. His LinkedIn indicates that he’s operating Stone Fire Pizza by MiDiCi (this is apparently a chain I had never heard of), which opened in December 2019 at the site of a former California Pizza Kitchen in the Cherry Hill Mall (New Jersey). The restaurant’s Yelp page includes several reviews between that month and March 2020, most of which Salmons has replied to in earnest. The restaurant appears to have been a pandemic casualty, as it has closed permanently per Google Maps and is not listed on the MiDiCi website. His final NBA game was a 115-100 victory over the Hawks on February 2, 2015, but his final NBA game where he scored a point (five, in fact) was on December 26, 2014 in a 97-90 win over the reigning champion Spurs. 

Upcoming trades:

December 10, 2013:
Diamondbacks receive: Mark Trumbo, A.J. Schugel, Brandon Jacobs
Angels receive: Tyler Skaggs, Hector Santiago
White Sox receive: Adam Eaton

December 13, 2013:
Mariners receive: Logan Morrison
Marlins receive: Carter Capps

December 16, 2013:
White Sox receive: Matt Davidson
Diamondbacks receive: Addison Reed