Raptors agree to trade Rudy Gay
— -- The Toronto Raptors have agreed in principle on a deal that will send Rudy Gay to the Sacramento Kings, multiple sources told ESPN. The deal is expected to be finalized on Monday.
The proposed deal involves seven players, with the Kings sending John Salmons, Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes to Toronto in exchange for Gay as well as Aaron Gray and Quincy Acy. It was required to be a large trade to accommodate Gay's salary, which is more than $17 million this season.
Gay, Gray and Acy were all pulled from the Raptors' lineup Sunday in Los Angeles before playing the Lakers.
Yahoo! Sports earlier reported the trade.
The Raptors are giving up on Gay less than a year after trading for him and are essentially offloading his contract, which has another year and $20 million on it, for three players who will be free agents after this season.
The Kings will get a high-volume scorer in Gay and can pair him with newly acquired forward Derrick Williams in the frontcourt along with DeMarcus Cousins.
Sacramento has been very aggressive under new owner Vivek Ranadive, who has cleared additional spending to attempt to upgrade the roster. Gay, who was traded last January by the Memphis Grizzlies in a similar money-dump move, is one of the highest-paid players in the league.
The trade for Gay was one of the last acts of former Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo, who resigned last summer. New general manager Masai Ujiri has been attempting to offload long-term contracts and this move accomplishes that. Combined with the trade of Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks over the offseason, the Raptors will have cleared more than $20 million off their books for next season.
Gay is second in scoring on the Raptors, averaging 19.4 points a game. However, he is shooting just 39 percent, which would be a career low. Acy and Gray are not rotation players in Toronto and have combined to score just 24 points this season.
Vazquez has been the Kings starting point guard, but this move clears the way for successful backup Isaiah Thomas to move into that role. Salmons, Patterson and Hayes have mostly played as backups this season. Hayes is the only player with a guaranteed contract after this season.
