Free Agent 17-Year NBA Vet Wants to Keep Playing

Rudy Gay isn't finished with basketball just yet.

The 38-year-old former University of Connecticut Husky has been out of the league since 2022-23. The 6-foot-8 veteran combo forward did join the Golden State Warriors preseason roster ahead of the 2023-24 season but was cut before the start of the year.

Maybe the Warriors erred in letting him walk. Golden State finished with a 46-36 record, good for just the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference, and was eliminated in its first play-in tournament game, thus missing the playoffs entirely.

Gay was selected by the Houston Rockets with the No. 8 overall pick in 2006. The club promptly flipped Gay and power forward/center Stromile Swift to the Memphis Grizzlies that summer, in order to obtain All-Defensive Second Team swingman Shane Battier.

In a new conversation with NBA insider Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson for his "Scoop B Radio" podcast, Gay revealed that he remains hopeful he can earn yet another NBA opportunity for what would be his 18th season in the league.

"I think a lot of teams need my veteran leadership," Gay opined. "Basketball is a tough sport. It's a very mental sport. It's going young. The game's changing a little bit, but I still think there's a lot to having the vets out there kind of leading these young guys in the right direction."

From among Gay's 2006 NBA Draft class, only two players remain on NBA rosters as of this writing. Both are beloved veterans with championship pedigrees, and both are currently on the Philadelphia 76ers: power forward P.J. Tucker and former six-time All-Star Kyle Lowry.

More news: 76ers Bring Back All-Star Guard on Free Agent Deal

Memphis finished with an underwhelming 22-60 record during Gay's rookie season, though he earned All-Rookie First Team honors for his efforts.

Gay was the first big piece of what would become Memphis' next team-building renaissance. Eventual All-NBA point guard Mike Conley was selected with the fourth pick in the subsequent 2007 NBA Draft. Thanks to the Grizzlies' Pau Gasol trade midway through the 2007-08 season, the team obtained the draft rights to another foundational star, eventual All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year center Marc Gasol, Pau's little brother.

In 2009, Memphis dealt with its eventual third core All-Star, power forward Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies rounded out their eventual top five when they inked free agent All-Defensive Team shooting guard Tony Allen to a three-year deal in the summer of 2010.

That 2010-11 Grizzlies club finished with a 46-36 record and secured the West's No. 8 seed, marking its first playoff appearance in four years. With Gay sadly shelved due to a left shoulder subluxation, Memphis had to adopt a more pass-happy approach.

Sam Young started in Gay's place for the postseason. Armed with switchy defenders and significant size, Memphis upset the 61-21 San Antonio Spurs in the first round, before pushing an ascendent Oklahoma City Thunder — led by young stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden — to seven games before ultimately being eliminated in the semifinals.

The Grizzlies had clearly arrived as a West force. Gay was healthy for the next postseason, but Memphis did not advance beyond the first round. Halfway through the 2012-13 season, the Grizzlies flipped Gay to the Toronto Raptors as part of a three-team deal with the Detroit Pistons, even though Gay was Memphis' most prolific scorer at 17.2 points per game.

With former All-Defensive Team Pistons champ Tayshaun Prince replacing Gay, Memphis favored more ball-sharing and defense and promptly advanced to the 2013 Western Conference Finals.

Gay continued to toil as a prolific scorer on several non-playoff squads in Toronto and with the Sacramento Kings through the 2016-17 season. In his first 11 seasons, he averaged 18.4 points on .452/.345/.796 shooting splits, 5.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks a night.

Next, Gay managed to completely reinvent himself with the San Antonio Spurs in 2017-18. Now 31, a slower Gay was toggled between both forward spots by head coach Gregg Popovich. Though his scoring dipped to just 11.5 points a game, the swingman evolved into a reliable two-way role player.

Gay remained with San Antonio during some lottery seasons through 2021, before linking up with the Utah Jazz as a key rotation piece on one of the West's also-rans in 2021-22. Health issues precluded him from suiting up for that 49-33 club in the playoffs, and team executives Justin Zanik and Danny Ainge pulled the rip cord on the Jazz over the subsequent 2022-23 season, flipping center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves that summer and Conley to Minnesota near the trade deadline.

With Utah fully in rebuild mode, the team had little interest in giving a seasoned veteran like Gay a significant run. Gay was traded twice that summer, first to the Atlanta Hawks and then to the Oklahoma City Thunder before being cut by the latter. After inking a one-year deal with the Warriors, Gay was left team-less when Golden State waived him ahead of the regular season.

Across 1,120 regular season games (779 starts), Gay boasts career averages of 15.8 points on .452/.346/.799 shooting splits, 5.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.7 blocks a night.

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