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NBA Sacramento Kings

Sacramento Kings, Rudy Gay Agree To Extension

By @fanforlife1988

Getty Images Sport - Rocky Widner

Getty Images Sport – Rocky Widner

The Sacramento Kings have agreed on a three-year, $40 million contract extension with Rudy Gay, just one night after the franchise had one of its biggest wins in the past decade. Gay, who was acquired by the Kings last season, is in the final year of his current contract, which will pay him $19.3 million this season.

What this deal does for the Kings is it allows them to move forward with Gay, and centerpiece Demarcus Cousins, as the building blocks for the organization’s future success. Knowing that the team is remaining in Sacramento, with two stars like Gay and Cousins in the fold, presents the Kings with the type of stability they’ve been searching for for quite some time now.

Originally, Gay was part of a draft-day deal that saw him land with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2006. Gay reached a near-All-Star caliber level of play in Memphis, which helped earn him a five-year deal worth $82 million. Following the huge contract, Gay struggled to find his place as a high-volume shooter and scorer as part of a changing system with the Grizzlies. He was traded to the Toronto Raptors, but that too was a failed experiment, which only lasted 51 games. The Raptors shipped Gay to Sacramento last year – his third team in less than a full calendar year.

The opportunity for a fresh start and new beginning in Sacramento couldn’t have been more perfect for Gay.

Teamed with Cousins, the two have developed to form one of the NBA’s best dynamic duos. In fact, Gay is a huge part of the reason why the Kings have been able to move up from the Western Conference cellar. Despite the small sample size, Gay is having a career year, averaging 22.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Gay’s 22.1 Player Efficiency Rating, a metric used to measure a player’s productivity per minute, is also a career high for the nine-year veteran.

The Kings and Gay spent the offseason working towards a longer partnership, with the two sides agreeing to have the forward opt in for the final year of his deal. While the Kings didn’t need to recruit Gay, they had to present a valid opportunity for him to spend the remainder of his prime in Sacramento. Aligning him with Cousins, along with recent signee Darren Collison, has created a balanced offensive attack for the Kings to move forward with under second-year head coach Michael Malone.

While the Kings are just 10 games into the season, they’ve already produced wins over the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers in the ultra-competitive West. Gay has been a huge part of the turnaround, leading the team in scoring, and being their go-to scorer down the stretch.

The specific terms of the deal have not been released in full, but early reports have it coming out to $40 million over three years, with the final year being a player-option for Gay. The deal is a favorable one for the Kings, as Gay is already coming off a massive payday from his last contract. The deal enables Gay to focus less on his dollar value, and more so on the value he brings to the court.

For the first time in a long while, Sacramento found their guy. For the first time in his career, Gay has a place he can call home. Now comes the challenge of building that home together.

Zach Fetaru is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @fanforlife1988 ”like him” on Facebook and add him to your network on Google. 

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