Rudy Gay’s Inefficient Shooting Can’t Be Overlooked Much Longer

The Toronto Raptors have been a much improved team since they added Rudy Gay to their roster at the end of January. Since that time, the team has gone 7-4 and has somewhat inserted themselves into the NBA playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. That’s obviously nice results. But that’s also not the entire story.

In his 11 games in Toronto, Gay is averaging 20.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.6 steals per game. That’s not a bad stat-line at all. However, one thing that’s finally being discussed about Gay’s play is how wildly inefficient he has been this season. He’s shooting just 37.5 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from three-point range. That’s bad—really bad.

More than just being bad percentages for an individual player, Gay’s inefficiency has also had an obvious effect on the Raptors’ offense. Before the trade, the Raptors averaged 97.8 points and 22.7 assists per game, as well as shooting 44.4 percent from the field as a team.

Since acquiring Gay, Toronto’s numbers have fallen from their previous marks. They are averaging just 94.8 points and 18.7 assists per game and are shooting just 43 percent from the field. This drop in numbers can largely be contributed to the addition of Gay. Even being new to the roster, Gay by far has the highest usage percentage on Toronto at 29.2 percent. Given how much he’s being used with how poorly he has shot the ball, it’s not hard to see why the Raptors’ numbers have fallen.

They’ve still been managing to get wins over this stretch though, which is largely due to their defense. Since adding Gay, they’ve allowed 7.3 fewer points per game and force opponents to shoot 2.6 percent worse from the field. That’s obvious improvement and, in fact, much of that is also due to Gay.

However, Gay can’t continue to shoot the ball as inefficiently as he has in his brief stint in Toronto. He’s a talented offensive player, but he can’t continue to put up almost 20 shots per game if he’s going to shoot under 40 percent. Eventually, that will catch up to him and the Raptors if he continues playing that way. If he does keep on playing this way, they won’t have a record like 7-4 for much longer.

Cody Williams is a Senior NBA Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20 and like his Facebook page.