Report: Suns talking trade for Memphis’ Rudy Gay
Jan 8, 2013, 5:15 PM | Updated: 5:25 pm
There are a lot of new faces on the Phoenix Suns’ roster this season, but the team’s overhaul hasn’t led to many victories.
The Suns sit at 12-23, the second-worst record in the Western Conference and 7.5 games out of the final playoff spot.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the team is tinkering with even more change.
Wojnarowski wrote Tuesday morning that the Suns are engaged in talks with the Memphis Grizzlies about forward Rudy Gay.
There’s no framework of a possible deal in place, but the Grizzlies have expressed a strong desire that any package involving Gay include Suns forward Jared Dudley and future first-round draft picks, sources said.
Gay, who is averaging 17.8 points for the Grizzlies this season, has two years remaining on his contract after this season, which will pay him over $37 million. He is making $16.4 million this season.
But as Wojnarowski points out, the Suns do have plenty of first round draft picks in future years, having acquired two of them from the Los Angeles Lakers in the Steve Nash deal last summer.
Gay, 26, was a first round draft pick (eighth overall) out of Connecticut by the Houston Rockets in 2006, but was later traded to the Grizzlies in a deal for Shane Battier. Gay has averaged 17.9 points per game over his seven-year NBA career.
Despite leading Memphis in scoring this season, his per game output is the lowest since his rookie season when he averaged 10.8 points per contest.