The Toronto Raptors brought in Rudy Gay in the 2013-14 regular season to play the unique role as a stretch four. Gay went on focusing on putting up muscle last summer through "heavy lifting" so he can bang with the bigger Power Forwards in the NBA. The little experiment didn't worked out well for both Gay and the Raptors though, with the former putting up some of the worst numbers in his career in Toronto
Entering the 2014-15 with the Sacramento Kings, Gay has a different role in mind. He has now shed some weight and will focus more in his perimeter game according to the Sacramento Bee:
"One of the emphasis coming into camp last year with Toronto was me playing the stretch four and putting on the weight was one of those things," Gay said. "It didn't turn out very well so I had to drop it. Now I feel like a guard again."
He was shooting below 40% with the Raptors and is now shooting 45.5% from the field, 33.0% from beyond the arc and 82.2% from the free throw line while averaging 20.points, 6.0 rebounds last season for the Kings per Fan Sided. Gay managed to put up 18.2 points, 5.8 rebounds in his eight year career with the NBA notably with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Gay says he lost as much as 15 pounds this summer and feels lighter and quicker in his entire career in preparation for the coming season where he will play some SG according to Josh Lewenberg per Hoops Hype's Twitter media.
At 6'8" with a deadly perimeter game, Gay could prove a nightmare match up for a lot of teams in the league if he can transition his game perfectly at the Shooting Guard position. How much speed and quickness he has gained after shedding weight, though, will determine his success in this new role with the Kings.
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