Former NBA player Rudy Gay reckons the Memphis Grizzlies could have stopped LeBron James‘ Miami Heat from winning back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013. During an appearance on the Out the Mud podcast, Gay stated the Grizzlies would have beaten the Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals if he hadn’t been traded midway through the 2012-13 season.
“With all due respect to that team, they won the championship, but I don’t think they could have beat us that year,” Gay said. “The year I got traded. I think that was the year. That was our year.”
Gay was selected by the Houston Rockets with the eighth pick in the 2006 NBA Draft but was traded to the Grizzlies just a few weeks later. He had seen the team rise from being a bottom-feeder in the West when he arrived to a fringe contender in 2012.
The Grizzlies went 41-25 in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season and grabbed the fourth seed in the West. The Los Angeles Clippers would knock them out in the first round of the playoffs in seven games, but the team was still in a good position heading into 2012-13, and expectations were high.
Gay had played his part in the Grizzlies’ resurgence and had been handed a five-year, $82 million deal in 2010. While he’d have been thrilled to sign that deal back then, he didn’t know at the time that it would eventually lead to his exit.
The Grizzlies wanted to shed salary in 2013 to ease their luxury tax burdens moving forward, and Gay was the one they decided to move. He was traded to the Toronto Raptors as part of a three-team deal that also included the Detroit Pistons.
Gay was averaging 17.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game for the season at the time of the trade. He was the Grizzlies’ leading scorer, and it was a big risk to make such a move when they were fourth in the West with a 29-15 record.
The Grizzlies could have crashed and burned without Gay, but they were actually a bit better post the trade. They went 27-11 the rest of the way to finish the campaign with a 56-26 record.
The Grizzlies were the fifth seed entering the playoffs, and they’d gain some revenge over the Clippers by beating them in six games in the first round. They then knocked out the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games to set up an intriguing clash with the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.
The Spurs had lost to the Grizzlies in six games in the first round back in 2011, but would sweep them in 2013. They then went on to lose to the Heat in seven games in the NBA Finals.
Would the outcome of those playoffs have been different with Gay? Well, it’s hard to say. You might think the Grizzlies beating the Spurs in 2011 would show they would have advanced to the Finals with him, but that’s not the case.
Gay had missed the 2011 playoffs due to injury, so there is no guarantee they would have beaten the Spurs with him. Even if we do assume that they somehow make it to the Finals, it’s hard to see them beating that Heat team over seven games.
Sure, the Grizzlies had blown out the Heat 104-86 in the only game Gay played between the teams that season, but one game is hardly an indicator of how a playoff series would have gone down. The Heat were 66-16 in 2012-13, and you’d have backed them to knock out the Grizzlies and hoist the trophy.
