Grizzlies expect big things out of Gay

By MARLON W. MORGAN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Kyle Lowry knew Rudy Gay was a star in the making long before Memphis Grizzlies president of basketball operations Jerry West traded away one of his most popular players to acquire his rights from the Houston Rockets.

The two were ninth graders at the time, Lowry in Philadelphia, Gay in Baltimore. Their AAU teams were squaring off against each other. A few minutes into the game, Lowry knew.

"He got about seven dunks in a row, was shooting 3's, and all that," Lowry said. "I said, 'He's going to be a great player.'"

It didn't West long, either, to come to the same conclusion, which was why he was willing to part with Shane Battier, an icon in the community as well as a key component in helping the Grizzlies reach the playoffs the last three seasons.

But after seeing his team swept in the first round of each of those appearances, West knew his squad needed more. They needed a player with special abilities, someone other than all-star Pau Gasol who could do special things.

"From my perspective, any time a basketball player has a special skill like (Gay), he can get his shot whenever he wants to get it," West said. "That's absolutely invaluable in the NBA. Absolutely invaluable.

"Last year, we basically had one guy that could do that, and that was Pau Gasol because Damon (Stoudamire) was hurt all year. Most of the other players, at times they'll be able to do it, but on a consistent basis, I didn't feel like we had anyone that could do it."

West believed Gay was the best player in last year's draft to fit that bill. In just two seasons at Connecticut, the 6-9 forward was an All-American and one of four finalists for the Naismith Player of the Year Award.

In him, West saw a player with tremendous athleticism, with the ability to dribble and shoot from the perimeter, causing a difficult matchup for many opposing defenders.

"We knew he was going to be in the upper echelon, athletically, in the NBA, and he is," West said. "From a skill perspective, you're just not going to find many kids as skilled as him. It's just that simple."

West hasn't felt this way about a player he's acquired in the draft since 1996 when he got the rights to Kobe Bryant for the Los Angeles Lakers. Although Bryant and Gay are different kinds of players, playing different positions, West sees some similarities.

"He's got the same kind of talent (as Kobe)," West said. "I don't think there's any question. Will he have the same kind of drive to get that far? He's been a very willing worker. Kobe was a bit more advanced in terms of his determination and he wanted to shoot the ball a lot. Rudy, you almost have to make him shoot the ball at this point in time. There's a different makeup."

Which is exactly why Gay's critics are skeptical on what type of impact he will have at the NBA level. Despite his college accomplishments, there were those who said Gay didn't dominate at UConn.

He didn't take over games. He wasn't flamboyant enough. He wasn't a go-to kind of player.

Gay heard the critics. His reply?

"We were the No. 1 team in the nation for a long time," he said. "What more can you say about if I was an elite player? I was the leading scorer (15 points a game). It really doesn't matter to me. That's over now, and now I have to work on doing it on this level."

Once Gay finishes maturing mentally and physically, the 20-year-old has a chance to be as good as any of them, said Jim Calhoun, his coach at Connecticut.

"There's no doubt in my mind that he has a chance to make a significant impact in the NBA," Calhoun said. "There's nothing really that I see in the crystal ball (as to why he can't be an all-star). Size won't stop him. He's got great size for his position. Desire won't stop him. He wants to be very good.

"Personality, he's not going to fight you. He's got to get stronger, clearly, like a lot of kids. But Rip (former UConn star Richard Hamilton) never put a lot of weight on, but he's very strong with the basketball. That'll happen through weight training and playing with a lot of confidence."

He led the Grizzlies in scoring during the preseason, averaging 13.9 points in seven games. With Gasol sidelined until at least late December with a broken foot, Gay will be counted on much more than if Gasol were present.

But there are those who believe the team's early dependance on their rookie will be good for his development.

"He gets to feel the NBA game out early and kind of test his skills against the top players in the world," said Chicago's Ben Gordon. "I think all this is going to do is help him. When Pau gets back, hopefully he can play off Pau and they'll be a good combination.

"I think he's going to be a better NBA player than he was in college, mainly because of his athleticism, his ability to shoot the ball. He's still working on it, but he has an arc like mine and he's 6-9. Nobody can block his shot. Once he learns the NBA game, I think he's going to be really good. The sky's going to be the limit for him."

When Bryant first showed up in Los Angeles, fresh out of high school, it didn't take West long to see where his mindset was.

"He thought he was the best player in the league," West said. "The one thing that has made Kobe very unique is you rarely see a kid with his kind of incredible dedication. With veteran players, he'd just want to maul them everyday, where most kids, particularly young kids, would defer to them. He would not."

Along those lines, West said there are times when Gay is going to have to break from his character and become more selfish and look to take over games. An example was in the Grizzlies 112-89 preseason loss at Orlando, West was on hand as Gay scored nine points, but took just six shots.

"You'd like to see him busier," West said. "Frankly, they had guys guarding him that couldn't guard him. He's just one of those very unselfish kids and some nights when things aren't going well for you, especially in an exhibition game, you'd like to see those kids step up there and shoot a lot of shots that other people have a difficult time getting."