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Rudy Gay has officially drank the San Antonio Spurs Kool-Aid.
While Gay has largely been considered an isolation player throughout his career, he seems to be finding his way with the Spurs, who signed in as a free agent in the offseason.
Early on, there was some concern over how Gay would fit in San Antonio's egalitarian system. But from the looks of it, Gay is starting to fit right in, per Tom Osborn of the San Antonio Express-News.
Judging from these comments, I'd say Rudy Gay has bought in completely to the Spurs system: "For us to be successful, we have to find the open man and pass up a good shot for a great one, and we've been doing that well these last (two) games (with 30 assists in each)."
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) December 7, 2017
More from Gay on the good-to-great mindset: "That's one of the great things about this system – everyone plays for each other an it ends up in the win column. That's part of the reason I came here."
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) December 7, 2017
Ah, the Spurs system. It's stuff of legend, manifesting itself through very large humans flying around a 94-by-50 piece of wood, throwing an orange ball around.
But it's definitely had positive effects on any players who have mastered it over the years. Even LaMarcus Aldridge — the ultimate iso-ball player — settled in after struggling at the start of his Spurs tenure.
The Spurs got Gay on a hefty two-year, $17 million contract. But he's starting to be worthy of that money. He may only be averaging a career-low 12.2 points per game, but he has a player efficiency rating of 18.7, the third-highest in his 13-year career.
Gay doesn't need to score to be effective on the Spurs. He just needs to buy in to the system and the culture. So far, he's done that, and it can only get better with more time.
