San Antonio Spurs small forward Rudy Gay used to be one of the most athletic players in the NBA before he tore his Achilles during the 2016-17 season with the Sacramento Kings. Since that injury, Gay hasn't really been able to show off his hops since it takes a while for players to recover from full Achilles tears, but Spurs guard Patty Mills has been seeing the Gay of old in training camp thus far.

After practice on Wednesday, both Mills and Gay met with the Spurs media and talked about how the latter is looking very explosive in camp, via Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News.

“He’s already thrown down a couple of monster dunks,” Spurs guard Patty Mills said about Rudy Gay. “Which is a small glimpse of what we’ll get this season.”

“As you get older and play longer, you try to become as mobile as possible,” Gay said. “Me bulking up would probably not be conducive to what this game is going to. I ended up losing weight and I feel good and ready to go.”

For the Spurs to make the playoffs this season in the rugged Western Conference, the team will need Gay to be a reliable third option on offense behind All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Gay, who is a career 17.1 points per game scorer, put up 10.8 points a night last season in 67 games while shooting 44.6 percent from the field.

If Gay can turn back the clock for the Spurs, San Antonio may be able to shock some people and make the playoffs this season. The club missed the postseason in 2019-20 for the first time since 1996-97.