Entering the 2018-19 NBA season, the Spurs are built around LaMarcus Aldridge and new addition DeMar DeRozan. Almost everyone else on the roster is part of the supporting cast. But then there’s Rudy Gay, who in 2015-16 with the Kings scored 17.2 points per game and in 2016-17 with the Kings put up 18.7 ppg. But then in 2017-18 with the Spurs, Gay’s minutes dropped from over 30 minutes per game both those previous two seasons to 21.6 minutes per game last season, and he scored just 11.5 ppg. But now Rudy says he’s fully healthy. And the Spurs could definitely use another scorer. Can he fill that role? Will he receive the minutes to make it happen? First, a health update, from the San Antonio Express-News:
For starters, Gay is finally 100 percent after last season’s valiant but often painful return from the season-ending ruptured left Achilles tendon he suffered in January 2017 with the Sacramento Kings.
“Everything is clicking,” he said. “I feel athletic again.”
Gay credits his sense of well being to a summer of hard work in the gym and weight room intermingled with his usual full schedule of community involvement and NBA outreach, including playing in the league’s Africa Game 2018.
“I’ve been working hard, man,” Gay said at his boys’ high school basketball showcase for East Coast teams he hosts annually. “I lost about five pounds. Last year was a little bit of a struggle for me, so I tried to alleviate that by taking the weight off my feet by losing a couple of pounds through working out and eating better. It’s now or never right now for me.”
