Rudy Gay Is Here For The Moments

Gay dazzled in his Jazz debut, but is it fair to expect that brilliance every night? (Rick Egan, Salt Lake Tribune)

Rudy Gay punctuated his walk-off interview on Thursday night with a little advice for Jazz fans: “Don’t expect this every time,” the veteran forward said.

Gay just just dropped 20 points and grabbed five rebounds in his Utah Jazz debut, while shooting 5-for-6 from three and 7-of-8 overall. Jazz fans may be tempted to expect this from him and more. And maybe that’s not that wholly unrealistic. Gay has been a prolific scorer throughout his career. His game is adaptable and he’s modified his presence on the floor as his body and athleticism have been met with age.

But it’s also important to point out that this isn’t why he came to Utah. The Jazz have two volume scoring guards in Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson, who take a combined 41% of Jazz’s shots — 35 combined attempts per game of Utah’s 85 nightly shots. Beyond those two, the Jazz have Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic and Rudy Gobert who can all hit 20 points on a given night. Joe Ingles can create offense on the pick-and-roll, Royce O’Neale excels in catch-and-shoot and catch-and-go situations, and Hassan Whiteside is a solid bench rim finisher. There really just aren’t shots to go around and Rudy Gay only exacerbates that particular problem, which isn’t necessarily a bad problem.

In other words, the Jazz don’t necessarily need Gay to be a consistent scorer off the bench. So let’s examine why he is needed and what to expect from him.

The Gay signing has a lot of similarities to the 2016 signing of veteran scorer Joe Johnson. Both were bona fide scorers in their prime who played as scoring guards and wings at the 2 and 3, but moved to predominantly 4s in their later years. Both are guys with a penchant for big moments and have a ‘touch” with the basketball you can’t even really quantify; other than, you know, the seasons of scoring 20+ PPG during their careers. Oh, and the 35%+ from 3 during their careers. But both players really just have a knack.

Google “Rudy Gay game winners” and you’ll see why. Trigger warning as this one came just a few years ago in Salt Lake City.

The Jazz don’t need Gay to be a guy who scores in big ways off the bench all the time. They need him to be a guy in big moments. The Jazz’s current roster is different from the team Johnson joined. Johnson, other than Gordon Hayward—or Rodney Hood on a good Hood night—was the most proven scorer on the roster. Even Johnson only averaged 9.2 off the bench, a function of his age and role. On the nights he scored 15+, he also played more minutes. And he did have 11 games scoring 15+ off the bench during that first Jazz season, 33 in double digits. But this possibly demonstrates the exact point to be made.

Gay will not be a consistent 15+ point threat. He will probably average closer to 10, and that’s okay! Utah doesn’t need the scoring. He will score when needed. On the nights the team just doesn’t have the juice, he will fill in the gaps. He’s become a jack of all trades. He rebounds the ball, he defends in space, he knocks down the three ball. He adds so much versatility to the roster without even being a major scoring threat.

The Jazz need him for the big moments. The same big moments that the Jazz got from Gay in his debut. A Jazz team that has been struggling to find themselves and needed a morale boost. He did that!

Gay will have moments when it will be his turn to step up, just as Johnson did when he delivered in Game 1 of the 2017 playoffs. We’ve all seen it, but it’s always worth watching again.

Rudy Gay’s scoring won’t be needed every night. But when he is needed, he will be ready to deliver.