San Antonio Spurs make no-brainer move and bring back Rudy Gay

The San Antonio Spurs were quick to re-sign one of their most important players from a season ago.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the San Antonio Spurs will re-sign their starting small forward to a 2 year deal worth $32 million.

The expectation was always that the Spurs would re-sign Gay because the organization didn’t really have a way to replace him with their current salary cap situation. By re-signing Gay and bringing in DeMarre Carroll, most of San Antonio’s offseason business is wrapped up.

Gay cashes in on a luxurious deal for someone who is only a couple seasons removed from an Achilles injury and will turn 33 in August. However, as Air Alamo’s own Andrew Ites wrote last week, Gay’s improvement from the previous season and his value to the Spurs helped him score a raise from his previous contract.

There is some concern about Gay’s ability to stay healthy over the entirety of a season at this point in his career after missing a combined 38 games over the past two seasons.

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The Spurs have been reported to be exploring cap-clearing options, including potentially trading away former All-Star DeMar DeRozan, which would be one way to create some more flexibility this offseeason.

There is league-wide respect for how Gay has recreated his playing style after such a serious injury, posting a career-high 55% effective field goal percentage last season. The Spurs are thin in the frontcourt, and bringing back their most reliable wing, who put up 13.7 points per game with 6.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.7 minutes per contest was an offseason necessity.

Gay also finished in the top 10 among small forwards in defensive real plus-minus. 

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We do not have all of the necessary information on the Gay signing yet because the deal was reported on before free agency officially started. It’s a good start for a Spurs’ offseason that will probably be characteristically quiet unless they make another blockbuster trade.