While he’s been consistently above league average in offensive impact, he’s mostly hovered in the 68th to 72nd percentile in that statistic. His O-PIPM data since 2013-14 illustrates some of his squandered talent. According to Nylon Calculus’ offensive role classifications, he’s been labeled a “ball stopper” every year since 2015-16. He’s ball-dominant for a wing and has always used a lot of isolation and post-up possessions, which don’t promote ball movement. Gay is good, but he’s not at the level where he can elevate a team as a primary or secondary offensive option. He’s usually been on average to bad teams where he’s been the No. Gay and his teams have not maximized his skills very well for much of his career. The issues with Gay come primarily with the utilization of his skills. In summary, there isn’t a lot he can’t do on offense. This year, though, he’s not coming off an Achilles surgery and has canned 14 of his 21 three-pointers since the beginning of preseason. He did have a down year as a perimeter shooter in 2017-18, with a skill percentile of 18.7 among wings with 1000 minutes, per BBall Index’s talent grades. His length, combined with a thick upper body, make him a tough cover for a variety of defenders.Īdditionally, the 32-year-old is a serviceable shooter and playmaker, and he’s improved as a cutter. His leaping ability has declined since his athletic prime, but he had outlier wingspan (7’3”) and standing reach measurements (8’11.5”) for his height at the 2006 Draft Combine. Gay is a steady ball-handler with excellent touch around the basket, as evidenced by consistently high finishing and post play skill grades. Notice all that navy blue in Gay’s talent grades above? The former UConn star has a wide variety of useful attributes on offense. Ready about the difference between talent and impact stats here. He is the Spurs’ biggest X-factor this season, so let’s dissect his game.īut first, check out Gay’s BBall Index player talent grades and Player Impact Plus-Minus numbers from 2013-14 to 2017-18.
The 32-year-old forward hasn’t yet found his niche in a winning environment, but he has an opportunity to do so in San Antonio. That said, the amount of talent on the San Antonio roster is too much to write off completely. Perimeter defense is the big issue, but there are other problems. The 2-2 Spurs have some significant weaknesses with their roster. For the first time in more than 20 years, very few people would be surprised if Gregg Popovich’s squad missed the playoffs in the Western Conference. There’s an “end-of-an-era” atmosphere surrounding this San Antonio Spurs season.