5 NBA stars who lost their shine because of analytics

#4 Rudy Gay

Now a solid role player for the San Antonio Spurs, Rudy Gay was once considered a great scorer and a great player during his tenure in Memphis. He averaged about 20 ppg for almost 5 seasons. However, the Grizzlies weren't going anywhere with him. In fact, right after they traded him to the Toronto Raptors, they had the best season of franchise history (56-26) and made the Western Conference Finals in 2013.

History repeated itself in Toronto. In the 2013-14 season, the Raptors were 6-12 with Gay, after they traded him to Sacramento, they went 42-22 for the rest of the year and made the playoffs. Many analytics experts dubbed this the 'Rudy Gay Effect'. If you want to improve your team, get rid of Rudy Gay.

Why does a 20 ppg guy make his team that much worse though? Once you look at the numbers, it becomes very clear. For most of his career, he was a ball stopping black hole on offense. He averages more turnovers (2.4) than assists (2.4), doesn't shoot many threes or draw fouls (4.3 Free Throw Attempts/game) and isn't a good defender (108 Defensive Rating). He also has an astronomical career usage rate of 25% (same as Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce) and he's nowhere near their level. Gay is basically a one-dimensional volume scorer and nowadays most teams are avoiding players like that.

Fun fact: He once banned stat sheets from the Raptors locker room.