NBA Top 50: Rudy Gay (No. 46)

Grizzlies Rockets Basketball, originally uploaded by mitbbs2008.

There are 46 days 'til the NBA's first tip off of the 09-10 season. OtB is counting down the days by ranking the top 50 players in the league.

The Skinny: Three years in, it looks like Rudy Gay may already be an understood quantity. Last year was actually a step back for him. Even the seemingly innovative Youtube/Slamdunk Competition promotion fell flat. Hopefully, he'll try the dunk Guy Dupuy throws done below. Gay’s a solid player, of course, 19-5-2-ish is nothing to sniff at, but will he improve, will he ever be a major contributor on successful team? It seems like he may have hit a ceiling. At least, that's what it looked like coming out of the 08-09 season. Word is he's re-dedicated himself and looked great at the USA Basketball mini-camp in Vegas. Really, though, after three years you shouldn't have to re-dedicate yourself.

Why he's #46: Rudy does boast one of the sicker official websites of NBA players I've seen so far, so that's a plus. He seems to be the quintessential new forward, long and active. It remains to be seen if 'quintessential' means the elite representative of the new school, or if it just denotes right smack dab in the middle-ness. Rudy could be a serviceable second-best-player on a playoff team, so right smack dab in the middle of the second 30 best players in the league (y'all following my math there?) sounds about right. He's certainly talented, but the question mark seems to be in how much maximization he can pull off.

(Guy Dupuy appears courtesy of Ball Don't Lie)

Posted in: Guy Dupuy,NBA Top 50,Rudy Gay