At least this is what I gather from the video I’ve looked at and from applying logic to having Gay on the opposition’s best weapon if Allen is, in fact, the better defender. Now, Allen is still a better wing defender than Gay, but the sum of Gay-on-ball + Allen-freelance was greater than Gay-freelance + Allen-on-ball. This allowed Allen more freedom to freelance off the ball, an area where he excels. In Memphis, Tony Allen and Marc Gasol get a great deal of attention for their defensive contributions, but Gay played a “stay-at-home” kind of role, playing tight man defense on the opposing team’s best wing player. He is, however, slightly above-average and also immediately becomes the Raptors’ best wing defender. To reiterate my stance at the time of the trade, Gay is not an elite wing defender, nor is he a poor one. I had promised to dive in a little deeper sometime this week, and I’ll do that now. I came to his defense, but mostly just in passing on the Podcast or on Twitter.

When the Raptors acquired Rudy Gay last week, some people were still under the impression that he’s a poor defender.