The Miami Heat will likely be the team that makes the push for Rudy Gay after being on the NBA trade rumor mill for more than a month now.
The Sacramento Kings are likely to trade Gay below his perceived market value because of the public complaints that Gay has aired. According to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, the Kings themselves understand the situation and are no longer seeking equal market value.
"There is a sense among league insiders that the Kings are not looking for a ton in return for Gay, so that may make finding a deal a little easier even with all the issues surrounding a deal," Kyler said.
Gay has already indicated that he wants to be traded to the Miami Heat, but he's not a free agent and it's not his call to make. The Heat are cap-strapped and if they want to trade for Gay, they need to match his salary in return.
There are also various issues on a deal with the Heat as Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel ran through the possible road bumps that has kept this deal from taking place.
"First, while Gay can get out of his contract after earning $13.3 million this season, he also holds a player option for $14.3 million in 2017-18. And that's the rub. After attempting to hold the line on negotiations beyond this year, it is unlikely the Heat would want to jump into such an amount beyond next season," Winderman wrote. "In other words, the Heat likely would want Gay to agree to bypass his option year before any deal is made."
The Houston Rockets made a similar condition when they were the only team that took a chance on Ty Lawson, but for them, it was simply making the second year of his deal non-guaranteed.
Pat Riley has lofty free agent expectations-Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Paul Millsap even Steph Curry. Gay's salary would stand in the way of his pursuit.
Also, Riley already has his small forward of the future with Justise Winslow. That seems clear when they let Luol Deng walk. Thus, Winderman believes that the only motivation for the Heat to acquire Gay is if Chris Bosh ends up on medical retirement.
The Heat would still have to pay a high price for Gay because of their cap situation. They cannot include their newly-signed players in a trade package until Dec.15 and the only player who they could trade to match the salary is Goran Dragic.
The Kings would like that since they need a point guard, but if the Heat does that, it may indicate that Bosh is likely done and the team has to go on full rebuild.