Absolutely Gay is worth $19 millions per. Let's count how many millions the Kings have already spend on our middling SFs before Gay:
John Salmons - $7.5 M
Derrick Williams - $5.3 M
Travis Outlaw - 3 M
If you combine their stats and average out to similar minutes as Gay played per game (roughly 34 mins a game), the Kings were paying almost $16 M for three player who combined shot: 37% FG, 10 ppg and 4.7 Rebs. Why wouldn't you pay 3 extra millions for 48% FG, 20.1 ppg and 5.5 rebs? It's a no-brainer.
Furthermore, we DON'T have a replacement for Gay, not only that, we don't even have an NBA calibre SF on the roster (no offense Outlaw and DWill). It makes sense to have one Rudy Gay for $19M than a bunch of Derrick Williams, Travis Outlaw, John Salmons, Francisco Gracia, MbM, etc that combined is not that much cheaper.
Plus, if we lose Gay, imagine what the FO will be forced to do.... That's right, overpay for a Evan Turner/Trevor Ariza/Marvin Williams/(fill in name of average SF) as a desperation to plug a huge hole. None of us want that.
Plus, after this year, we sign him to a more reasonable contract. Win, win.
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