While it remains to be seen who won the blockbuster trade that sent Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors and DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs, Rudy Gay seems excited to play once again with DeRozan.
“That’s my brother, man,” Gay said of the four-time All-Star, per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “We talked a lot before this even happened, but since the trade, I think we’ve talked like three times a week.”
Gay is entering his second year with the Spurs after signing a one-year, $10 million deal this offseason.
DeRozan and Gay spent parts of two seasons together in Toronto in 2013, and they both represented Team USA in the 2014 FIBA World Cup. They first met at a Nike Camp in China.
While they haven’t been teammates for a long stretch, they apparently formed a quality friendship.
“He is just like me,” Gay said. “We stay out of the way. We like to just laugh and joke. I don’t know. With some people you meet sometimes, it’s just instant chemistry. I think that’s really going to help us this year.”
The hope is adding DeRozan will lead to more success on the court. Thanks in part to Leonard’s injury, San Antonio finished the 2017-18 campaign with just a 47-35 record, its worst mark since the 1996-97 season.
Adding DeRozan—who finished eighth in MVP voting this summer—should go a long way, but the team will need players like Gay to contribute more after he produced his lowest average since his 2006-07 rookie campaign (11.5 points per game) in San Antonio.
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
