Kings GM Vlade Divac on Rudy Gay: 'He has my number.'
NBA players have to walk a delicate line, just as team executives do. Even the least-committed of end-of-bench players would still like to be in the loop when it comes to the front office’s personnel plans, as even minor moves can cost them playing time, chances at better statistics (and the resulting better contract) or, at worst, removal from the roster.
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Then there are the middling players, the near-stars. The guys with trade value that you still wouldn’t mind keeping on the roster. Players like Sacramento’s Rudy Gay, who recently revealed that (like the rest of us) he has “no idea” what is going on with the Kings’ personnel plans moving forward.
Kings general manager Vlade Divac, however, doesn’t appear to be concerned with Gay’s frustrations. After all, his team’s starting small forward knows exactly how to get in touch with the franchise’s beleaguered GM. CSN California recently asked Divac, sitting at Oracle Arena while watching King center DeMarcus Cousins do his thing with Team USA, about the ill communication:
“He has my number.”
That is to say, “no excuses. Text or call me if you need me, guy.” Completely understandable, right?
Well, Vlade then followed up with this:
“If I do something, I will call him. Obviously, if I didn’t call him, we didn’t do anything.”
Yeah. That’s where you get into the frustrating part.
Players like Rudy Gay, as we saw when Larry Bird let starting point man George Hill know about his trade away from Indiana via voicemail, aren’t usually the ones linked in on every would-be trade possibility that passes by. Divac, in this instance, is basically telling Rudy Gay that he has no reason to reach out about the myriad trade rumors that have swirled around Gay since last winter. Rumors that intensified earlier this offseason when it was reported that the Kings were determined to deal both Rudy and center Kosta Koufos.
There is that tier system. DeMarcus Cousins, despite some draft night (alleged! He may have been at hot yoga!) misgivings, will be in the loop. The guys that don’t make the All-Star team but still average 17.2 points per game on 14.4 shots per game on a 33-win team, like Rudy, aren’t really tall enough to ride that loopty-loop.
This isn’t to say Divac can’t do better in his communication with his would-be starters. Or that Kings owner Vivek Ranadive can’t do better. The entire Ranadive-era, and by extension the Vlade Divac-era that followed, has been marked with disastrous moves that turned out exactly how most predicted.
Sacramento, finally, appears to be going into rebuilding mode. The team dealt its No. 8 draft pick for prospects, it let Rajon Rondo (in a fine move) slunk off to Chicago for no compensation, and it appears to be waiting out the months until Gay uses his player option to opt out of the $14 million he’s owed for 2017-18. Provided he thinks he can make more from what might be a crowded free agent run in 2017 – next summer won’t look at all like the wild summer of 2016.
How all this stands with DeMarcus Cousins, a free agent in 2018, remains to be seen. Vlade Divac will follow him to the ends of the earth to remind him that he is the franchise player worth conversing with.
Rudy Gay? He’s going to have to be the one to pick up the phone.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
