The Kings and Raptors hooked up on a seven-player deal this week, and neither club appears ready to stop trading. Every game is an audition of sorts for the players on the Raptors in the wake of this week’s trade, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys sitting in that room who have to take this opportunity and take their chance when their name is called to not only show us, but to show 29 other teams what they can do,” coach Dwane Casey said.
Here’s more on two teams that figure to be surrounded by rumors in advance of the February 20th trade deadline:
- Casey believes the trade was the right move, but says it shouldn’t been seen as an indictment of Rudy Gay‘s talent or Toronto’s decision to acquire him last season, Wolstat notes in a roundup from last night’s game.
- The Kings are enthusiastic about Gay’s game, and he’s excited to be with a team that believes in him, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee details.
- Jones, in a separate piece, looks at how the Kings are dismissing Gay’s shortcomings in advanced metrics, and Jeff Caplan of NBA.com crunches the numbers for a similar story.
- Quincy Acy tells Eric Koreen of the National Post that he was “kind of stunned” when he found out he was being traded, and the power forward fondly reflects on his time in Toronto.
- The Bee’s Dale Kasler has the latest on Sacramento’s efforts to build a new arena, noting that it will take weeks to determine whether opponents of the project have enough signatures to force a referendum.