The Sacramento Kings’ hopes of nabbing the final playoff seed in the Western Conference may have just been dashed.
The Kings announced that preliminary tests by their medical staff indicated that forward Rudy Gay suffered a torn left Achilles in a loss to the Pacers Wednesday. An MRI scheduled for Thursday will confirm the diagnosis.
Gay’s left leg appeared to give way on a drive to the basket in the third quarter of the 106-100 defeat.
Rudy Gay may have ruptured his left Achilles on this play, per the Kings' medical staff. pic.twitter.com/LBWyytCr1q
— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) January 19, 2017
For Gay, who is second on the team with 18.7 points to go along with 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game this season, the timing of the injury is particularly devastating because he was planning to decline his $14.2 million player option for 2017-18 and become a free agent this summer, per Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. He was also looking like a major candidate to be traded ahead of the February 23 deadline.
Rudy Gay's torn Achilles will seriously change trade deadline and free agency. He planned to opt-out of $14.2M for 17-18. Complex choice now
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) January 19, 2017
A ruptured Achilles is second perhaps only to an ACL tear in terms of the worst injuries a pro basketball player can suffer. It’s especially so for a player like Gay who turned 30 in August and has a prior history of Achilles problems.
Wojnarowski points to Wesley Matthews of the Dallas Mavericks as an example of a player who was able to score a rich payday just months after suffering an Achilles tear. But Matthews possesses two highly-coveted attributes for a wing with his quality defense and his stellar three-point shooting, neither of which is point of strength for Gay whatsoever.
The unfortunate reality now is that the former No. 8 overall pick will probably have to pick up his option for next season and bet on himself to have a bounceback post-injury campaign. But that would require Gay to toil away for another hapless year on a Sacramento team that is now no longer able to sell him off for assets, making this situation a true lose-lose all around.
