{"id":270017,"date":"2025-09-06T13:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T13:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/270017\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T13:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T13:53:14","slug":"i-dont-think-they-could-have-beat-us-that-year-rudy-gay-believes-his-grizzlies-could-have-beaten-the-heat-in-2013-if-he-hadnt-been-traded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/270017\/","title":{"rendered":"“I don’t think they could have beat us that year” – Rudy Gay believes his Grizzlies could have beaten the Heat in 2013 if he hadn’t been traded"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Miami Heat<\/a> captured back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013, their star power and depth seemed so overwhelming that very few teams could truly challenge them. The obvious contenders were the Indiana Pacers, Boston Celtics, and San Antonio Spurs, each of whom pushed Miami to their limit in the playoffs during that span.<\/p>\n

However, if Rudy Gay<\/a> is to be believed, his Memphis Grizzlies were more than capable of not only winning the championship but humbling the Heat during the 2012-13 season \u2014 only if they hadn’t traded him midseason to prioritize easing their tax burden moving forward.<\/p>\n

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Was Gay’s Grizzlies elite during the 2012-13 season?<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies<\/a> didn’t have a single superstar headlining their roster, but their collective talent was undeniable. The featured players were Tony Allen, who was one of the best perimeter defenders of all time; Mike Conley, who earned a place in the All-Defensive Second Team; Marc Gasol, who won the DPOY award; and Zach Randolph, who led the league in offensive rebounds during the 2012-13 season. As a result of having such a solid defensive core, Memphis emerged as the second-best defensively rated team in the regular season.<\/p>\n

However, midway through the season, the Grizzlies decided to trade Gay, who was their offensive catalyst \u2014 averaging 17.2 points per game \u2014 to the Toronto Raptors in a three-team deal. While that seemed like a controversial decision, the team eventually made better strides moving forward, winning 27 of their remaining 38 regular-season contests.<\/p>\n

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Then, in the playoffs, Gasol, Conley and Randolph all improved their scoring averages to over 17 points per game to force Memphis’ way into the Western Conference Finals. That was where the Spurs ended their “Cinderella run” via a clean sweep by an average points differential of 11.0 points to enter the championship round.<\/p>\n

For Gay, his presence would have ensured the Grizzlies on both ends of the court and helped them reach the NBA Finals, where they would even be a serious threat to the eventual champs \u2014 the “Big 3” Heat.<\/p>\n

“With all due respect to that team, they won the championship, but I don’t think they could have beat us that year,” Gay said<\/a> on an episode of the “Out The Mud” podcast. “The year I got traded. I think that was the year. That was our year.”<\/p>\n

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Related: “We both know that’s not true, Bron” – Austin Rivers explains why he doesn’t think LeBron James can take a backseat for Luka Doncic<\/a><\/p>\n

The Grizzlies did give the star-studded Heat a tough learning that season<\/p>\n

When Gay was still in Memphis, the Grizzlies had already proven capable of toppling the Heat’s “Big 3”. In one particular matchup, with Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade all active on the court, they dismantled Miami 104-86 at home. That win showcased the Grizz’s defensive size, toughness, and physicality, which were enough to slow down the South Beach stars even in a heated environment.<\/p>\n

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Yet, as with many potential championship-caliber teams, the Grizzlies’ journey came down to organizational choices and identity. Who knows, their decision to ship out Gay might have ultimately stripped their offensive balance. Even if they were elite on defense, they could not match the opposition on the offensive end \u2014 at least, that is how Rudy sees it to date.<\/p>\n

Related: “Bro, I don’t see no back trouble. He didn’t miss” – Rudy Gay names T-mac as the first person who ‘busted his a\u2014’ in the league<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Sep 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Miami Heat captured back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013, their star power and depth seemed so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,75,2604,572,144,126,185,7270,177,295,189,3881,371,6,1373,474,181,7271,476,804],"class_list":{"0":"post-270017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-chris-bosh","11":"tag-dwyane-wade","12":"tag-heat","13":"tag-indiana-pacers","14":"tag-lebron-james","15":"tag-marc-gasol","16":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","17":"tag-miami","18":"tag-miami-heat","19":"tag-miamiheat","20":"tag-mike-conley","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-rudy-gay","23":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","24":"tag-the-grizzlies","25":"tag-tony-allen","26":"tag-toronto-raptors","27":"tag-zach-randolph"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115157690220193790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}