2 years later: Rudy Gay traded to Kings from Raptors

Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the trade that sent Rudy Gay and Quincy Acy from the Toronto Raptors to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Patrick Patterson, Greivis Vasquez, and John Salmons.

When the deal was made official the next day, on Dec. 9, it commenced a turn in fortunes of sorts for the Raptors franchise. That wasn't necessarily the immediate plan, either, as jettisoning Gay was viewed by many as the first step in a roster teardown that would supposedly continue with point guard Kyle Lowry.

At the time of the trade, the Raptors were 7-12 on the season and hadn't been in the playoffs since 2008. Staring at a bumper crop of blue-chip draft talent - including Torontonian Andrew Wiggins - in the coming years, the idea of rebuilding (or tanking) had been bandied about. Just days later, the New York Knicks turned down a deal for Lowry, reportedly because owner James Dolan was afraid of being fleeced again by Masai Ujiri.

Ujiri had gotten four players and three draft picks from Dolan in exchange for Carmelo Anthony when he was in Denver, and had also, in his first major move with the Raptors, managed to trade Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks for three players and three draft picks - including a first-rounder next summer.

After retaining Lowry, extracting the ball-stopping Gay from a team with a similar player in DeMar DeRozan, and adding Patterson and Vasquez to the bench, a rejuvenated Raps squad won its first division title in six years.

That 103-64 record is somewhat deceiving, however. Between the date of the trade being agreed to, Dec. 8, 2013, and Feb. 20, 2015, the Raptors' regular-season record was 79-39, and 3-4 in the playoffs. Since then, it's been 24-25 and 0-4.