Report: Kings, Gay agree to 3-year, $40-million extension

Riding the wave of the franchise's best 10-game start in a decade, the Sacramento Kings are dipping into their piggy bank to keep one of their core pieces in the fray. 

According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Kings have come to terms with Rudy Gay on an extension that will pay the 28-year-old small forward $40 million over three seasons.

The deal will kick in for the 2015-16 season and reportedly includes a player option for Year 3. This means Gay can become a free agent in the summer of 2017, when the NBA market will be swollen from the windfall of the league's impending $24-billion media rights deal.

Wojnarowski reports that the deal was finalized Saturday night, after Gay's agent, Alex Saratsis, spent several days ironing out the details with the Kings front office.  

While Gay is often decried as both an inefficient scorer and a ball-stopper, he's begun to shed that reputation in Sacramento, which is shaping up as the most productive stop on his NBA journey. 

After an early-season trade from Toronto last year, Gay averaged 20.1 points on 48.2 percent shooting. He's picked up right where he left off, averaging career highs in points (22.5), rebounds (6.8) and assists (3.5) through the first 10 games of the 2014-15 campaign.  

That's been enough to convince the Kings - who haven't been to the playoffs since 2005-06 - that their frontcourt tandem of Gay and DeMarcus Cousins is worth investing in long-term.