The usual problem when chipping in (too) late into discussions to recent developments with already seem to be an old hat: Everything important and / or smart seems to be already said by someone else......

Maybe I'm took skeptical of conspiracies but I believe that Gasol was gotten on the cheap mostly because of GM laziness. It is very possible the Chris Wallace started negotiating with LA and didn't do the due dilligence to make sure he couldn't get more else where.

Despite denials I'm guessing Wallace was told that getting Gasol off the books was his first priority.

If Stern was really \"fixing\" things how do you explain the Knicks?

Wow Sanyarin... good to see ya back!

Howl for your awesome post.

I still think this trade stinks. I'm pissed it went down this easily and for basically nothing.

Just read somewhere on the net, that the Grizz' owner stated he did not want to trade Gasol but had to be convinced by the GM and the PoBO...

Mike Heisley had to be persuaded by Wallace and Iavaroni to make the deal. Not the other way around.

And while the trade may or may not prove to be smart for the Grizzlies long-term, Heisley did it because he thought it was the best way to build the team into a winner.

Honest.

\"The strategy sure as hell isn't to try to wreck the team,\" he said. \"Quite honestly, if it was in my power to turn the Grizzlies into the San Antonio Spurs tomorrow I'd do that. I don't think anyone appreciates how painful it is to be the owner of a team that's losing and have people criticize you.\"

uhum...sure...I can imagine how they convinced him: \"Hey, if we trade Gasol, you can quickly sell the team and we finally get a boss who shows some passion and interest in his team!\"

Now I'll be eager to see where Mike Miller will end up...

Wallace has long been a refreshingly candidly interview. He says, for instance, that Marc Gasol \"has emerged as a real force in European basketball ... that I believe would have been a first-round pick this year.\"

On his three-headed point-guard situation with Mike Conley, Jr., Kyle Lowry, and Javaris Crittenton: \"We're gonna lock these three guys in a room and see which two emerge, and then we'll trade somebody at some point.\"

He also adds that the 2008 pick is top-three protected and the 2010 pick is top-six.

TrueHoop reader Sean first let me know about this interview, and points out that if you believe what Wallace says about Marc Gasol, then essentially the Grizzlies got four first-rounders, and a mountain of cap space, for Pau Gasol.
quote]

So the only young talent they actually added to the team isn't really going to upgrade a position. They started with 2 young PG and they intend to end with 2 young PG. Maybe they get a slight upgrade at one of the positions but that is in no way assured. Given that they guy they go to trade will be fresh off failing to make the backup position on one of the NBA's worst teams they aren't gonna get much in return.

Sanyarin wrote:
WOW.

That is ridiculous!?!?!?!

Good find Sanyarin. Sooooooo.... essentially the owner wanted to get the \"Best Deal Possible\", yet they took that crap Lakers package????? The Bulls and/or Wolves could have easily given them a better deal than that, for starters.

Geeeez, this stinks even more of conspiracy now. Lame.

The usual problem when chipping in (too) late into discussions to recent developments with already seem to be an old hat: Everything important and / or smart seems to be already said by someone else.

So please forgive me for boring the schrott out of you, but I feel the urge to put my thoughts somewhere and I can’t think of a more deserving place like this…

First of all, I would like to express that I consider all ideas of a somehow “fixed deal” to put L.A. back into contention for the sake of raising interest in the league again as absolute nonsense. I know that paranoia and conspiracy theories are somewhat of a hobby to many people living in the U.S.A., but coming from a sports world where actually fixing is not only wild speculation, but part of sports history and still widespread reality today (by the way: If you haven’t yet, check out this short but very pointed comparison of European and US Basketball by SI’s Ian Thomsen), I really can’t believe David Stern would ever risk so much with something so stupid. No matter how much he has been bashed over the last years, finally one has to admit that Mitch Kupchack is a very solid if not real good GM…choosing Kobe over Shaq, drafting and especially holding on Bynum…good choices as time has shown. OK, he let Caron Butler slip away for Kwame Brown, but hey…it was Brown’s expiring contract that netted them Gasol! So after all, he was just smarter or quicker than everybody else. I hate it as much as everyone, but you gotta respect this.

Although I really don’t think that this deal was “fixed” in any way, Gene Bartow (PoBO) and Chris Wallace (GM) on the other hand should be ashamed of themselves. Recent developments aside, this move nearly reaches the shrewdness of the McHale moves of old. I highly agree with the assumption that Michael Heisley (Owner) probably has forced their hands on trading Pau Gasol as fast as possible and to evaporate as much payroll as possible, given his complaints about non existing revenue in Memphis (I always wished the franchise would have remained in Vancouver…maybe they also should have). A low payroll and some first round picks (although the ones from the Lakers will be low ones) might do wonders in selling the franchise to whomever (wasn’t a group around Chris Laettner rumoured to?), but as I have so often stated, cap space won’t bring home any premium free agents to a rebuilding franchise without at least a top flight point guard or a young superstar project. Gasol sure had to be traded rather sooner than later, because he just did not fit into Memphis system and his contract was hampering the rebuilding process and I have problems judging his real trade value with him being (wrongly) considered soft and unable to carry a team, but it is really hard to believe that there were no better offers available on the market. On the other hand…last year the Bulls reportedly balked at the Gasol trade because they didn’t want to give up Luol Deng…don’t know if they are kicking themselves right now, but that says something of Gasol’s trade value in this league.

I will try to keep things short now, because the usual very basketball wise highly educated reader in this forum will easily be able judge by himself how much this low risk move will affect the Lakers, vaulting them back into contention for what seems an eternity for me. With a bench laden with young but promising roleplayers, the Lakers will now field a squad of
- one of the best young centers in the league (Bynum, 7-0) at the 5,
- a highly skilled, sweet shooting and mobile big that will nicely fit the triangle (Gasol, 7-0) at the 4
- an unselfish do-it-all small forward, maybe the best and most underrated glue-guys in this league (Odom, 6-10) at the 3
to go along with Kobe Bryant (6-6), who seems to have finally grasped what ever was his biggest flaw, the lacking trust in his team mates. Thinking about the fact that the oldest of this guys is Kobe Bryant with 29 and this squad should give most other teams with their length and mobility and pondering how much Gasol will probably benefit from finally being only option number 2 or 3 in defence and offence…this is just plain scary. Depending on Bynum’s return from injury and the time the starting five will need to gel, they likely won’t contend this year immediately, but as much as I hate it…this team has time to wait and will probably use the window when the Spurs are finally aging out and the Hornets and Blazers will still be learning how it’s like to be in the playoffs.

@ THE Daddy

In all honesty (meaning: I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything), what do you consider to be a \"fixed trade\"? When you speak of a cunning GM, a dopey one and a whatsoever commish, does that imply that Stern has both the opportunity as well as the duty to veto stupid trades (still don't know all the stuff that's going on in the NBA )? Or - more realistic - you seem to mean that Stern secretly sweetened the deal for Memphis by awarding them with some of the NBA's own money for making this trade favorable to L.A.?

Sure...that MIGHT be a possibilty (although you don't seem THAT convinced yourself ). As well as there is a possibility that all people except for myself have been replaced by robots who look and act exactly the same as they do...or as there is a possibility that we are all nothing more than imaginations in the dream of one other entity (ok, now I'm being sarcastic ). There is a possibility for everything if you like to believe in it.

But the odds are very low that exactly this possibility is also a reality (depending on how you define reality, but anyways). As especially the fans of the Timberwolves know by the Joe Smith fiasco: Nothing can be really kept secret as long as humans are involved and since the days of the internet, this \"problem\" has only multiplied. If Stern was really fixing things, and I have heard those accusations for years and years, there would have been one angry secretary or one greedy clerk who would have brought this to the public. There is always a leak somewhere, even if you have a squadron of black ops killers on your hand (which Stern also might have, who knows). And since over all those years, no proof has surfaced, I guess the odds are really low for something like that.

Besides, as I said above, the NBA has just taken one huge credibility blow with the referee scandal you mentioned and has underservedly suffered from an image problem for years. Why would stern risk fixing anything when - if revealed - would destroy the public's trust and interest into the league for ever? That is also why Stern came down THAT hard on the Wolves back then...he needs the people to trust in the league or it would go bancrupt in weeks.

As the Dona...whatever his name was scandal (which btw is NOTHING compared to what is happening in European Sports, believe me!) has proven: There will always be individuals who will try to interfere with the game for their own sake, because they don't have anything to loose and everything to win. A whole organisation can't dare to mess with it's own sheer existence like that.


Just my opinion on that issue !