Pau rumors popping up again

[aaa]

There is radio chatter in LA that Pau could be sent to Minnesota in a deal involving Derrick Williams. Seeing how Kobe expected a trade soon therecould be some legitimacy there. Just wondering if people in the twin cities are hearing anything.

[dunkonu21]

ha! i posted a thread on this exactly!

[Mattya]

I would be pretty mad if we traded any of Love, Williams, Rubio, or Beasley. I don't want to help the Lakers get extra youth to trade for Howard. I would definitely like Pau on the team but only for some of our lesser assets.

[wildvikeswolves]

I would be pretty mad if we traded any of Love, Williams, Rubio, or Beasley. I don't want to help the Lakers get extra youth to trade for Howard. I would definitely like Pau on the team but only for some of our lesser assets.

+1

[shangrila]

I'm sure the Lakers would love this kind of deal but Minnesota won't do it. Gasol isn't a centre, even if he can play the position at times, he's significantly older than the rest of the core and is paid a hell of a lot, especially with the trade kicker.

It's just not happening outside of the Lakers' dreams.

[funkatron101]

I hope this isn't the "elite" player that was eluded to in the other thread about Martin.

[shrink]

While the Lakers can afford Pau, his 15% trade kicker puts his contract at nearly $22 mil for the next three years. LA makes six times as much from attendance, and sits on a $5 billion TV contract - the rest of the NBA can't afford him if he costs 40% of their salary cap. With his age, he's a horrible fit with our young team, and personally I wouldn't offer expirings for him, let alone give up Derrick Williams, for his cap-killing deal.

[Dewey]

I would be pretty mad if we traded any of Love, Williams, Rubio, or Beasley. I don't want to help the Lakers get extra youth to trade for Howard. I would definitely like Pau on the team but only for some of our lesser assets.

My take would be if Adelman feels Ricky is the real deal, then landing Pau is not a problem in my book. We need to change the culture here and start wnning. If the Lakers want Dwight and the Magic like Williams or Beas, then I would think moving Williams or Beas and some clutter may not be the worst thing. Not sure if Williams can be moved yet though. bigger problem is we still don't have a legit starting SG.

Rubio ... JJ
Ellington/Lee/Ridnour?/Wells?
Beas ... Wes
Love ... AT/AR
Gasol ... Pek/AR

[Swish4]

It seems like Houston is the team that's in love with Gasol. And I think Adelman would like Martin here. Let the Rockets send Scola and fillers to match salary to the Lakers, Beas and one of our centers to the Lakers and Martin here. Something like that sounds reasonable.

[Saltine]

More nonsense from the Laker fans, their team is screwed unless someone sends them talent, they are looking for suckers... No way Kahn takes on a 65.5 million dollar contract, lol

[jpatrick]

Yeah, we need to be competitive this year. The Target Center can't be 80% empty on a regular basis again. The excitement of Rubio, Adelman, etc. will wear off quickly if we're looking at 60 losses again and this time with no shiny new draft pick as a reward.

I think at some point we have to decide whether Williams can effectively play the 3. If he can't, then we'll have to trade him or Love sooner or later. Even if he can play the 3, then we have to decide whether Beas is the longterm solution there or whether it's Williams. In a perfect world we'd have more time to make these decisions but with the urgency to win these decisions might have to be made quickly. Also, holding on to players comes with risk, think Wes or Evan Turner.

Would I trade Williams for Pau and a #1? I'm not sure. I haven't seen Williams in TC like the coaching staff, but if he's not going to be a major impact guy this year, I think I would. Would the Lakers go for that, no idea.

[shrink]

It seems like Houston is the team that's in love with Gasol. And I think Adelman would like Martin here. Let the Rockets send Scola and fillers to match salary to the Lakers, Beas and one of our centers to the Lakers and Martin here. Something like that sounds reasonable.

I thought HOU's offer was odd, but one of their better posters said that they may have hoped that getting Pau would have helped them also get Marc Gasol. While MEM had said they would match any offer after their surprising success at the end of last season, it must have at least made them think twice when MArc was offered a max deal. It's tough for micro-market MEM to draw, and/or to sell tickets at a decent price to make any money. The team already had two players making over $15+ mil this year (Gay and ZBo), so I can perhaps see HOU's reasoning here. I think it's a bad plan though, and with Marc Gasol signed, I doubt they would be interested in offering that much for Pau again.

[Biff Cooper]

I could be mistaken, but I don't see anybody talking about Pau to MN on the Lakers board, the Trade board, or the General board.

Somebody started a thread on rube-chat saying dan patrick mentioned it, but without context of how he said it, I have trouble believing it has any steam behind it.

[Biff Cooper]

And I think Adelman would like Martin here.

For what it's worth, Lipoli says his source with the team says the Wolves are not interested in Martin

[Krapinsky]

This will make Dunkonu happy.

I would be all for trading for Pau. He theoretically can waive his trade kicker, and who knows, maybe he would be willing to since he knows the Lakers want to get rid of him and he'd get to platy with his buddy Rubio. One thing we know in the NBA is stars are underpaid for their value. Even if Pau costs $20M, as long as Taylor is willing to pony up to near luxury tax levels, he'll be worth it.

Love-Gasol gives us arguably the best front court in the league and two perfect players for Adelman's system. Gasol has the length to play center and is one of the best passing big men in the game.

Interesting that Adelman has told Williams to concentrate on playing the 4, not the 3. It's certainly possible that it's clear to Adelman that Williams is a long ways away from being able to be a SF. If Williams can't play SF, then it might be hard to get him on the court, and thus it would make sense to move him.

The Lakers could then in turn use Williams + Bynum in a trade for Howard (Orlando probably doen't want Gasol). Hard for any team out there to be that offer.

Williams + Webster + Darko + Miller for Gasol.

Rubio/Ridnour
Barea//Lee
Beasley/Johnson
Love/Randolph/Tolliver
Gasol/Pekovic

I think that's definitely a playoff team with some upside as Rubio, Beasley, Lee, Johnson, Randolph, and Pekovic all have lots of room to grow.

[Klomp]

The Lakers could then in turn use Williams + Bynum in a trade for Howard (Orlando probably doen't want Gasol). Hard for any team out there to be that offer.

Williams + Webster + Darko + Miller for Gasol.

Rubio/Ridnour
Barea//Lee
Beasley/Johnson
Love/Randolph/Tolliver
Gasol/Pekovic

I think that's definitely a playoff team with some upside as Rubio, Beasley, Lee, Johnson, Randolph, and Pekovic all have lots of room to grow.

Yours was slightly different from mine...

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachi ... Id=d4gesp4

I guess ORL probably gets too good a deal though

[jscott]

I don't believe that Wolves are talking this deal.

But if they were I don't see a way to make contracts work without gutting the team.

Williams
Pek
Webster
Ridnour

That's up to 4 guys we'd have to move to make this work and I just don't see how it would make sense from the Wolves perspective.

[Biff Cooper]

For the record, if Pau waives his kicker, I'd gladly do:

Wes + AR + both the Utah #1 + Memphis #1 + Salary filler / minor assets / expiring contracts for Pau.

[shrink]

One thing we know in the NBA is stars are underpaid for their value. Even if Pau costs $20M, as long as Taylor is willing to pony up to near luxury tax levels, he'll be worth it.

First - SUPERstars are worth more than they are paid - in the right markets. Pau Gasol is no superstar. He's very talented, but he's not a big upgrade from a half dozen other PF's, who are paid half the price.

There's no way to justify three years of salary at nearly $22 mil a year - he's not the second best player in the entire NBA, and he shouldn't be paid like it. Do you really believ Pau Gasol is about to waive his trade kicker if he's booted from championship-contending Lakers to go to last place MIN? And even if he did waive his trade kicker (so he only made NINETEEN mil / year) that's still too much. I don't believe Pau Gasol is going to generate so much revenues in Minnesota that the Wolves can make money, or even break even, if they sail into the lux tax.

If Taylor wants to go after a talented PF/C, and use Derrick Williams and the start of his rookie scale .. I guess I'd swallow hard and hope for the best. But AT LEAST get somebody that fits, in both salary and age!

[Klomp]

But if they were I don't see a way to make contracts work without gutting the team.

Williams
Pek
Webster
Ridnour

That's up to 4 guys we'd have to move to make this work and I just don't see how it would make sense from the Wolves perspective.

We have a surplus of forwards. We can lose a few, and still be fine. With my above trade, we'd look like:

Rubio / Barea / Ridnour
Lee / Ellington / Wafer
Beasley / Wells / George
Love / Randolph / Tolliver
Gasol / Pekovic

Definitely thinner on the wings, but we'd win more games