OT: Pau to Lakers!

[Ruzious]

Nice to see Mitch Kupchack on the good end of a trade. But I do have doubts about the chemistry Gasol will have on the Lakers. It'll be interesting.

[Ruzious]

Gotta wonder what Memphis is going to do without a good big - no Swift and Gasol. Send em Etan!

[fugop]

I don't think I can ever go on the general board again. The idiots are going to make things more painful than it's worth.

I don't get the trade. If they wanted expirings and picks, it seems like they should have gone after picks that wouldn't be so miserably low. That means dealing him to a mediocre team or getting back picks that belong to other teams, like Atlanta's pick owed to Phoenix.

[fifthstop]

bwaha ha farking hah at the idiot escort who is now left holding the bag! HARDE HARDE HARDE FRICKIN HAR!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL at Kwame whose entire value in the trade is due to his expiring $9 mil contract.

Looks like the Escort didn't "hold the bag" well enough!!!

MAHAHAHA!!!

[LyricalRico]

But I do have doubts about the chemistry Gasol will have on the Lakers. It'll be interesting.

I have questions about this as well. It'll be fine while Bynum is hurt since Gasol will be able to play the 5. But once Bynum is back where does Pau fit in? Do the Lakers to ultra big and move Odom back to SF? Does somebody go to the bench?

I think they'll have to make another move to even things out.

Gotta wonder what Memphis is going to do without a good big - no Swift and Gasol. Send em Etan!

They've got bodies to get them through this season in Kwame/Collins and they'll essentially be forced to draft a big man no matter who's on the board.

I still say they should have drafted Horford and moved Gasol last summer. They would have been much further along in the rebuilding process had they done that.

[MF23]

Wow this is a bad trade. I'm happy for Kobe. Time for him to get serious about winning a championship again.

[tkunit]

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Helping Memphis unload Miller might give them the cap room to go after Arenas.

Memphis sucks and Arenas has claimed all along that he wants to resign with us. Plus he better show that he can start playing some defense when he comes back after the break. or I might just let him walk

[clubbing_caveman]

Great trade for LAL, and bad trade for the Griz. 2 first round picks + an expiring for Gasol. I wonder why we couldnt do that or something similar? We have picks! We could have even given the Griz their pick (from the 'escort" trade) back.

LAL look great on paper now.

[BigA]

The only rational explaination is that there is an under the table deal going on.

Stern must have promised them the #1 pick in the draft in exchange for this trade. Nothing else makes sense.

Maybe not the #1 pick, but maybe something related to them selling or moving the team. But if this was fantasy basketball that trade would have been vetoed.

Two terrible trades that put the Lakers and Celtics in the Finals just makes the NBA more and more like the WWE. Kobe is Triple-H, Lebron is the Rock, whatever.

[DieHardWizFan]

This trade looks terrible right now for Memphis, but they put themselves in great position to have a young exciting team if the team continues to stink this season. If they get Beasley (or a top 4 pick that isn't a bust) they will be positioned for a Portlandesque resurgence in two years.

[miller31time]

I just don't see the point of trading for Crittenton. He's just another young point guard. There's already 2 of them in Memphis.

Essentially, they traded Gasol for 10+ mil in expirings and a few mediocore picks.

Absolutely inexcusable on Memphis' part.

[LyricalRico]

^ Maybe they project Critter to be a 2-guard.

[queridiculo]

This trade makes absolutely no sense at all for Memphis. They purge salary, but it's worthless. No FA worth anything is going to settle for Memphis, and the picks are going to be worthless with the Lakers no doubt finishing in the top 6 for the next 3-4 years.

Mind boggling.

[Ruzious]

This trade looks terrible right now for Memphis, but they put themselves in great position to have a young exciting team if the team continues to stink this season. If they get Beasley (or a top 4 pick that isn't a bust) they will be positioned for a Portlandesque resurgence in two years.

But they were already going to have a high pick, and with Gasol, they had a lot of talent. I really liked the roster they had before the trade. They just needed continuity, next year's high pick, better coaching, and minor tweaking of the roster. Like Miller said, I don't see what they were trying to do with this trade. I think it was completely unnecessary and completely foolish. And so was the Swift trade.

[closg00]

bwaha ha farking hah at the idiot escort who is now left holding the bag! HARDE HARDE HARDE FRICKIN HAR!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL at Kwame whose entire value in the trade is due to his expiring $9 mil contract.

My sentiments exactly, the Escort is now stuck in Memphis...at least for this year (I forget the terms of his contract)

Nice move for the Lakers also.

[Ruzious]

We should consider what this means for the Memphis pick the Wiz own - which is protected top 19 in 2008, top 16 in 2009, top 14 from 2010-12 and top 12 in 2013. We probably won't get it until 2014. With no protections... who knows... that pick for JCN might be the next Tim Duncan. Hopefully, the world is still here in 2014.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Um, didn't you know that it's never unprotected? After a while it just turns into a second round pick...

[mhd]

Here is a PERFECT trade for Memphis to trade Miller:

Trade ID: 4459603

Grizz trade:
1) Mike Miller
2) Kyle Lowry
3) Brian Cardinal
for:
1) Malik Rose
2) David Lee
3) Fred Jones (EXPIRING)
4) Renaldo Balkman

NEW LINUPS:
Knicks:
PG: Lowry/Robinson
SG: Crawford/Collins
SF: Miller/Qrich
PF: Randolph/Jefferies
C: Curry/Morris

Memphis:
PG: Conley/Navarro
SG: Critt/Jones
SF: Gay/Balkman
PF: Lee/Warrick
C: Darko/Brown

Why for Knicks?
1) They get a fantastic shooter in Miller who'd be an upgrade over QRich. Lowry would be the pass-first young PG the knicks do not have.

Why for Memphis?
1) Lee and Balkman would be two fantastic young forwards who'd be a perfect fit in the uptempo system of Memphis. With Conley and Critt, Lowry is expendable.
2) They get mucho cap relief as Jones expires, Rose's contract ends one year earlier than Miller's contract, and they get rid of Cardinal in the process.

[Wiz99]

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Maybe not the #1 pick, but maybe something related to them selling or moving the team. But if this was fantasy basketball that trade would have been vetoed.

You know, that just might be what's going on here. We know the Memphis owner is hot to sell, but for that he needs Stern to be on his side. Think about it: it makes a lot of sense. If Stern believes Memphis means to deal Gasol, then why not swoop in and take advantage? The leverage: help in selling the team to a good group of buyers, and there's no bigger help possible than for the current owner to say to prospective buyers "The Commish will help you move to another city." Bingo. Probably adds $50 million to the sales price (Memphis is already worth over $300 mil, according to Forbes)

I doubt Stern is stupid enough to have issued an ultimatum to Memphis. But I bet he had a bagman get the point across: if you're going to detonate one of my NBA franchises, then you better send Gasol to a big market team like the Lakers.

[BanndNDC]

-= original quote snipped =-
The leverage: help in selling the team to a good group of buyers, and there's no bigger help possible than for the current owner to say to prospective buyers "The Commish will help you move to another city." Bingo.

hmm... maybe something to do with Seattle/OKC situation. maybe it is similar to the shenanigans MLB pulled with the Montreal owner. what's memphis' lease situation? moving the grizzlies to OKC with some sort of owner swap with a new seattle group. or allowing the Sonics to move and then giving Seattle the grizzlies once an ownership group is put together.