Memphis owner now questions value of Gasol deal

[Huskies1947]

They need to stop letting dumbasses own professional teams.

[Optimus_Steel]

LOL at the justifucation attempt above.

[hoop_head]

^^ Yes they could have been that stupid. I'm not a Memphis fan so my recall on this is a bit fuzzy, but wasn't clearing cap space the drive behind getting rid of Gasol? In an effort to make the team more attractive to a potential buyer, player salaries had to be decreased (this was management's thinking IIRC). Memphis management weren't focused on keeping the franchise viable, they were focused on preparing the team for eventual sale. Short-sighted strategy, Gasol was a gift to the Lakers, Memphis could have found a better deal with the Bulls.

[HarlemHeat37]

C's rejected Bynum+Odom?..

[sirgant1]

You don't need to be a conspiracy wacko to see the league office's fingerprints all over this one undercover.

The NBA needs a healthy, title-competitive glamor franchise in Los Angeles. It isn't happening with the draft and value-for-value trades.

Voila! Memphis, a nothing as far as franchises go (at least in the eyes of the powers that be in the league office) has a star that could put LA among the elites again, and he miraculously gets traded to the Lakers for a six pack of skunky beer and some stale pretzels.

I'm not stupid enough to believe the Memphis brass were stupid enough to do this on on their own.

Like I said, you don't need to be a conspiracy paranoiac to see this one was somehow engineered behind the scenes by the league.

With Boston it wasn't as obvious, but Minny didn't get real equivalent value for Garnett, either.

Wait and see--there'll be something similarly miraculous occur not too far down the line to salvage the Knicks. Mark my words, they'll get the benefit of the bouncing ball more than once in the near future, when there's a LeBron or an Oden or such available in the draft.

Yea, and Elvis is alive eating peanut butter & banana sandwiches at Waffle House! So just how did the league engineer this trade? And you say the Knicks will get the benefit of a rigged lottery when a LeBron or Oden type is available. Well when it that, because they could have just gotten it when LeBron was available or Oden.

Memphis brass is just that stupid. Wallace is a poor GM, he made bad moves in Boston. No conspiracy, just stupidity.

[Andrew Bynasty]

I think most people forget that we traded Caron Butler to get Kwame... So it evened up in the end. For 2 seasons we had Odom and Kwame as a result of trading Shaq, so whats fair is fair.

[magicfan4life05]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nJTRYZKQNvY

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

I think most people forget that we traded Caron Butler to get Kwame... So it evened up in the end. For 2 seasons we had Odom and Kwame as a result of trading Shaq, so whats fair is fair.

What goes Caron Butler have to do with the Gasol trade?

One could argue that if the Lakers didn't get Gasol and traded Kobe, that would have evened everything out considering you have 14 titles and Memphis, Cleveland, New Orleans ect. have 0.

[Serpo]

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Can someone explain to me why a GM wouldn`t call every team in the league and try to get the best value?

Look at what Chris Wallace has done over the course of his career as a GM in the NBA and you will see the answer . He's an idiot .

[Andrew Bynasty]

What goes Caron Butler have to do with the Gasol trade?

Because people constantly complain about how unfair that trade was, but they forget how we got Kwame... We traded Caron Butler, a legit All-Star. So it all evened out in the end for the Lakers.

[sirgant1]

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Look at what Chris Wallace has done over the course of his career as a GM in the NBA and you will see the answer . He's an idiot .

Bingo!

This is the guy that drafted Kedrick Brown at #11. He did a good thing by drafting Joe Johnson at #10 but then his usual thought process took over when he traded Johnson, along with Milt Palacio & Randy Brown to Phoenix for Rodney Rogers & Tony Delk.

Wallace had this to say:

"He added that unlike many general managers, he doesn

[enigmatics]

I think most people forget that we traded Caron Butler to get Kwame... So it evened up in the end. For 2 seasons we had Odom and Kwame as a result of trading Shaq, so whats fair is fair.

Ya, but the Caron then wasn't the same as the Caron now. Nobody saw him blowing up like he did in Washington.

[sirgant1]

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Ya, but the Caron then wasn't the same as the Caron now. Nobody saw him blowing up like he did in Washington.

Huh, speak for yourself when you say nobody. Caron had a great year in Miami, then was injured. He was an absolute monster in college. He just found it hard to get comfortable with Kobe in LA. Most knowledgeable basketball folks knew Caron was a star waiting to blossom.

[Iggyemu]

I just wish they would admit that they screwed up. Stop dancing around it. He is not the first or last GM to make a dumb deal. At least admit it and stop dancing around it and 'wondering'. It was a stupid trade that put his franchise in the tank and shifted the balance of power in the West to the Lakers. The main thing though....if indeed they build a contender b/c of that deal in 3 or 4 years...the Lakers will still be there standing in their way.

Just a pretty dumb trade no matter how they justify it.

[TMU]

I don't know what's funnier: Memphis management not admitting that the trade was blown out of proportion, or Lakers fans refusing to believe that it was an unfair deal while claiming that Javaris Crittenton and Marc Gasol are future all-stars.

At least Memphis still has a Gasol on their roster.

[sirgant1]

Javaris & Marc are future All Stars. NBADL All Stars.

[dflash3]

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Ya, but the Caron then wasn't the same as the Caron now. Nobody saw him blowing up like he did in Washington.

Yea, people didn't expect Caron to have the impact he did now and it wasn't seen as a bad trade but more of a risky move with people still having hope that Kwame would reach his potential under Phil Jackson.

It was only after it became clear that Kwame was a lost cause that the trade was seen as a mistake, but prior to that there was belief that he would fill some of the void at the center position.

And the discussion here seems to be more concerned with why the Memphis management made a hasty move to trade Gasol rather than the fairness of the trade with the Lakers.

The Grizzlies could have waited until the offseason to trade Gasol, since they weren't trying to turn their team around in time to make the play offs.

[semi-sentient]

Huh, speak for yourself when you say nobody. Caron had a great year in Miami, then was injured. He was an absolute monster in college. He just found it hard to get comfortable with Kobe in LA. Most knowledgeable basketball folks knew Caron was a star waiting to blossom.

He didn't find it hard to get comfortable playing with Kobe. Where are you getting that? He and Kobe were close friends and Caron wanted to stay with the Lakers.

The fact that he had the best year of his career up to that point pretty much refutes your claim that he found it hard to get comfy alongside Kobe.

[Malinhion]

Well, I assume that they only wanted to pay half a year worth of an expiring contract instead of picking up deadweight and benching it because it was an expiring deal.

[Typhoon20]

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Look at what Chris Wallace has done over the course of his career as a GM in the NBA and you will see the answer . He's an idiot .

He wasn't an idiot when it came to the negotiations with the Bulls.