RealGM

Lakers were the only team made aware of Gasol's availability

Sunday, Feb 10, 2008 7:32 am EST

New York Post columnist Peter Vecsey called the deal that sent Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers "the Memphis Grizzlies' tax-deductible donation to the Lakers.''

Vecsey reported that other than the Lakers not a single team was approached regarding Gasol's manifest availability. Had they been, there's every reason to believe the Grizzlies could've gleaned more. At the very least, there's no way Gasol should've been traded for next to nothing except promises of something to come unless Brian Cardinal's contract ($6.3M/$6.7M after this year) was part of the outgoing package.

Guaranteed, Pat Riley would've said "yes" to that in a heartbeat, as evidenced by the Shaq deal. Phoenix insisted Miami assume Marcus Banks' remaining three ($4.2M/$4.55M/$4.847M) years after this one. I assure you, that would've been a Steve Kerr stipulation no matter where Shawn Marion wound up.

Source: New York Post

Wow, surprising. Peter Vescey to me is a credible souce. Could Jerry West have anything to do with this?

Vescey would do anything to try and get attention... Gasol was talked about since last year... his name came up in several trade talks and chicago/knicks/etc were looking to get him and they chose to go for the bigger expiring contract... i will never believe anything vescey has to say... he said kidd would go to denver for camby... and there is not a single peep about kidd moving there... I've seen the guy talk on nba tv and he is an absolute dumb ass... he sold his soul for attention.

Why is this still a topic of discussion? Chris Wallace came right out and said that they purposely went out and looked for the largest expiring contract they could find. There are a couple that are larger then Kwame's but wouldn't have made sense such as Theo in Minny,Thomas in Seattle because neither of those teams want to add salary right now. It was a salary dump in its purest form.

Pete Vecsey isn't even a source. He will say anything to get publicity.

Anyone remember in the beginning of the season where he said he talked to some higher sources in the LA offices and the JO deal was to be completed in a few days?

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. For the most part, Vescey is not a credible "journalist". He writes for the sports equivalent of the Enquirer. Every once in a while he'll get a rumor right, and gain a pocket of loyal followers. Even this sounds more like him speculating than anything. Sour grapes. Move along...nothing to see here.

vescey gets his info from realgm boards...

like I said..he isn't credible source, but it's still worth posting if someone puts it out in public now..although I probably wouldn't have posted this if the Lakers weren't involved..

hasn't it already been reported that the Bulls turned down a trade for Gasol because they didn't want to go into the luxury tax? That alone would make Vescey wrong.

Yeah this is dumb. Chicago already knew about it and said they didn't want to give up their core or pay luxury tax.

And everyone else knew Pau was on the market, but didn't know at what price. What was memphis supposed to do? Call all the other teams and tell them what the Lakers were offering? What an idiot vescey is.

yeah, im sure the bulls had no idea that gasol was being shopped. they should have at least gotten a chance to talk to the grizz about pau....oh wait.

The Bulls had been in discussion with Gasol for quite some time. It was never discussed when their most recent conversations were. It was blatantly obvious that the Grizzlies needs changed dramatically just recently.

All that Chicago had to do to find a deal to make Memphis happy while staying under the tax limit was to find a third party with an expiring deal. Send out Nocioni for an expiring and you got it. I don't know if the Bulls were given that chance.

I don't know why lakers fans would be ticked about this. I tend to believe that the LA GM pulled a fast one on Heisley. I think he (Kupchak) went to Memphis and said if you don't trade us Gasol *right now* then we are giving the Bulls Kwame for Wallace. Heisley caved out of desperation.

Let's be honest. The LA GM looks pretty darned good right now.