Fenris-77 wrote:I'll be even more impressed if the Swift for Collins deal turns out to be just a rumor. The amount of cap space available to Memphis should they have kept, and then renounced Swift would have made them the player this coming off-season. That and Jason Collins is teh suck.
As it is clearing Pau's contract might just be a move to make the team more salable, but even if that's the prime motivator the team is still in great shape.
I'm still not sure why people don't get how happy Memphis has to be with the position their in after the trade either.
Here's the problem I see. I completely agree with you that Memphis could now be a huge player in the free-agency this summer. Problem is, throwing a max deal at a 27 year old, all-star level big man like Gasol is the best case scenerio for most teams with max cap space. But that kind of move is no guarantee.
So the way I see it, Memphis just traded a young asset and created a huge hole on the front like that now needs fixing just for the right to go out and try and overpay somebody this summer to replace him. But who's available? They don't need Arenas or Calderon because they're set at PG. There's no guarantee that Elton Brand is going to opt-out of his deal in LA (and he has said he won't) plus he's older and a bigger injury risk than Gasol anyways. And those are probably the 3 best players available. After that you're looking at a 30 year old Antawn Jamison, a head case in Ron Artest and a few resticted free-agents that will be very tough to get away their current teams.
Creating cap-space is only a good thing if you're not giving away a better going forward than what you could ever hope to find in free-agency. And the other 3 assets the Grizz got in the deal aren't nearly as significant as they sound of paper. Two late 1sts and an OK prospect that will never be a star. They weren't even smart enough to demand that Turiaf be included in the deal.
