Memphis owner now questions value of Gasol deal

[jefe]

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How about the Heat?
Jason Williams + Ricky Davis + Alonzo Mourning + Wright = 20million ending contracts

Daequan Cook (equiv of Critteron)

future protected 1st rounder + 2nd rounder 2008 (these are worth more than Laker picks)
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Clearly, MIA had the pieces, I'll give you that - but then you're stuck with whether or not Riley would have actually considered this move. Over the next two years (plus the remainder of the season) they would very close to the cap with just the salaries of Wade, Shaq, and Gasol. [Obviously, moving Shaq would have still been a possibility - but it seems to me that the PHX deal was almost entirely a reaction to the actual Gasol deal - so you'd have to look to other potential teams IMO] Notably, when the actual trade went down Heisley remarked that no other owner other than Buss was willing to go into the luxury tax to acquire Gasol - I took this more as a thinly veiled jab at Chicago's owners, but who knows, maybe he was alluding to other owners, too.

[loserX]

BTW, why is no one complaining about the Allen Iverson trade then? They gave Philly no young talent, just a guy who will keep them about mediocre, and Iverson is a better player, and certainly was more highly valued and more reliable than Pau Gasol.

Iverson had completely given up on the Sixers and was never going to play in Philadelphia again. The Sixers had a LOT less leverage than Memphis. Wallace didn't take advantage of that.

Iverson was being paid about $18-19M at the age of 31. The number of suitors for him would be a lot smaller than for Gasol, who was being paid about $6M less and is 5 years younger. And yet for some reason Wallace didn't look around.

Assuming the pick considerations and expirings are equal, Denver gave up a legitimate starter with some talent for Iverson. LA gave up a lot of maybes for Gasol. (If Philly had wanted to, they could have turned around and moved Miller elsewhere for more young pieces. The fact that they didn't, doesn't magically make the Gasol trade better. The real disaster of the Iverson trade is how badly Billy King pooched those draft picks. Hopefully Memphis is smarter about it.)