Friday, February 1, 2008

More on the Gasol-Gasol Trade

From Zack


Just thought I'd put up some more reaction to the Gasol-Lakers trade.

-- I would have liked to seen one (or both) of these modifications to the trade:

1. Include Ronnie Turiaf.
2. Include Brian Cardinal and then make Aaron McKie's 1 year sign/trade contract worth more.

-- The big question(s). Will more or less people attend Grizzlies games for the rest of the year? Will more or less people buy/renew their season tickets in the offseason?

-- It looks like Rudy and Hak will be playing all the available minutes at the PF spot from now on. Of course, Rudy will see some time at the 3 too, but I don't see anyone outside of Hak playing at the 4 when Rudy isn't.

-- I feel particularly cursed with Darko and Kwame on the same team. The first time they are both on the court on the same time - which i don't think will happen much, see above - lightning might just strike the arena down. The Basketball Gods will not look favorably upon this. This also explains the urgency to trade Stro as soon as possible. Stro, Darko, and Kwame together would be too much for the basketball universe to survive through.

-- We have a traffic jam of elite PG prospects. That is of course if Javaris Crittenton isn't also a SG. My impression so far this season was that he would be a good SG too. Either way, Wallace implied one of the three would be used as a trade asset later on down the road to improve another spot. Lowry, the lesser player of the three, is the obvious one to go (Conley is a better passer, Javaris is a better shooter and taller and can play SG). However the counterpoint to trading Lowry is that he has the lowest trade value of the three as well. I mean, in a trade by himself, how is someone like a Rodney Carney going to help us. Our 2008 Lakers pick could get us a player as good or better than someone Lowry could be traded for straight up. So the other avenue is as sweetener in a bigger trade. Great, then we can brag that trading Pau helped us use Lowry as a sweetener'. Anyway, I think this also makes it less likely we re-sign Navarro next year, and something in me sees a possible Sasha Pavlovich saga occurring next year with JC.

-- That trade for Rudy is looking more and more important to this franchise. Would anyone argue that we got more in return for Shane than we did for Pau?

-- Time for Rudy step up and seize control of the team.

-- I will admit I am pretty excited to watch Jarvaris Crittenton play.

-- I was wrong about Pau and Navarro being handcuffed. I was also wrong about Wallace waiting until the offseason to trade Pau.

-- Marc Gasol? Really? Marc Gasol?

-- Looks like we need to get MemphisX to devote more time to informing us about the upcoming draft class. No reason to stop at the top 10 anymore. We need to know about the top 30 picks.

-- Time to watch those inverted standings!

-- Wallace acknowledged (or should that be admitted?) to changing his mind about only getting expiring contracts in return to Pau. I'm sure the obvious conclusion is that Heisley forced that change of heart, but I'm not so sure. Interesting turn of events, nonetheless. Check back here all weekend long for more Gasol commentary.

Some random links about the trade

Basketball Prospectus
ESPN - Marc Stein
Fox - Rosen
SI - Burns
SI - Scouts Take
CBS - Mejia
Herrington Quick Press Conference Notes (more analysis promised to be coming later...looking forward to it)
Wallace on Chris Vernon Show (audio)
Verno's Original Cryptic Post from Last Night
Verno's Full Trade Details
Tillery's Original Breaking News of Deal
Tillery's Follow-up
AOL Fanhouse Roundtable
AOL Fanhouse on the Big Summer for the Griz
AOL Fanhouse on Original Gasol News
AOL Fanhouse on Verno's Post
Kelly Dwyer on Trade
NBA.com on the Trade (and with a link back to us)
Forum Blue and Gold
Marcus Camby on Trade
RealGM Grades the Trade

2 comments:

jordigomezsuay said...

Comments from Spain about the deal from a non-expert and a bigger soccer that basket fan:
I was about to post a comment on my views of the team from here, when now I found these news. Ouch. Too late to write about Gasol now. One of my conclusions was that the best that could happen for everybody was trading Gasol for the right price. Now Gasol is traded, but given the reactions I wonder if it has been the right trade.

Anyway, you keep the good spaniard. My reason to follow this blog is getting news about Navarro, not Gasol. I have the feeling that he's being underrated for his low contract and because he's been tagged as Pau's friend, while Navarro can score as much as Pau given the same minutes, and also lead the team and control the pace of the match. He's still missing one of his skills, his ability to get fouls called on opponents almost always he wants, but I guess that bad refereeing is a tax he has to play for being a rookie.

On another issue, I see that for some reason, big international players settle much better in the NBA than small ones. That's the only thing that can explain that Milicic can have a bigger role than Navarro, Jasikevicius had such a bad time, and Yi Jianlian is one of the rookies of the year. Probably it's because the different rules (in particular, the lack of zonal defence).

On Marc Gasol, he's a good player, but not a star. His physical skills are quite rougher than Pau's, and a couple of years ago, nobody would have betted on him going to the NBA. On the positive point, he's proved to be mentally strong (in the good way) and with a very positive mentality about learning and improving. He's not the next Pau and I'm skeptical about him, but he'll shut up my mouth if he keeps improving the way he's done in the last year and half. But I prefer watching other players in the spanish league, like Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio, or Louis Bullock (while my beloved Barça hasn't anyone making it worthy to quit doing another things, sigh).

On the Grizs in general, for the few matches I have seen, there's a big lack of team play. Not only in defence, but also in attack. The Grizs are not very strong defending, but they could compensate it making a lot of points. But in every attacking move there are always one or two passings or player movements missing. Some players look very selfish. And when the team is more than ten points below, they seem to throw the match and make each one his own war, trying to make personal statistics instead of playing for the team. With serious, long-term, tactical training, the same players that are now losing one match after the other could be a playoff team. Anyway, these are just guesses from a non-expert from a few matches, take it just as a suggerence, an idea, a point of view.

Anonymous said...

Mark my words.

Marc Gasol will be better than any Laker's 1st draft picks.

And he will suit better than his elder bro in memphis.