Memphis get's a bit more from the Gasol Trade

by Earl on Jul 12, 2008 9:53 PM PDT

They get the other GASOL!!!

Marc Gasol was signed to a contract with the Griz the other day so he'll play in the NBA next season. That's a big deal because Marc Gasol (Pau's little 7'1" brother) was the MVP of one of the Spanish ACB league last year and helped Spain to the World Championship in 2006.

Apparently his draft rights were included in the trade that got Pau Gasol to the Lakers. Does this make the trade a little more Even? Well still lopsided but does it at least make a little more sense for a rebuilding franchise to get a 23 year old 5 year professional MVP of one of the top leagues in the world?

I think it does. What do you guys think?

Here's the link to the Yahoo! story.

Poll

Does this help the trade make for sense for Memphis?

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Too add to this

I have heard a lot of really good things about Marc Gasol. Mostly that the best player in Europe came down to two people:

Marc Gasol or Rudy Fernandez.

That’s high praise for Marc because we have an idea of how good Rudy is.

I am the master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul. - Charles Wesley

by Earl on Jul 12, 2008 10:44 PM PDT 0 recs

I voted for that last one

but I wanted to add that is ok to post this stuff. Also, I dont see why people get bent out of shape over this trade as it was a cap move. Sometimes you get players and sometimes you get cap space.

Question: was this trade worse (whatever that means) than the VC to NJ trade. (I like to use obscuring acronyms whenever possible FFYZP Y’all.)

Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.

by jonestr on Jul 12, 2008 11:12 PM PDT 0 recs

notable successes aside

There have been tons of european big men to end up in the bust pile. Eurobasket is just different than the NBA. Some guys can succeed there but not here. None of those other leagues are nearly as good as the NBA, so even if its the second best league, isn’t saying too much.

Then again, he might be good. The Grizz weren’t going anywhere with or without Gasol, so who really cares. The Lakers didn’t win the championship either.

M, period. Fresh, comma.

by manzell on Jul 12, 2008 11:19 PM PDT 0 recs

Pau = soft.

If they can get a big center to come in and play nasty defense while Gay + Mayo + Conley light it up, they’ll have gotten exactly what they wanted. Pau gave the L@kers a shot in the arm this last year, but the honeymoon is over for L@ker fans now that they’ve seen how soft he is.

"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez

by bfan on Jul 13, 2008 1:10 AM PDT 0 recs

Yeas, Pau´s brother is stronger than him and a good center.

The Midnight Rambler

by amlmart1 on Jul 13, 2008 3:59 AM PDT up 0 recs

OT.

Did you make your west coast trip? Do we get a travelogue? Traveling is one of the few things I love more, well, almost more, than the Blazers. Too bad for me that traveling and the upcoming season coincide. Oh guts. Cheese, I want to watch this team play!

"Besides, AnntheFan will be here any minute to #25 you." T Darkstar

by annthefan on Jul 13, 2008 4:29 AM PDT up 0 recs

I can see through time.

Vote Sam Bowie as Greatest "Other" Blazer Ever.

by Outlaw is Rejector on Jul 13, 2008 1:54 AM PDT 0 recs

waittt i dont understand

Marc was signed to a 3 year 10 million dollar contract? i thought rookies cant get more than 3? am i missing something here?

Oden...Aldridge...Roy.....THE REAL BIG THREE

by CroRupt on Jul 13, 2008 8:56 AM PDT 0 recs

Maybe Marc was a 2nd rounder

I think they have different rules on contracts. (I could be wrong though)

Mortimer: "It’ll be so nice I’ll need microfracture—ON MY WEINER."

by 92wastheyear on Jul 13, 2008 9:02 AM PDT up 0 recs

You are right.

The Midnight Rambler

by amlmart1 on Jul 13, 2008 9:16 AM PDT up 0 recs

definitely right

and definitely a second round pick, 48 in 07 nbadraft.net

Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.

by jonestr on Jul 13, 2008 9:44 AM PDT up 0 recs

so it's really best

to fall into the 2nd round, but somehow be so awesome that you get a great contract?

by Section323 on Jul 13, 2008 4:54 PM PDT up 0 recs

Yeah!

The Midnight Rambler

by amlmart1 on Jul 13, 2008 5:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

The new drafting strategy for Euros

Is to nab them in the second round. That way you don’t have to deal with Stern’s BS buyout rules and the rookie pay scale.

Some players will come over regardless of the paycut they are taking (aka Rudy) but others (Juan Franquez, I really don’t remember how to spell his name but he was drafted 12th by the Magic a few years back, Tiago Splitter) never decide to take the flight across the pond. Still others sign a long term contract in Europe and then come over like Juan Carlos of the Grizzlies, and Louis Scola of Greece, or our own Sabonis. With the terrible exchange rate of the dollar to the euro coupled with the increasing economic clout of European basketball franchises mean fewer Euros are considering making the leap. Oh and European owners are allowed to offer incentives and pay income taxes of their players salaries. So basically Rudy turned down even more than 25million Euros to come play here. Yeah.

It doesn’t help that the Euro craze of the early millennium has died out and has been replaced with an Euro aversion. Basically all the busts that have been taken with 1st round picks, (DARKO!) have scared many GMs away from European prospects. I have no doubt in my mind that players like Sergio, Rudy, Nicolas, maybe even PK would have been lottery picks a few years ago.

A Time For Heroes,
It's not right for young lungs to be coughing up blood
And it's all
It's all in my hands
And its all up the walls
Well the stale chips were up and the hopes stakes were down
Until Kp came into Town!
'Sing it Petey!

by Dheepan on Jul 13, 2008 5:08 PM PDT up 0 recs

Ahhhh...

The Mythical Tiago Splitter… That brings back good memories of last year’s BE mock draft.

"I think it’s going to be very beautiful game next year."
-Batuuuuuuuum!

by rockingharder on Jul 13, 2008 8:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

As I've been saying

it’s a good move for Memphis.

They were not going anywhere. They blew up the team and went younger. They got rid of a player that’s mentally weak (see his performance with the lakers and his stated nervousness of moving to an upper level instead of relishing the challenge). They now have a young team that includes Marc Gasol and will be up and running with the best in just a few years.

I still maintain it’s a good move on their part if they meant to do it for the reasons I listed above. I expect they’ll have another year or two of bad that will help them build and then they’ll be a competitor.

Ford: Bill, you're claiming victory already? Have you had a "Mission Accomplished" banner printed yet?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/story?page=DraftDebate-080624

by ratbastird on Jul 13, 2008 8:56 PM PDT 0 recs

I agree

I’ve been saying that, too. People laughed at them, but it made sense for them. In 3-4 years they will be very strong (maybe a little sooner) and that simply wasn’t going to happen with Pau.

Other people don't have as much practice at being wrong as I do -- HT, timbo

by jscot on Jul 14, 2008 2:21 AM PDT up 0 recs

Hmmm...

I really don’t see how they are going to be able to get to a high level with what they currently have on their roster. While getting rid of Pau was necessary to begin rebuilding as a young team, I haven’t really seen them make the other moves that they will need to become an elite team in the next 3-4 years. They will have a good back court, with OJ Mayo and the pure pg Conley, and their SF is still strong with Rudy Gay, but I would be absolutely shocked if Marc Gasol is more agressive or even close to being as good of a player as Pau.

The real question of if they will become a good team, will be what they do with the space that Kwame Brown’s contract affords. If they just let it come off so that way the team will be more attractive to prospective buyers, then they are going to be in a bad position for the next few years, and it would be surprising if they are able to ascend to a higher level. But if they use that space to aquire someone who will be able to play, the this might not have been as bad of a decision as it first appeared.

So I guess my basic point is that I don’t think that we can applaud them quite yet, and that they actually have to use the small amount of leverage they received by trading their best player for us to decide that it was a good decision. Their front court is still weak (even with Arthur) and with Conley not being a scoring point guard his ability to be effective is limited by how good the other players around him are, and since the scorers on his team right now are guys who create their own shots, this team might look better on paper than it will actually be in reality.

Jaws were hitting the floor as Greg repeatedly attempted to tear the rim off the backboard...

by TheOdenator on Jul 14, 2008 12:47 PM PDT up 0 recs

If Marc is close to as good as Pau

then they really are on their way.

Conley, Mayo, Crittenden could be a really strong backcourt, and Rudy Gay is excellent. They might be only one player away from a top 4 team in the West in 3-4 years, and they’ll be in the lottery next year, for sure.

They don’t have the kind of talent we have, and are even younger than us, but they’ve got a lot of really good young talent. If the guys they have pan out, they’ll be very good.

Other people don't have as much practice at being wrong as I do -- HT, timbo

by jscot on Jul 14, 2008 12:58 PM PDT up 0 recs

I am really not sure

how you are so confident in this Memphis team, I would say JC is a nba-level pg, and that would be about where I would leave it. I’ve had a lot of arguments about how good Mike Conley is, but I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who would describe him as an elite nba player. I guess at best they are a team with unproven talent (except for Gay).

But I don’t see how dealing Pau Gasol was a positive for this team until they make a good decision with the assets they got from the trade. Well I guess they already indirectly made some positive moves by tanking the season, and ending up in a position to trade for OJ Mayo. But diregarding that, this team would be better if they hadn’t have made that trade, then they are right now. They still could have made the same moves to get OJ mayo, whether they had made the trade or not. Once they do use what they gained in a positive way, then I would agree with you that it was a good decision, but at this point, it is either too early to tell, or the trade is still a bad idea, IMO.

Jaws were hitting the floor as Greg repeatedly attempted to tear the rim off the backboard...

by TheOdenator on Jul 14, 2008 1:22 PM PDT up 0 recs

I suppose part of it

is that I think Mayo may have been the best player in this draft, and I’m very high on Marc Gasol’s future.

I think Conley will be a top 10 PG. I think Crittenden will eventually be good enough to start on some teams, so really good as a backup. I think Mayo will be a perennial all-star, Gay will make the all-star team a couple times in his career, and Gasol will be a really strong player for them.

I think they are only one starter-quality big man away from being a playoff team, and I expect them to have a top ten pick in 09 and get that big man. If they grab a good FA, they will be on the rise exactly when all the old teams in the West are declining. Their trajectory will be a year or two behind ours, and not as high as ours, but they will be pretty tough.

And don’t be surprised if Mayo is the ROY this year. Oden will be far better in the long run, but Mayo will be on a team where he can rack up the numbers.

Other people don't have as much practice at being wrong as I do -- HT, timbo

by jscot on Jul 15, 2008 2:52 AM PDT up 0 recs

Yea

I guess we are both kind of saying the same thing, but you see the development as inevitable, and I see it as a possibility. I guess we’ll see what happens, I just don’t think any of the players are as good as you think they are except Gay, while I would not be surprised to see Mayo take the ROY trophy, I really don’t think he will be a perennial all-star unless he is voted in.

Jaws were hitting the floor as Greg repeatedly attempted to tear the rim off the backboard...

by TheOdenator on Jul 15, 2008 9:43 AM PDT up 0 recs

Close

I don’t see the development as inevitable, just probable.

I think Mayo will always have the stats to be an all-star because it will be his team. Other players, like Brandon, will be better, but generally stats get you to the game.

Other people don't have as much practice at being wrong as I do -- HT, timbo

by jscot on Jul 15, 2008 10:08 AM PDT up 0 recs