Unless I read it wrong, Webster and RLEC are not even close to enough for Gay, no matter what bad deals we take back. They need Gay for the future.

Also, Danny Granger IS a good defender, and guards other SFs really well. I wouldn’t say he’s a Prince/Artest level lockdown guy, but he is the best defender on Indy (not saying much but still) and always guards the best player. He’s a MUCH better defender than Gay, and has skills that are much more complementary to our core.

Gay is likely going to be the ‘better’ player, but he’s a first option type dude, not a complementary type. I don’t think he has a bad attitude or anything, but he’ll want to be a top dogg wherever he’s at.

Gay will likely always score more, have better stats, but I’ll take the better defender every time, especially when the offensive game they have isn’t too far apart. Gay has a lot more potential, but he’s a one way player as of now. Granger is a good defender and can hit a TON of 3’s, that’s what we need from our SF more than anything else.

It’s an interesting idea and we haven’t seen trade scenarios for Gay much before so I like the post, I just don’t think we can get Gay for anyone outside of our Big 3 and I also don’t think Gay’s defense fits us better than others would.

Perhaps we take our big cap space and offer Granger a ton of it so Indy is scared to match? Force a sign n’ trade with them? Ex-star NBA players always make the worst GMs, except when they are Jerry West. Bird is ripe for the plucking.

Mortimer

Even if Roy is WAY better, they hung their hat on Gay a few years back and would not likely want to give him away, as cool as it would be for our team.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Explain to me why this deal makes any sense for Memphis?

The whole premise memphis would do this is because they want to shed Walker’s and Buckners contracts. Yet, as you stated, Memphis can essentially do this themselves by waiving both players. So essentially trading the RLEC for Buckner and Walker is a wash, they really dont get any cap space relief that they couldnt have got by simply waiving both players. This makes the trade basically Webster for Gay, which is akin to saying we should trade Roy for Stromile Swift, just reverse which team gets bent over….

For presenting a trade with egregious homerism I present to you…..

Why would Memphis trade away cornerstone Gasol: For cap space
Okay, I see I probably started too low and we would have to include at least a “worse contracts” scenario like the Jaric deal (and the mentioned draft picks or a later first round) - although the GM is still Chris Wallace ;)

Memphis would think really hard and ultimately do this trade, right (it works with the ESPN trade machine, just the link doesn’t):
Portland: Webster, LaFrentz (expiring $12.7 million), Frye (could be replaced by Diogu come September, doesn’t work now), Blake for Memphis: Gay, Walker (“expiring”, $9 million), Buckner (4 million + 2 million “expiring” after he is waive), Jaric (20 million over 3 years, gulp). Still leaves us cap space without the holds, but considerably less.

Maybe there is some middle ground. I thought briefly about including Sergio in my first suggestion but that doesn’t help, they are falling over guards in Memphis. Only an additional big man for their sad Milicic front court (Brown seems gone, that was even more sad) plus more cap relief would be more enticing. It’s surprising how well the contracts of Memphis and Portland fit together in trades, so I definitely see talks there.

KP said he would be interested in acquiring one more “vet” player who is still on his rookie contract in the next year. Not too many good guys fit this description. That’s one reason why I came up with Gay as a target.
And like I said in the introduction, nobody would be sad if we ultimately acquired a great young player like Granger who is already solid with a little less growth potential.

Sacramento would have to be desperate to shed the Miller, Abdur-Rahim or Thomas contracts.

Sac does have good players to replace him though. Salmons and Garcia are pretty good. Douby played very well in summer league (4th in scoring if I remember right.)

I don’t know anything about Martins defense, but his offense is terrific. A Reggie Miller type. Plays very well off the ball. A great 3pt shooter. He’s 6-7 and has played SG. With Artest there, he’s never really played SF. I don’t know if he’s a SF, he’s skinny. If he can’t be a SF, then he’s not an option.

I also have no idea what’s going to happen with Artest. Just thought that I’d throw another name out that I haven’t heard anyone mention.

Another thing. The Maloof’s seem to be fan’s just like Paul Allen. I think that they are not concerned about how much they need to pay, so they may not ever be desperate to unload contracts to get away from the lux tax.

I just don’t think they’ll do it. That would give us one sweet starting line up though!

KP should definately do it.

I was really looking forward to the Gay/Love Era. Sorry bad joke, but I couldn’t resist. It was like a defender going under the screen on a pick-and-roll, I had to take the shot.