duncan228
02-03-2008, 12:59 AM
I didn't know where to put this! :dizzy
I decided because it was Monroe it could have its own place.
Please merge if I messed up.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mmonroe/stories/MYSA020308.nbabeatcolumn.en.2fba3e0.html
Mike Monroe: Hollywood heist of Gasol makes Lakers look like champs
Mike Monroe
Express-News staff writer
One reason absurd trade rumors make their way onto the Internet and the airwaves: Every once in a while an absurd trade actually is made.
What was Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace thinking when he agreed to the deal that sent Pau Gasol to the Lakers? What he got back was one of the league's all-time underachieving centers, a rookie wing man who barely saw the floor in Los Angeles and a couple of future first-round draft picks that figure to be, oh, anywhere from 20th to 30th, overall, by the time Gasol helps Kobe Bryant put the Lakers back among the NBA's upper echelon.
Admit it: If someone had told you they had heard the trade rumored on a sports talk radio show Friday morning, you would have dismissed it as the ramblings of a sports talk wack-a-doo.
The one-sided nature of the deal was exceeded only by the secrecy with which it was negotiated and consummated. There were no Gasol-to-L.A. rumors, and that is truly remarkable.
I asked one of my best NBA informants if the trade made sense, on any level, for the Grizzlies.
His reply said it all: "It just shows you the incredible value of an expiring contract."
Kwame Brown, one of the worst No. 1 overall draft picks ever, is at the end of a deal that pays him $9 million this season.
That's $9 million the Grizzlies will drop from their payroll next season when they renounce their rights to him, not to mention that they were on the hook to Gasol for $47.3 million over the next three seasons.
There is talk around the league that Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley had a group of potential buyers in town last week, and that he forced Wallace's hand when it came time to accept a bad deal that would make the team's player payroll easier for potential new owners to swallow.
I'd like to think the talk is real, that there was some reason other than Wallace's temporary basketball insanity in agreeing to the trade.
How much does this deal help the Lakers?
When Andrew Bynum went down with a knee injury a couple of weeks ago, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak assured Phil Jackson he would go to work to find help in the pivot.
Jackson could not have hoped for a player as talented as Gasol.
Immediately, Gasol helps the Lakers bridge the gap that remains before Bynum returns to their lineup in about another month. Heading into their game against the Wizards today, they had lost five of their previous seven games, reeling a bit after the injury to Bynum, on his way to becoming one of the better big men in the Western Conference and a prime candidate for Most Improved Player.
Gasol won't immediately pick up the nuances of the triangle offense Jackson uses, but the Lakers will run a lot of early post isolation plays for him while he goes through on-the-job training. He's a decent passer on the wings and likes to play from the elbow, which makes him suited for the triangle.
And when Bynum returns?
Will anyone want the Lakers in a seven-game playoff series, especially after Gasol has had 37 games to acquaint himself with the complicated offense?
"Are you crazy?" my trusted informant asked.
More and more Western teams, including the Spurs, are playing "small ball" this season, surrounding one "big" with four wing men. But how do you go small against a Lakers team that can go 7-1 (Bynum), 7-0 (Gasol) and 6-10 (Lamar Odom) across the front line, especially when two of them can shoot from 15 feet out? And how many dunks will Bynum get if defenses try to double-team Gasol from the weak side with Bynum's defender?
The knock on Gasol always has been that he is what hard-nosed NBA coaches call "soft," but that grew, somewhat unfairly, from Gasol's Euro lifestyle.
Count on Bryant to force him to be tougher.
The only Laker who might have reason to be disappointed in the deal is Bynum, though I suspect his agent, David Lee, will be the one shedding tears.
Bynum will be a free agent this summer and will be looking for a maximum value contract to re-sign with the Lakers. You know Lee was piling up talking points with each game the Lakers lost while his client was on the injured list. Now Bynum's value to the Lakers has diminished a bit. They're not going to lose many more games with Gasol on the floor. Plus, Bynum no longer will be his team's most productive big man.
That is because Gasol, with Lakers' foes still having to focus first on stopping Bryant, will be an automatic 20 points per game.
Kupchak also managed to make future negotiations with Bryant, who can opt out of his contract after the 2008-09 season, a lot more cordial. He has done what Bryant accused him last summer of being incapable of doing: turning the Lakers back into a perennial title contender.
I decided because it was Monroe it could have its own place.
Please merge if I messed up.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mmonroe/stories/MYSA020308.nbabeatcolumn.en.2fba3e0.html
Mike Monroe: Hollywood heist of Gasol makes Lakers look like champs
Mike Monroe
Express-News staff writer
One reason absurd trade rumors make their way onto the Internet and the airwaves: Every once in a while an absurd trade actually is made.
What was Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace thinking when he agreed to the deal that sent Pau Gasol to the Lakers? What he got back was one of the league's all-time underachieving centers, a rookie wing man who barely saw the floor in Los Angeles and a couple of future first-round draft picks that figure to be, oh, anywhere from 20th to 30th, overall, by the time Gasol helps Kobe Bryant put the Lakers back among the NBA's upper echelon.
Admit it: If someone had told you they had heard the trade rumored on a sports talk radio show Friday morning, you would have dismissed it as the ramblings of a sports talk wack-a-doo.
The one-sided nature of the deal was exceeded only by the secrecy with which it was negotiated and consummated. There were no Gasol-to-L.A. rumors, and that is truly remarkable.
I asked one of my best NBA informants if the trade made sense, on any level, for the Grizzlies.
His reply said it all: "It just shows you the incredible value of an expiring contract."
Kwame Brown, one of the worst No. 1 overall draft picks ever, is at the end of a deal that pays him $9 million this season.
That's $9 million the Grizzlies will drop from their payroll next season when they renounce their rights to him, not to mention that they were on the hook to Gasol for $47.3 million over the next three seasons.
There is talk around the league that Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley had a group of potential buyers in town last week, and that he forced Wallace's hand when it came time to accept a bad deal that would make the team's player payroll easier for potential new owners to swallow.
I'd like to think the talk is real, that there was some reason other than Wallace's temporary basketball insanity in agreeing to the trade.
How much does this deal help the Lakers?
When Andrew Bynum went down with a knee injury a couple of weeks ago, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak assured Phil Jackson he would go to work to find help in the pivot.
Jackson could not have hoped for a player as talented as Gasol.
Immediately, Gasol helps the Lakers bridge the gap that remains before Bynum returns to their lineup in about another month. Heading into their game against the Wizards today, they had lost five of their previous seven games, reeling a bit after the injury to Bynum, on his way to becoming one of the better big men in the Western Conference and a prime candidate for Most Improved Player.
Gasol won't immediately pick up the nuances of the triangle offense Jackson uses, but the Lakers will run a lot of early post isolation plays for him while he goes through on-the-job training. He's a decent passer on the wings and likes to play from the elbow, which makes him suited for the triangle.
And when Bynum returns?
Will anyone want the Lakers in a seven-game playoff series, especially after Gasol has had 37 games to acquaint himself with the complicated offense?
"Are you crazy?" my trusted informant asked.
More and more Western teams, including the Spurs, are playing "small ball" this season, surrounding one "big" with four wing men. But how do you go small against a Lakers team that can go 7-1 (Bynum), 7-0 (Gasol) and 6-10 (Lamar Odom) across the front line, especially when two of them can shoot from 15 feet out? And how many dunks will Bynum get if defenses try to double-team Gasol from the weak side with Bynum's defender?
The knock on Gasol always has been that he is what hard-nosed NBA coaches call "soft," but that grew, somewhat unfairly, from Gasol's Euro lifestyle.
Count on Bryant to force him to be tougher.
The only Laker who might have reason to be disappointed in the deal is Bynum, though I suspect his agent, David Lee, will be the one shedding tears.
Bynum will be a free agent this summer and will be looking for a maximum value contract to re-sign with the Lakers. You know Lee was piling up talking points with each game the Lakers lost while his client was on the injured list. Now Bynum's value to the Lakers has diminished a bit. They're not going to lose many more games with Gasol on the floor. Plus, Bynum no longer will be his team's most productive big man.
That is because Gasol, with Lakers' foes still having to focus first on stopping Bryant, will be an automatic 20 points per game.
Kupchak also managed to make future negotiations with Bryant, who can opt out of his contract after the 2008-09 season, a lot more cordial. He has done what Bryant accused him last summer of being incapable of doing: turning the Lakers back into a perennial title contender.