This week in the NBA

[Ripper 0]

Not to mention they added another point guard. So now they have Lowery, Conley, Critt and to some extent Navarro at the point guard position.

 

So they took a player they don't need with a guarenteed contract, a center that will only clear 8 mill off their cap and some first round draft picks in the teens for Pau Gasol.

 

The funny thing is, they had to contact the Lakers with this because there is no way Mitch called and offered that bullshit for Gasol. He wouldn't have wasted the energy of telling his secretary to dial the number.

[Guest]

Crittenton is more of a shooting guard than a point guard. He's going to be a good one.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Memphis also get he rights to Aaron McKie and the draft rights to Marc Gasol

 

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Say what you will about Kwame but he is good trade bait

 

Wizards got Caron Butler

 

Lakers got Pau Gasol

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Jerry West must be spinning in his grave.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Between this deal by Jerry West and the Lakers and McHale and the Celtics, does the NBA need to start looking at collusion since they're clearly helping their beloved franchises?

 

(i'm only half serious i dont actually want the NBA to look at them, the less meddling by them the better)

 

A tremendous deal for the Lakers.

It's not as bad as it sounds for Memphis though, they will have lotsa cap room, and Critter-whateverhisnameis isn't bad, and the picks will no doubt come in handy, but its hard to believe they couldn't come up with something better from another team.

 

edit; I just realized, didn't jerry west leave Memphis or got fired or something? in which case, so much for my snarky initial comment

[Guest]

Jerry West isn't the GM in Memphis anymore.

 

I heard on ESPN Radio that Memphis is going to buy out Kwame, and Kwame's going to come back. Take that with a grain of salt. According to the CBA, he can't come back for a month.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Jerry West isn't the GM in Memphis anymore.

 

 

Poor guy spent his twilight years building this joke franchise into something and six months later they are bottom-feeders again. What a sad team.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Jerry West isn't the GM in Memphis anymore.

 

I heard on ESPN Radio that Memphis is going to buy out Kwame, and Kwame's going to come back. Take that with a grain of salt. According to the CBA, he can't come back for a month.

 

That makes no sense considering Kwame is an expiring contract... why not just ride out the rest of the season and take the cap space.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Jerry West isn't the GM in Memphis anymore.

 

I heard on ESPN Radio that Memphis is going to buy out Kwame, and Kwame's going to come back. Take that with a grain of salt. According to the CBA, he can't come back for a month.

 

That makes no sense considering Kwame is an expiring contract... why not just ride out the rest of the season and take the cap space.

 

They don't really have a need for Kwame. Why pay him and his stone hands the rest of his contract to help the team to 18 wins? Negotiate a 75 cents on the dolllar deal to get him off the books.

[Ripper 0]

Plus every shot, every touch, every rep he gets in practice is time that could have been spent on a player that is actually giong to be there the next year.

[Brett Favre 0]

Ugh. Next year we'll trade our expiring for fucking Darius Miles or some shit. Our shit turns into Steve Francis, and the Lakers get Gasol for Kwame and 2 shitty 1st rounders.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

Oh god! The FedEx Forum is spinning!

[alfdogg 0]

But so is this: The Grizzlies now have money to spend. Real money. And semi-local boy Monta Ellis just happens to be coming up on a new deal. Memphis is only a few hours drive from Jackson, Miss., and Monta usually has dozens of friends and family members making that trek to watch him play.

 

If the Grizzlies are serious about playing fast under coach Marc Iavaroni, who came from Phoenix, there might not be a quicker player in the league than Monta. And if the Grizzlies (or anyone) offers him a huge contract, it's going to put the Warriors in a tight spot -- deciding whether to match the offer, or forced to work out a sign-and-trade to avoid losing Monta for nothing.

Now. Nothing against Monta Ellis, but...that's a long way to go to clear up cap space for MONTA ELLIS.

[Guest]

Day #1 of the no Kwame era brought a big victory. The Lakers can get out and run without that big lug, hopefully he doesn't come back at all. Plus, Kobe played one of the best games I've seen him play. That never hurts.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Weren't Kwame and Kobe good friends, though?

 

Jesus, if this doesn't get the Lakers past the Suns in the playoffs, I don't think anything ever will.

[Guest]

Yeah, they're very good friends. Kwame is a great person from what I understand, he just can't play basketball.

[Brett Favre 0]

Ok I hope all you guys saw Nate break Blake's ankles and Lee with a sick reverse one hand dunk.

[Precious Roy 0]

Man, the Lakers got an absolute steal. I don't know what Ripper is talking about saying Gasol doesn't rebound, the guy's got a career average of 8.6. I also don't see why it would be a problem on offense, Bynum is active and can score on garbage baskets and he's got good instincts for passing from what I've seen, and Gasol has pretty good range on his shot and is a really underrated passer. The guy it will probably affect the most is Odom, but he's versatile enough to adjust.

 

As for the NY comparison Curry's a guy who wants to plant on the block and stay there till he gets the ball, Randolph has well rounded skills but he always wants to try and beat his man 1 on 1 and is a black hole once he gets the ball. But the main difference between Bynum/Gasol and Curry/Randolph is that the former pair actually plays defense, and both of them are monster shot blockers. If Bynum gets back to the level he was playing at this year that front line will absolutely murder people on the boards and make it really tough to score in the paint. Add the defense of Kobe and Fisher to that and they could be a scary defensive team.

 

As for Memphis my initial impression was that they absolutely hosed themselves here, but that was before I heard that Pau's brother Marc was part of the trade. Now, I still think they got hosed, but at least Marc Gasol gives them a chance to make out ok down the road. He's supposed to be pretty good and he's even bigger than Pau, but who knows when he plans on coming to the NBA, and who knows if he would even want to play for Memphis. The picks are going to be in the mid 20s, Crittenten could be good but they already have a bunch of little guards on the roster, and the cap room is nice and all but most of the real all-nba level players are going to got locked up with extensions because even with all the cap room in the world the rules are set up where the team that currently owns the player can pay him the most. They traded Pau Gasol to overpay for Monta Ellis? Good luck selling that to what's left of the fanbase.

 

I seriously can't believe that's the best offer they could get for Pau F'n Gasol. Half the GMs in the league have to be banging their heads against the wall right now. We need some Isiah Thomas react on this.

 

[alfdogg 0]

Weren't Kwame and Kobe good friends, though?

 

Jesus, if this doesn't get the Lakers past the Suns in the playoffs, I don't think anything ever will.

Even before this deal, I thought this team could beat anyone in the West aside from San Antonio and maybe Dallas. This just might be enough to win them a title right now. And they still have the pieces to go get Jason Kidd if they want to.

[naiwf 0]

Man, the Lakers got an absolute steal. I don't know what Ripper is talking about saying Gasol doesn't rebound, the guy's got a career average of 8.6. I also don't see why it would be a problem on offense, Bynum is active and can score on garbage baskets and he's got good instincts for passing from what I've seen, and Gasol has pretty good range on his shot and is a really underrated passer. The guy it will probably affect the most is Odom, but he's versatile enough to adjust.

 

As for the NY comparison Curry's a guy who wants to plant on the block and stay there till he gets the ball, Randolph has well rounded skills but he always wants to try and beat his man 1 on 1 and is a black hole once he gets the ball. But the main difference between Bynum/Gasol and Curry/Randolph is that the former pair actually plays defense, and both of them are monster shot blockers. If Bynum gets back to the level he was playing at this year that front line will absolutely murder people on the boards and make it really tough to score in the paint. Add the defense of Kobe and Fisher to that and they could be a scary defensive team.

 

As for Memphis my initial impression was that they absolutely hosed themselves here, but that was before I heard that Pau's brother Marc was part of the trade. Now, I still think they got hosed, but at least Marc Gasol gives them a chance to make out ok down the road. He's supposed to be pretty good and he's even bigger than Pau, but who knows when he plans on coming to the NBA, and who knows if he would even want to play for Memphis. The picks are going to be in the mid 20s, Crittenten could be good but they already have a bunch of little guards on the roster, and the cap room is nice and all but most of the real all-nba level players are going to got locked up with extensions because even with all the cap room in the world the rules are set up where the team that currently owns the player can pay him the most. They traded Pau Gasol to overpay for Monta Ellis? Good luck selling that to what's left of the fanbase.

 

I seriously can't believe that's the best offer they could get for Pau F'n Gasol. Half the GMs in the league have to be banging their heads against the wall right now. We need some Isiah Thomas react on this.

 

Isiah: "Adding a player of Gasol's ability wasn't necessary because I believe we have enough chips and assets onboard that one day we will win a championship here and I believe a couple of these guys will be a part of that. We just need to work on our tempo on offense and make sure we rebound the basketball. As I sit here and I say it today, I know people will laugh even more at me, but I'm hell-bent on getting this accomplished and making sure that we get it done. And I'm not leaving until we get it done."

[Ripper 0]

whoa now Roy? Are we talking about the same Pau Gasol here. He is a 7 foot center. Averaging 8 rebounds is not impressive. He isn't as bad as curry on the boards, but he has averaged under 8 rebounds a game twice in his career. He is nothing close to a good rebounder.

 

And monster shotblocker? Since when? Bynum plays defense. Gasol don't no nothing of this defense thing.

 

I think you might be looking at those numbers last year. Gasol starts every season pretty strong and fades towards the end. He didn't have a chance to last year because he started so late with the injury so his numbers are skewed.

 

Once again, Gasol is one impressive offensive weapon and I am not saying he is as bad as Curry who blocks no shots and cant rebound. But their games aren't much difference. Gasol blocks a shot every once and awhile, and doesn't rebound that well. And i need to stress again, he SUCKS defensively.

 

Bynum should be the guy on the block as he is a better passer from down there than Gasol, a better rebounder and a better defender, and his offensive game on the block is just as good, but he doesn't have that nasty face up game Gasol has.

 

It should be intersting. But its gonna be tough making them both work in the front court.

 

And I know Billy Knight had been trying to trade for him, so just using Billy Logic, he had to have at least offered 30 first round non protected draft picks and 4 starters for him. For some odd reason, Memphis took this really really really really bad deal.

[Brett Favre 0]

I think the Knicks have taken like 3 years off my life.

[alfdogg 0]

Just 17 turnovers between both teams. Impressive.

[Rendclaw 0]

That trade does make the Lakers much, much more of a threat in the West, but I would hold off on the title talk. They still have to fight through that conference and three others teams in the playoffs. Walk before you can crawl, kids.

 

I will say that Mitch Kupchak just found the diamond that was buried under about 10 tons of shit, however.

[Precious Roy 0]

Gasol is always hovering around or a little below 2 blocks per game average, generally top 15 range in any given year. Occasionally he has a big game where he blocks 5+. He's got a better career average in the category than KG or Amare Stoudemire. He's not Alonzo Mourning or Dikembe Mutombo, but the guy is one of the better shot blockers in the league.

 

And I still don't understand how a guy with an average of 8.6 rebounds over almost 500 games in his career is "nothing close to a good rebounder". That's a good, solid number. By that logic Yao Ming isn't a good rebounder because he's 7 foot 6 and "only" averages 9 boards a game over his career. And I guess Chris Bosh sucks too. And Rasheed Wallace, he's got 6's all over the place and never even had a single season that matches Gasol's career number, he must be fucking terrible!

 

Say whatever you want, but anyone getting 8+ rebounds a night in the NBA is a good rebounder.

[alfdogg 0]

 

Stephen A. Smith weighs in on the trade.

[Guest]

BONAFIDE SCRUB

[Rendclaw 0]

As much as I hate his schtick, he's exactly right. Michael Jordan destroyed this young man, even though Kwame was one of those players that would have definitely benefitted in every way going to college for at least two years. Jordan destroyed his confidence (what little he had) in Washington, and we have been witnessing the end result of that for a couple of years. The kid has talent, but I think its obvious that his self-confidence has been crushed.