Gasol trade makes "cents"
My first reaction to the L.A.-Memphis trade that made Pau Gasol a Laker is probably similar to your initial reaction.
Wow.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak got a former All-Star and one of the league's best big men for the NBA equivalent of nothing: bust-of-a-center Kwame Brown and his expiring $9 million contract, unproven rookie point guard Javaris Crittenton, and first-round draft picks in 2008 and 2010.
Memphis also gets the rights to former second-round pick Marc Gasol (Pau's brother, oddly) as well as veteran Aaron McKie, who hasn't been playing but was signed by the Lakers on Friday just to help make the trade meet salary cap requirements.
Memphis also received undisclosed "cash considerations" from L.A., but unless one of those considerations is $20 million in small unmarked bills, the money won't begin to balance out one of the most lopsided NBA trades I can ever remember.
Teams in the Western Conference that remain interested in winning a championship -- unlike Memphis -- and Laker-haters everywhere can blame this curious deal on one person: Michael Heisley.
The majority owner of the Grizzlies, Heisley was only interested in only one thing -- his bottom line -- when he approved this trade.
Heisley loved getting rid of Gasol's contract, which pays him $13.7 million this season and is worth almost $50 million over the next three years.
He didn't want Lamar Odom from the Lakers, because L.A.'s third-best player is scheduled to make $14.5 million next season.
He took Crittenton because he's signed to an inexpensive rookie contract.
He took McKie because the final two years of his freshly-signed contract are not guaranteed.
From Memphis' perspective, the most significant assets gained from trading Gasol were the pair of first-round draft picks it received.
But how valuable are they, really?
If the trade makes the Lakers into legitimate championship contenders for at least the next three season -- an almost certainty -- the Grizzlies will get two picks at the tail end of the first round. These days, most teams try to get rid of those picks (and the guaranteed contracts that come with them) more than they try to accumulate them.
Adding insult to the Grizzlies' acquisition is the fact that the Lakers got protection for the picks they sent to Memphis.
The Grizzlies get the Lakers' first-round pick in next summer's draft, unless it's in the top three, which it won't be unless L.A. goes 0-37 the rest of the way.
The Grizzlies also get the Lakers' first-round pick in 2010, unless it's in the top six, which won't happen unless Kobe Bryant retires and Andrew Bynum spends more time on the injured list than he does on the court.
Laughable.
Clearly, Heisley doesn't care about his product or the fans in Memphis. He has been trying to sell the franchise for a long time and, by cutting payroll and acquiring future first-round drafts picks -- even bad ones -- he makes the Grizzlies more attractive to potential buyers.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are laughing all the way to title contention.
And the NBA?
You can bet the league and its TV partners are already salivating over a possible Celtics-Lakers matchup in the Finals.
Today, Boston-L.A. is possible.
Thursday, when Gasol was in Memphis, Brown was with the Lakers, McKie was unemployed and Heisley at least pretended to care about the competitiveness of his team, it was not.
-- Steve Luhm
Wow.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak got a former All-Star and one of the league's best big men for the NBA equivalent of nothing: bust-of-a-center Kwame Brown and his expiring $9 million contract, unproven rookie point guard Javaris Crittenton, and first-round draft picks in 2008 and 2010.
Memphis also gets the rights to former second-round pick Marc Gasol (Pau's brother, oddly) as well as veteran Aaron McKie, who hasn't been playing but was signed by the Lakers on Friday just to help make the trade meet salary cap requirements.
Memphis also received undisclosed "cash considerations" from L.A., but unless one of those considerations is $20 million in small unmarked bills, the money won't begin to balance out one of the most lopsided NBA trades I can ever remember.
Teams in the Western Conference that remain interested in winning a championship -- unlike Memphis -- and Laker-haters everywhere can blame this curious deal on one person: Michael Heisley.
The majority owner of the Grizzlies, Heisley was only interested in only one thing -- his bottom line -- when he approved this trade.
Heisley loved getting rid of Gasol's contract, which pays him $13.7 million this season and is worth almost $50 million over the next three years.
He didn't want Lamar Odom from the Lakers, because L.A.'s third-best player is scheduled to make $14.5 million next season.
He took Crittenton because he's signed to an inexpensive rookie contract.
He took McKie because the final two years of his freshly-signed contract are not guaranteed.
From Memphis' perspective, the most significant assets gained from trading Gasol were the pair of first-round draft picks it received.
But how valuable are they, really?
If the trade makes the Lakers into legitimate championship contenders for at least the next three season -- an almost certainty -- the Grizzlies will get two picks at the tail end of the first round. These days, most teams try to get rid of those picks (and the guaranteed contracts that come with them) more than they try to accumulate them.
Adding insult to the Grizzlies' acquisition is the fact that the Lakers got protection for the picks they sent to Memphis.
The Grizzlies get the Lakers' first-round pick in next summer's draft, unless it's in the top three, which it won't be unless L.A. goes 0-37 the rest of the way.
The Grizzlies also get the Lakers' first-round pick in 2010, unless it's in the top six, which won't happen unless Kobe Bryant retires and Andrew Bynum spends more time on the injured list than he does on the court.
Laughable.
Clearly, Heisley doesn't care about his product or the fans in Memphis. He has been trying to sell the franchise for a long time and, by cutting payroll and acquiring future first-round drafts picks -- even bad ones -- he makes the Grizzlies more attractive to potential buyers.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are laughing all the way to title contention.
And the NBA?
You can bet the league and its TV partners are already salivating over a possible Celtics-Lakers matchup in the Finals.
Today, Boston-L.A. is possible.
Thursday, when Gasol was in Memphis, Brown was with the Lakers, McKie was unemployed and Heisley at least pretended to care about the competitiveness of his team, it was not.
-- Steve Luhm
3:48 PM
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2 Comments:
How does this make cents for Memphis? If the team trades Swift for Jason Collins, they just added back $6,000,000 of salary. Are they really expecting to lure Arenas, Iverson, or Elton Brand in the offseason when they have little talent to surround them with? We'll see what Memphis fans think of the deal when the Jazz come to town tonight...
c'mon, luhm, kind of over-dramatizing with your "heisley doesn't care about the fans" shpeal, aren't you? before the trade, heisley's club was 13-33 with the league's 3rd lowest attendance figures. it's not like he dismantled a western conference juggernaut just to save a few dollars.
what he did was cut his losses. smart thing to do, especially since his franchise is currently on the market.
a new ownership group is going to want to start from scratch and build their own team, so all he's doing is taking an already-crappy team and setting things up financially so that the new owners have the cap freedom to build the team they want.
the trades bring memphis' payroll next season to about $38 million. assuming the cap and the tax threshold remain flat, the grizz will have about $17 million under the cap and about $29 million under before worrying about luxury tax.
so how did he screw over the fans? if anything, he gave them hope. if i were a memphis fan, i would be more upset if he didn't do anything, because i'd know that i was following a 13-33 team that didn't have the financial ability to improve its roster for several years. now, at least i'd know that my team is going to get a top five draft pick this season and have enough cash to put a first or second tier free agent alongside rudy gay.
to be honest, i'd be more upset if i were a chicago bulls fan. they've long been pursuing pau, and apparently all they had to do was put together a package of expiring deals that would give memphis the chance to push the "reset" button and start from relative scratch.
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