Gasol To The Lakers

by Jason Jones



Kobe Should Be Content…For Now

ESPN has reported that the Grizzlies have had enough and are sending Pao Gasol and a second round pick to the Lakers in exchange for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittendon, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol, the 2008 first round pick, and the 2010 first round pick.

Lakers Get…

Pao Gasol

Future 2^nd Round Pick

Grizzlies Get…

Kwame Brown (9.7 Mil expiring contract)

Javaris Crittendon (prob. a throw in, they do have Conley Jr)

Aaron McKie (a sign and trade for a guy who is retiring)

Marc Gasol (one of the only keepers of this deal)

2008 1^st Round Pick

2010 1^st Round Pick

Too bad the Lakers couldn’t have flipped the 2008 1^st round pick. If they could’ve finagled getting the Grizzlies 1^st round pick, they could reasonably move up to get Derrick Rose to be the point guard of the future. Oh well, can’t ask for everything.

Clearly the Grizzlies are priming themselves for a serious move down the line. I mentioned this approach with the earlier Jason Kidd post. There are only two ways to trade an All-Star player. One, equal or close to equal value and two, a large bag of crap that adds up to the All-Star player when said bag of crap has expiring contracts. It seems obvious that the Grizzlies are doing the latter. I don’t understand the Javaris Crittendon inclusion unless it was necessary to match dollars. Damon Stoudamire has been waived, but regardless this leaves the Grizzlies with basically 3 rookie point guards. Kyle Lowry is a second year player who is seeing the most minutes thus far at 24 per game. Mike Conley Jr., who IS the franchise PG of the future, hasn’t averaged much more than Lowry as a rookie. Javaris Crittendon is also a rookie who is averaging 7.8 minutes a game. If the season ended today, the Grizzlies would have the 4^th and 24^th overall pick. Ignoring PG and SF (Conley Jr. and Rudy Gay), they should concentrate on big men and maybe a serious scoring SG. On the high end, if they are willing to trade up, they could look at Michael Beasley, even though it will take getting to the #1 pick. Otherwise, Eric Gordon, OJ Mayo (truly a Gilbert Arenas-style PG), then they could look at reaching for Roy Hibbert or even Kevin Love. The 24^th pick at this point is as much a crap shoot as the entire 2^nd round. The real value of this draft is in the top 20 picks. Another reason to try to trade up with their #4 and #24 and parlay it into a top 3 pick, specifically the top pick. Problem is, Minnesota is not very likely to turn away Michael Beasley for anything. Beasley, a great number of people believe, is a hybrid of Charles Barkley that can really shoot (43% from 3PT range). Marc Gasol is a quality talent. Aaron McKie is a throw away piece and Kwame Brown is only a salary cap move.

As for the Lakers, this is as good a move that either the Lakers or Kobe Bryant could realistically hope to land. Jason Kidd is out due to the inability to trade Andrew Bynum. There just aren’t many blue chip players are the trading block. Arenas could be available next year, but that doesn’t sound like it would work anyway. When you look at the Lakers starting 5 on paper, they should find themselves in the top 4 of the playoff teams in the West.

PG-Derek Fisher

SG-Kobe Bryant

SF-Lamar Odom

PF-Pao Gasol

C-Andrew Bynum

(when healthy)

Maybe now we stop hearing about how Kobe may or may not be happy in Hollywood. If he’s not happy now, then there may be no hope for Kobe.