Gasol to LAL, Gasol to the Lakers Options

[Steve9347]

Please all of you people are bitching about a guy who wouldn't of done spiff here. We'd all be bitching about how much he sucked in a year. Because he was the farthest thing from a fit here possible... We are damn lucky this didn't happen.

Pau Gasol doesn't fit with a team severely lacking inside scoring?

[Steve9347]

I'm done with Reinsdorf as Bulls chairman. Had he approved the Tyrus/Noc deal (as rumored before and confirmed in THIS article) the Bulls lineup looks much better, but it would have also allowed Pax the opportunity to move Wallace to the Lakers who were holding out for Gasol.

C Noah (assuming the Wallace deal below)
PF Gasol
SF Deng
SG Gordon
PG Hinrich

Had they done that it would have blocked the Lakers from Gasol as well, thus forcing them to take Wallace for cap relief at season’s end (with the rumored Kwame+ return). We’d have been very good this year and with the available cash from the Wallace deal by letting kwame go the Bulls would have been lined up to get that final piece in the offseason and match up with Orlando and Boston for best in the East.

It could have been rather easy if only Reinsdorf had been willing to do what owners in major markets that sell-out all the time are expected to do.

[Balta1701-B]

Pau Gasol doesn't fit with a team severely lacking inside scoring?

Let's put it this way. If I had to pick between the Lakers and the Bulls as to which team Gasol would fit in with better...I'd go with the Lakers, because of a couple guys. Specifically, Bryant and Bynum. Gasol doesn't have to be either the big, tough, powerful guy that controls the lane or the go to guy on the Lakers, because they have both of those jobs already filled. Gasol can get his because teams will have to focus on guys like Bryant, Bynum, etc. The Lakers have guys who compliment what Gasol does well.

The Bulls on the other hand, while they're missing inside scoring, don't seem to have guys who could take the pressure off of Gasol, especially this year, where our outside shooters have fallen apart. Last year might have been different, but right now the Bulls would basically be relying on Gasol to be their key guy, which I don't think he's ready to be. Wallace's dropoff has made it where the Bulls don't seem to control the lane at all until their bench players come in, and the collapse of our outside shooters has made it so that the kind of game we wanted to see them play might not work. Doesn't help to have Gasol if you feed him in the post, he passes out to Gordon/Noc, and those guys shoot like 35% from the field.

He'd have helped us. But he's more valuable to the Lakers. Does that make sense?

[ZoomSlowik]

While I don't necessarily disagree with that Balta, our perimeter players would have it a lot easier if teams have to actually respect one of our post players on offense. It's kind of hard to consistently get open/decent shots on the perimeter (unless you're a true elite talent obviously) when the most dangerous offensive player in the post is Joe Smith, and the rest have virtually no range/posting ability at all. Gordon and/or Deng basically have to force the issue every time right now (when they're both playing obviously), which hurts their efficiency. Right now you can cover every post player on the Bulls with one guy and they generally won't hurt you a whole lot if you leave them an open jumper, that's not the case anymore with Gasol on the roster. You have another guy that can get/create an open shot and converts at a pretty high percentage, which spreads out the burden a lot more. The offensive efficiency would DRASTICALLY increase because they'd often have 4 legit offensive threats to worry about (yeah, I'm counting Hinrich, even though he's having a bad year and can struggle) and they'd finally have an inside presence to balance their attack a bit. Not too many teams can say that.

Is it a perfect team? No, since you still don't have a sure-fire go-to guy or a top-20 type player (though Pau is 25th in PER even with the lowest total of his career thus far, that slow start really hurt his rating). However, you've got three well above average scoring options and Hinrich would be one of the better 4th options in the league. You'd have a setup that is arguably on par with Detroit the last few years once they develop some chemistry (and obviously when/if Noah develops into more of a stopper).

They'd be pretty well set to be a top-4 team in the East for several years and have a much better chance of beating the top-3 than they do now, especially down the road with the key players on Boston and Detroit starting to creep towards their mid-30's. Yes, I know the Gasol trade takes the Lakers from a competitive team with no real shot to win it to legit contender, but Gasol could easily take the Bulls from mid-lottery to darkhorse contender (especially in the East), which would be quite a boost as well.

[Balta1701-B]

So, this little bit has been going around all day. It sure makes it sound like the key problem was that the Bulls didn't want to pay the Luxury tax and the Lakers would have. The Grizz's owner also seems to suggest they wanted either Gordon or Deng from us (demanding a starter).

[ZoomSlowik]

So, this little bit has been going around all day. It sure makes it sound like the key problem was that the Bulls didn't want to pay the Luxury tax and the Lakers would have. The Grizz's owner also seems to suggest they wanted either Gordon or Deng from us (demanding a starter).

Considering they didn't get any of the Lakers' 8 best players, I don't really think that was anywhere near as big a factor as the luxury tax/expiring contract issues.

[Balta1701-B]

Considering they didn't get any of the Lakers' 8 best players, I don't really think that was anywhere near as big a factor as the luxury tax/expiring contract issues.

Which, while I'll give Pax a break...pisses me off. A lot.

[Balta1701-B]

The Sun-Times comes out and says a bunch of things again:

''We had conversations with Chicago that were non-satisfactory,'' said Heisley, a St. Charles resident. ''They didn't want to take on the luxury-tax situation, and Los Angeles was.

''In this league, if you're in a big-market area, you can afford to do those things. We negotiated as hard as we could for quality players, and [the Bulls] refused to give up anybody in their core group. What they offered were guys who play on the second and third team, so we turned them down.''

Bulls general manager John Paxson didn't have much of a reaction to Heisley's comments.

''I don't feel I need to comment on what another team's owner is saying about anything,'' Paxson said. ''I also would never make any statement about how another team should conduct their business.''

Because the Bulls don't have any big expiring contracts, the only way they could have provided relief to the Grizzlies was by signing free agent P.J. Brown and including him in the deal. That would have put the Bulls well over the luxury-tax threshold.

Grizzlies management is under fire for the Gasol deal because the local fans and media know the Bulls made a better offer a year ago.

Although the Bulls refused to give up Luol Deng or Ben Gordon, they offered a package of young players that included Tyrus Thomas, their first-round pick in 2007 (which turned into Joakim Noah) and P.J. Brown's expiring $8.5 million contract. But Heisley wasn't interested in dealing Gasol.

Why is it that we keep winding up in the "We offered a better deal a year ago" spot on all these trades? What else can we do other than offer a better deal? Teams keep turning down deals from us and then taking worse deals down the road. Does that make sense for either side?

[Steve9347]

The Sun-Times comes out and says a bunch of things again:
Why is it that we keep winding up in the "We offered a better deal a year ago" spot on all these trades? What else can we do other than offer a better deal? Teams keep turning down deals from us and then taking worse deals down the road. Does that make sense for either side?

Yeah, I don't really know what to say to that. GMs are allowed to wait a bit longer if they want, and had Pax wanted the deal he could have made that offer again and it would have been taken.

Fact is he rightfully did not want to deal Noah.

[ZoomSlowik]

Thought I'd throw this link into the discussion:

Ford article highlighting the low return for Gasol

Basically it sounds like Memphis' GM shouldn't really have a job, as he included numerous realistic deals with other teams that would have been at worst on par and likely better. It also lists numerous suggestions of poor judgement/attempts to get the best deal, including making the trade too early, not returning some phone calls, and drastically reducing the asking price less than two weeks before the deal.

[eddog2]

We can assume all we want. We can assume Paxson offered Gordon or Nocioni or something else for Gasol but we'll never know for sure. One week they are having talks then another Paxson says the teams really haven't talked. Maybe they were using the Bulls all along to try and increase the value. Had the Bulls offered Gordon and another good piece or Nocioni/Tyrus then I bet Memphis would have jumped all over it. But I don't think the Bulls ever did that. Paxson has a love for his young boys. They are cheap (for the time being) and that's what makes Jerry happy. The Bulls and management won't learn or be forced to act until the house isn't being sold out each day. Honestly, I don't see that happening so I'm praying the Bulls get lucky in the draft. Otherwise we might not have a star for some time to come.

[Balta1701-B]

We can assume all we want. We can assume Paxson offered Gordon or Nocioni or something else for Gasol but we'll never know for sure. One week they are having talks then another Paxson says the teams really haven't talked. Maybe they were using the Bulls all along to try and increase the value. Had the Bulls offered Gordon and another good piece or Nocioni/Tyrus then I bet Memphis would have jumped all over it. But I don't think the Bulls ever did that. Paxson has a love for his young boys. They are cheap (for the time being) and that's what makes Jerry happy. The Bulls and management won't learn or be forced to act until the house isn't being sold out each day. Honestly, I don't see that happening so I'm praying the Bulls get lucky in the draft. Otherwise we might not have a star for some time to come.

I think there's 1 thing that I feel safe in saying with some confidence, not just assuming...based on not only my own eyes, but the reports out of those other GM's, I think it's safe to say that the Grizzlies did not get the best package they could have gotten for Gasol if they had shopped around at all.

[Balta1701-B]

Popovich rips the Grizzlies, on record, over the Gasol deal.

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace went on the offensive against his critics on Thursday, calling the unattributed criticism of the Pau Gasol trade from other general managers "pillow talk" and daring any league executives to go on the record against the deal.

Before Friday night's game against the Knicks, Spurs president and head coach Gregg Popovich did just that.

"What they did in Memphis is beyond comprehension," said Popovich. "There should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense. I just wish I had been on a trade committe that oversees NBA trades. I'd like to elect myself to that committee. I would have voted no to the L.A. trade."

When told that Wallace had challenged executives to criticize the deal publicly, Popovich replied, "Well, there you go. I'm on the record."