No joke: Pau Gasol trade proved to be good for Griz, too

[La Bomba]

The once-maligned trade that moved Pau Gasol from Memphis to the Los Angeles Lakers two years ago this month looks a lot different these days.

 

What initially was greeted with great cynicism, laughter and disgust -- a lopsided transaction in the Lakers' favor -- is looking more like a win-win for both teams.

 

Cap space and flexibility are no longer punch lines in Memphis. The Griz, given time to connect the dots of the deal, have stockpiled useful players.

 

Of the 15 players on the Grizzlies' roster, nine came as a result of the extra money and draft picks generated by Gasol's 2008 departure. And they still have more to gain from the transaction.

 

The Lakers visit FedExForum tonight as the NBA's defending champions in large part due to Gasol. The Grizzlies are better off, too, having positioned themselves as one of the Western Conference's up-and-coming young teams.

 

"I've said all along that I've never lost any sleep over the deal," Wallace said. "As difficult as it was to trade a player like Pau Gasol -- and he's gone on to be the impetus for L.A. winning a championship -- that wasn't going to happen here in our situation.

 

"We could not get a Kobe Bryant or a LeBron James to put around him. It wasn't going anywhere. Changes had to be made. The deal allowed us to get tremendous flexibility. We got back a wide variety of assets and many of them are paying dividends right now."

 

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/feb/23/laugh-no-more/

[Real Deal]

THANK YOU for posting this. These articles will definitely help some non-Lakers fans sleep better at night.

 

Fact is, people knew Marc was good. There's a reason why teams have scouts.

[La Bomba]

Cap space and flexibility are no longer punch lines in Memphis. The Griz, given time to connect the dots of the deal, have stockpiled useful players.

 

Of the 15 players on the Grizzlies' roster, nine came as a result of the extra money and draft picks generated by Gasol's 2008 departure. And they still have more to gain from the transaction.

[BasX]

This is one of the many reasons to not judge a trade until a few years later.

[Real Deal]

Here's what came out of that February 2008 trade...

 

Marc Gasol

Zach Randolph

Ronnie Brewer

Sam Young

Darrell Arthur

DeMarre Carroll

Steven Hunter

1st Round Pick

 

For Pau Gasol and a 2010 second-rounder.

 

The original trade was Pau Gasol and a 2nd for Marc Gasol, Javaris Crittenton, Kwame Brown, Aaron McKie and two first-round picks (in 2008 and 2010).

 

Memphis knew what they were doing. So did the Lakers.

[AtTheDriveIn]

^ It's what came after the 2008 trade, not out of.

 

If memory serves me correctly, Zach Randolph was traded from the Clippers in exchange for Quinton Richardson. Neither had a direct (or indirect) part in the 2008 between the Lakers and the Grizzlies. Likewise, Brewer was recently traded to free up cap room in exchange for a pick that the Jazz will never see anyway. The aforementioned trade had no effect in attaining these two players.

 

For the rest, I'm not sure, Gasol is good, but M. Gasol, Dontae Greene + a 2010 pick (They later got Sam Young and Darrell Arthur for Greene in a three team trade) for Pau and a second round pick still seems to be in favour toward the Lakers in my opinion because of the effectiveness of Pau in the Lakers system.* In the end, Marc is a good player, but will never outshine his brother, Young and Arthur both could be good role players but not much more. Meanwhile, Gasol wins a championship because the Grizzlies traded him to the Lakers without asking in return for any immediate impact players (meaning not draft picks). In essence, by not taking a player who was valuable to the Lakers immediately, the Grizzlies sort of assisted the Lakers later on in winning a championship.

 

 

 

*note, I didn't include Crittendon and Kwame in my analysis because neither stayed very long in Memphis, nor was the intention to keep either for very long.