[Yahoo Sports]Memphis owner now questions value of Gasol deal

I actually believe team owners don't know much about their sports, they make money in other businesses, that's why they hire GMs. Pops is a coach but his organization has done well in talent evaluation.

there are two issues, what memphis got back, how the lakers improved. its not a question of what could gasol bring back in talent, its a question of what memphis tried to do. free up salary space, that's what was valuable to memphis. the lakers took advantage of a fire sale, good for them. it doesn't matter what other teams had to offer, all memphis was looking for was an expiring contract. orlando did the same thing when they traded steve francis to the knicks for salary room. they were going no where. it happens all the time.

 

this whole debate is stupid and a waste of time

MEMPHIS WAS NOT TRYING TO OBTAIN TALENT, THEY WERE COST CUTTING

maybe they hastily did the trade because they got what they wanted, an expiring contract

Memphis is not a contender. Here's a question, what other team in the league, just name one, had a contract like Kwame's coming off the books that would have worked for memphis. Memphis's responsibility is to Memphis, if the lakers are the only team that had what they wanted, so be it. Them's the breaks

no there is not more to a trade, if they wanted young talent in return they would have made a trade for younger talent. its a stupid argument, we know what they wanted because that's what they did. they were mentioned as a team that was losing money before this trade happened. their concern was financial

since you want to keep referencing what this guy had to say, here's an interview with him about the financial situation


3SOB: Last season you had one of the 7th highest payrolls in the NBA. You were in the luxury tax. You were paying dollar for dollar penalties for being in that area. Next year we are going to be much lower than the salary cap at this time.
MH: Right now we are going to be the lowest or next to the lowest depending on what Philadelphia does.

 

Of course it's a stupid debate. Everyone knows it's a salary dump. That still doesn't mean it's a stupid trade that does absolutely nothing for Memphis except give money back to Heisley.

So if Les decides he wants to dump Yao's contract for say Raef LaFrentz's expiring contract (don't know if it is expiring or not), you wouldn't be the least bit mad since it's Les's money and it "improves" the Rockets?

 

I did that because you kept b****ing about not responding to every point. do you really want to have an argument about what this guy knows about basketball

no, you have not answered the question was cap space valuable to memphis. that is my argument that you have not come up with a reasonable response to.

where's the admission that he didn't get value, he just says he doesn't know, maybe he's tired of the league wide whining

and the lakers were responsible for miami winning in 06? trades happen, sometimes a team actually beneifts, its certainly not worth the whining

tell that to the guy who's footing the bill

you neglected to quote this

 

Exactly. That just tells me that you are not very good at understanding why your opinion is so weak.

Because you act like you are the only one smart enough to know the "truth" when in fact your opinion is so far off. You just pick and choose the points you think you can answer and ignore the rest.

You said Gasol wasn't a valuable player. People beat you down on that. So you ignored it.

I asked you if the Rockets would trade Landry, James, and two first rounders for Pau in a heart beat and if that was clearly a better deal for Memphis. Many teams could also think up a better deal than the Lakers'. The Memphis management never even bother to entertained. That's where the outrage was. You just kept harping on the irrelevant point about it's the owner's money.

You first tried to push the notion that they were getting cap space. When a poster pointed out what players they were going to sign with the cap space, you ignored the challenge. Then you flipped to cost cutting. Cost cutting and getting cap space are two very different things, in case you don't know. One is a long term plan to SPEND money. The other is to ignore the interests of the league and the fans just to save a buck. Make up your mind what it is you think they are trying to do.

You keep saying that it's only because it's the Lakers that everyone is upset. Well, you like Kobe and the Lakers so you think it's cool that they pulled off something like that.

 

It has been proven other teams had better offers on the table.

 

I'm just presenting a different argument tired of the 4 month b****ing about the trade

edit: never said that, I said it wasn't historic, you guys act like they got 2001 shaq

taken out of context, I'm saying they didn't trade a top tier superstar, is that good enough for you, the team was going no where and losing money.

how is this clearly a better deal for memphis on february first, landry was still virtually an unknown

this is what we call an opinion

I have no idea what you're talking about

its the same difference, they were losing they don't want to spend the money, my point stands, they weren't looking for equal talent back.

now we get to the truth, you don't like kobe so this is personal. thanks for at least admitting.

 

who cares what he's doing with the cap space. the guy has openly admited the team was for sale. this isn't a conspiracy.

 

I'm going to do this again, respond to every point, and watch you say that i didn't. this is fun.

the owner has actually been pretty honest and forthright about his financial situation and the teams possibility of being sold.

so when you decide on a quote its what's important, when i do its not. you say what's he supposed to say? so was he being diplomatic when saying he wonders if they could have gotten more LOLOL. i'm sure the fans loved hearing that diplomatic response

 

It's definitely more r****ded than the Battier for Rudy Gay trade; that trade was bad as well, but there is no way it compares to trading away a franchise center/forward for a bag of peanuts (literally).

 

You are exaggerating. Stop the hyperbole! Pau isn't quite a franchise player and Kwame Brown is definitely NOT worth a bag of peanuts.

 

People are still "b****ing" because the Lakers are winning. If you are tired of the b****ing, get tired of Lakers winning.

And nobody is saying that Gasol is 2001 Shaq or a top tier superstar. But he is a star player every team would want to trade for with a bag of peanuts plus a can of soft drink when the Lakers just offered a bag of peanuts.

On Feb 1, James = Kwame, Landry => Crittenton. James + Landry > Kwame + Crittenton.

It's never a secret that I hate the Lakers and Kobe, and I am not ashamed of it. This (making a western conference team instant contender) is bad enough. The fact that it's the Lakers makes it 10 times worse.

I am glad you finally realized that you didn't know what you were talking about when you brought out the "cap space" excuse.

 

memphis has a responsibility to memphis

memphis got what they wanted, cap space/salary relief, i don't care what its used for

we can go round and round, but landry was an unknown at this point, I really don't think that's debatable

so lay off on the personal insults next time when your whole argument is fueld by "it was a bad deal because the team i hate is winning"

see above point about what memphis wanted, semantics

 

Well if your goal as a GM is to lower attendance (although we thought that it can't go lower), then you would certainly do this trade again.

PGabriel may try to enlighten us about their reasons all night long, but as Memphis fans would tell you it sucks when your team doesn't have compass. And the first call that your team's GM gets, brings you Kwame and another PG, which was the only position you as a fan thought it was taken care of..