I'm gonna bury the hatchet and honestly I'm not looking forward to elongating this pissing contest. I have no qualms about your views on the subject of Pau Gasol. The only, and I repeat, only issue (which is why I picked it out) I had with your analogy to the Celtic's strategy was the fact that you alluded to their big 3 as "B-Level" All-Stars that were comparable to Kevin Martin. It's debatable whether or not they were A-Listers or B-Listers in their primes, but Kevin Martin-esque they were not. They were bonafide stars in their own right and first-ballot Hall of Famers; no disrespect to Kevin Martin. But if we want to agree to disagree on that subject matter, it is fine by me. Lastly, I apologize if I offended you with any of the previous comments. You have some good points and by all means do share them.
Gasol 1. Has zero influence on super star free agents. 2. Is on the downside of his career. 3. Was not happy about being traded here. 4. Isn't good enough to carry us to the Finals.
1.Arguable 2. Almost certain, his finesse game blows in the playoffs, and he is athletic as a fish 3.Legit 4.Legit
I do realize that. It just seems so many on here assume that Gasol is supposed to lead us into contention, but rather in reality, Gasol was just a large piece among others. What Dobro didn't seem to be able to articulate was that by getting Gasol opens up more possibilities to move up in the West by becoming very competitive. A 2012-2013 Dragic/Lee/Parons/Gasol/Gortat lineup would get you a 3-8 seed. From there who knows, maybe you get Hardin or Melo or DWill or DHoward to pair with Gasol/Gortat or whoever. Hopefully and least likely it gets us a title, hopefully it'll make us contenders for a few years, hopefully we won't become like the ATL Hawks, and more than likely we'll contend a little bit and be a little bit like the Hawks. But it's the best shot of a title without rebuilding through the draft as a lottery team. Boss man told Morey to stay competitive and win, well this is/was his plan to get there under this mandate. While I'm not completely sold on Gasol, I can understand why Morey likes his game. Imagining Gasol setting up the offense like Hayes did in the high post and hitting slashers going to the rim (more Parons and Bud highlights) makes my bollocks tingle. His ability to pass and stretch the floor as a PF/C is very underrated. Personally though, following Les's mandated I would like Morey to pry Josh Smith from ATL with Lowry/Scola and then whispering sweet nothings into Phoenix's ear and getting Gortat. Obviously, I would love DWILL and/or DHoward but I think Dragic/Josh Smith/Solid Center core is more realistic 2012 lineup to move forward with.
Gotcha. I don't know if you've gone through some of my other posts, but obviously I felt that even with the addition of Gasol, the Rockets wouldn't be anywhere near a state of contention. Given what we had to give up for Gasol, I saw it more or less as a lateral move (an expensive one at that). I feel like the Rockets don't need to commit $20 million to a single player that produces as much (or as little) as Gasol does. In other words, I believe that there are more cost effective solutions than an aging, ultra-soft PF/C that chooses when or when not to show up for games. I would be a proponent of bringing James Harden as you also suggested to the team as he is young, still developing as a player, and won't cost you nearly as much as say Gasol. You can build around a player like Harden, especially when you know that the Rockets won't be in contention for awhile.
At this juncture in time, I'd take Marc over Pau as well. At the very least it'd be a cheaper alternative and is on the better side of 30.
Now that I think of it, there's a 3rd Gasol out there. I don't know if he's fat or how old he is, but he's got a woman's name. That's gotta count for something.
Why would any team want Pao Gasol at 19mil per year, it's obvious the Lakers don't. Every time I watch the guy play I think, is he really any better than Scola? The Lakers are stuck with Gasol for the next two years unless some team is stupid enough to bail them out. Please Morey, stay away.
Yet another stellar effort by Pau last night. I honestly can't believe this is still a discussion at all.
Pau was not very good since last year, and Morey and someone else still think he is a great all star player. The rockets are lucky enough that the deal was killed by Stern, then we do not have 16th pick for Howard if the rumor is true.
Throughout, the playoffs Gasol has had good games and poor games. I am not sure I would give up Dragic, Martin and Scola for Gasol. If the Lakers are willing to part ways with him, I think its fine for Morey to make a reasonable offer. Keep in mind when Gasol was in Memphis he was in his prime and Memphis did not do well, so you will have stronger team mates for things to improve for the Rockets should you decide to build around Gasol.
Keep in mind that Dragic before 2012 was a totally different animal than post 2012. I sincerely believe any offer Morey makes for Gasol this Summer will be significantly different going forward as far as market quality at that particular time. Martin + Scola with no other pieces going for him right now seems like a fair offer since they are more than likely going to look at moving Martin anyway and Pau gives you a major upgrade at the 4 spot. He also makes you substantially better on defense. A straight up deal for Gasol now wouldn't really make a ton of sense unless there were other deals to follow. Which I believe there would be to make that kind of move. Ive said this before, but the trade was made for Gasol with other deals in mind to domino off of it. We have virtually no idea whether Gasol fits into Morey's new plan going forward. Obviously that former deal has been nixed and the front office has moved on to other options.
Proponents of the Gasol deal can think if the deal like this: All this talk about getting Gasol and having the dominoes fall into place is somewhat illogical. You are banking on the hope that Gasol will attract other FAs which is far from a given. its already been established that Gasol is no Batman and it's gonna take a lot more than Gasol to put the Rockets into contention. Ask yourself this: Do you purchase the bullets for the gun or do you by the gun first? In other words, you find your Batman first and you build around him. There is no point in buying the ammo when you don't even have the gun. To make matters worse, this putting together a championship contender is a lot more complicated than that with a ton more things to take into consideration. You get the gun first and then you get your ammo. That much is common sense.
