Finally some sanity about getting Pau! There is major opportunity here to significantly upgrade an area of need without gutting the roster. I feel taking cap in a trade for Pau will be a Lakers requirement. In fact it maybe the biggest requirement. The Lakers are a significant profit center for the their owners - maybe their only profit center - and that new luxury tax is looming large. It may be one of the explanations for them giving away Odom last year. Therefore I do not believe that the Lakers TPE will be of any value to them. And since we have a lot of cap I don't believe the Rockets care about it either. I cannot see Les moving that far into the Luxury tax. If you pair Pau with Howard you will just be recreating the Lakers problem this year. Pau has to have significant space on the low block to be effective. Howard is not capable of functioning well when cleared out of the block. You would just be pairing him with a Bynum clone. Pau would get the ball on the low post and the defense just collapsed leading to constant double and triple teams. Atlanta's Smith or even Scola are much better team mates for Pau. No one on this board suggested that Pau had the equivalent value of Kevin Love. The discussion was on an ESPN podcast a few days ago. And while you might live after slapping an NBA GM, if you slapped Chris Mullin he would rip your arm right out of its socket and beat you to death with it. Have at it. I will not be attending the funeral. All in all Atlanta's Smith might be the optimal obtainable pairing for Pau. They also critically need to clear some cap having a total of 6 players signed this year for an astonishing 61 million. So again cap may be an important part of a trade.
Pau was paired with Bynum who is better than any C we have AND they had Kobe and where did it get them? You are delusional if you think Pau and some other piece (most likely less than Kobe AND Bynum) is going to have a different result in the playoffs. Pau is a 32 year old, 19 million dollar Batgirl that will set the team back 2 years with that monster contract.
No he won't he is better than Scola and plays the Center position as well. Pau would be a nice addition to this team, and make them better, the problem is his price tag, but we have a lot of cheap pieces so we can absorb it. Think of it this way.....we have redundant pieces in: Kmart Lowry Scola You can trade any two of those and the team would still be better with Pau. DD
Depending how much improvement there is, it is a process but it can also be a waste of time, effort. The competition in the West is just too good. The best thing is still hoping to get the first guy, a Duncan, a Dirk, a less chucking Kobe, and you go from there getting the next Harden, Westbrook, Parker, Gino. And suddenly all falls into place.
Well DUH ! And since none of them is available you take the next best thing...that is what Morey is looking to do. Me? I would blow it up and go young. DD
I usually don't explain basketball spacing to people in posts. There are many sights with video that can do a much better job than I can. But I will say that when Bynum has the ball in the low post Pau can correctly space, making the double of Bynum off of Pau a very dangerous choice. When Pau has the ball on the low block and Bynum tries to give him space the other team does not have to guard him outside of 8 feet. This makes a double or a triple on Pau a low risk endeavor. Or just watch some film of the Spurs. They are the best offensive team in basketball precisely due there optimal and flawless spacing.
Morey is now partly going for the two, three aging stars and develop the other 1 or 2 by draft.... like the Ainge approach I am not a fan of that because the limited time window
Thank you DD. Trying to explain anything to many people on this site is like trying to herd cats. Since you cannot get a good young center now in this league for less than your top 4 or more assets (would the team have a future if they traded Lowry, Motiejunas, Parsons, the 14th pick, and PPAT for Howard?), I think that Pau is the best option for the next 2 - 4 years. I cannot see Morey going after anyone with a lot of miles other than Pau. The best available option to add with Pau IMHO is Josh Smith.
Great post. This is a big reason why the Odom/Gasol pairing worked so well. Perhaps that duo could be re-created in Houston. Odom could be a value pickup at this point. Of course, he'd have to remove his head from his ass to make it worthwhile.
Spacing may help his game but the bottom line is spending 19 million and locking yourself into cap hell should only be done for a Batman. Not a Robin and definately not a Batgirl. Pau is better than Scola - that's never been the debate - but we are not 1 Batgirl away from a ring. Best case scenario is we are 1st (maybe 2nd) round fodder for 2 years. Then we go back to today. That is what you call floating.
I recommend that you read up on cap management. We have plenty of assets and cap to get Gasol and Josh Smith. We would then not be players in the 2013 summer, but by the summer of 2014 we would again have a ton of space.
I'm not sure Morey's the type of GM who would give KG a big contract. If it's only a short one, say 2yr/$20mil, then it would be fine. But another team may be willing to offer him a long term deal. But if we do trade Lowry/Scola for Gasol and sign KG, then the Rockets have to make a deal for a scoring wing player. Because that roster will only have Dragic as a playmaker, which may result in droughts on offense for stretches. I have no clue who Morey can possibly get, but to me that would be a need. Now if we can somehow manage to scrape up enough picks and young players to get Dwight Howard, that would be different. Because in that scenario I think KMart would be a star.
Kobe + Bynum + Pau > Pau + Smith. And Mike = McHale IMO. Pau is someone you get to finish the set - not to build on.
I do agree that a Pau/Dwight tandem will not be effective. For as good as Pau is, if you want to minimize his value, have him stand at the top or on the baseline extended while Bynum or Dwight tries to operate in the post. The least efficient, least proficient aspect of Pau's game is the 20-footer. He's not a great jump shooter....period. So, I suppose my thought is we are going after either Pau or Dwight...but not both. Both guys would be much better served paired with another athletic big that can defend the perimeter with their athleticism, can defend the paint with their size, and can shoot the 3-ball. Yeah, a Bosh close. Orlando was wanting both Bynum and Gasol last year. Lakers consistently said no. There was talk of using us as a middle man for Gasol, we take Gasol, we give the Lakers Scola and the Magic other stuff while Dwight heads to the Lakers. So, in my humble opinion, if we could acquire Pau and we had the other stuff ourself, we could trade for Dwight. Ideally, what the Lakers want to do is to break Pau up into a couple really good players. The Scola/Lowry combo is probably ideally what they want to do at this point, short of getting a S&T of DWill for Pau and getting Dwight for Bynum straight up. The magic of the whole situation is the Magic. Bynum for Dwight straight up doesn't help them. It makes them a little bit worse with Bynum on an expiring and not committed to signing an extension there and they still have all their crappy contracts (Hedo, Big Baby, JRich, Duhon, QRich). And no decent free agent is going to go there to make them better. For all his talent, nobody is interested in playing with Bynum right now. He's not dynamic. He's not a leader. He's simply a big, long player with potential. They're not going to get anybody to sign there to play with Bynum. That's why when you analyze the situation, you will realize the Magic are NOT going to trade Dwight for just Bynum....unless they go totally stupid. And the Lakers are not going to trade both Bynum and Pau for Dwight and Hedo...unless they are totally stupid. Now if both teams could get a 3rd team involved that would gobble up Pau and give them multiple players back for Pau that they could keep some of and the rest ship to Orlando with Bynum, then they might have a deal that Orlando would accept. Morey knows this. So, why should Morey facilitate getting Dwight to LA and the Lakers rebuilt when he could possibly facilitate getting Dwight to Houston? They only way Morey facilitates Dwight to LA by trading for Pau is if he finds out that DWIll will sign here if we get Pau. I just don't see that happening. DWill is already making comments about his hometown team, the Mavs, not having a future and the reason he is making those comments is he knows if he signs there long term that he is going to be playing with an aging Dirk who is a Mav for life and there won't be space to really sign anybody good. DWill is entering his prime. Dwight is entering his prime. Guys, they are doing everything they can to get on the same team. That's why DWill is floating out there that he would be interested in signing with the Lakers. How's he gonna do that? If they clear out the entire roster except for Kobe and Dwight, they can't give him the max. DWill put that out there to let the Lakers know that if they get Dwight, that he would be willing to come there....meaning they'd have to move out Kobe. Look, it's real simple. Dwight and DWill wanna play together. They wanna play together for the next 5,6,8, 10 years. And they wanna win championships together. They are doing their darndest to make it happen. So, don't be surprised if Dwight is traded before July 1st to a team that does not have cap space to sign DWIll or to a team that has no chance to build around Dwight and DWill that DWill decides to opt-in for the last year of his contract so that both of them can be free at the end of 2013. When you consider the whole scenario in context. And you realize on top of this that both guys ideally want to extend and keep their super max contracts going because of the money involved, then you can predict what each of their comments are going to be from day to day. Dwight want to play with either DWill or CP3. They're the same age. They can play out their careers together. And they're the best PGs on the planet. If the Clips don't offer up Blake and Deandre for Dwight (and it's looking more and more likely that they aren't), then that leaves Dwight and DWill searching for a partnership. New Jersey is both player's first choice. New team, new location, new arena, owner with huge bux, big market, and the opportunity to build out around them. It's the ideal situation. But if they can't make it happen in New Jersey, what other team could possibly trade for both of them or at least one of them and unite the two players? What teams are out there that can do that my friends? It's a short list. Boston Houston That's about it.
Nice post jopat. But a question for you is do you really think that DWill is a large upgrade over Lowry or Dragic? I know that PER is realistically a limited measurement of a player but: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl.../insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics And would the cost monetarily warrant the change? And I read a post somewhere (ESPN?) that said that part of the reason Smith and SVG were fired is that they took a hard line with the owner, insisting that Howard be traded. If that is so then it will be a while before Howard is available. Unless LA offers Bynum and Gasol for Howard and Turkey. And the Lakers are many things but stupid is not one of them.
Thanks for the laugh. The stench of desperation around here was becoming unbearable. SO, not only do you propose they get BatGirl, they should also go out and pair her with the Joker. That is as funny as it gets. I caught a front row view of Odom's act this past season in Dallas. Look, Mark Cuban bent over backwards for Odom and look at how it all fell apart. OK, hypothetically speaking: Do you actually believe that even though he screwed up the chance to be a part of a NBA championship team, he'd really want to be in Houston? That he would actually show up for games? Both he AND Gasol absolutely LOVE playing in LA and Houston would be a humongous step down for the both of them. As such, I have serious reservations as to their showing up motivated to play. Odom would continue his sulking while Gasol would quietly fade away. My 2nd concern would be the coaching staff specifically McHale. I have little confidence in his coaching acumen (I think it's a joke) and I simply don't believe that he would be able to utilize both players properly and that's assuming that he could get the both of them to actually perform. Did I forget to mention that both players are on the wrong side of 30? No, this is typical of the type of "swing for the fences" move that has characterized the Rockets organization for the past 15 years - an approach that has worked out so very well for them given all of the success it has produced.
