Don't agree with this. Would rather have a true superstar to pair with Harden, but I think we can be a high seed in the West with this squad + Smith next season. Won't be surprised if we finish in 6th seed this season, so add Smith to that and we're probably somewhere around 3rd or 4th seed. We'd at least have a shot at a title. I'd rather have better odds than that, but you do have to ask the question of, are we going to be able to add a better player than Smith in the next 4 years? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. It took Morey 3-4 years of gathering assets and waiting for an opportunity to snag Harden. What if that happens again?
He'd be one year older, and he pouts when he's benched. If the Lakers amnesty him, I bet he ends up joining the Spurs.
The spurs have no money to claim him in the Auction. All we would do is pay a little bit more over the exception.
I totally disagree with this move. First off, Gasol isn't going to sign with anyone for just one yr. He's going to be 33 in July, and on top of that he's coming off a major injury. His skills have definitely declined in the past 18-20 months, and he's doing what most players do when they reach 32+....they start to break down. Why would the Rockets want to tie up all that money to bring in Gasol, when it would up eat up the majority of the cap room that Morey has been able to create? Getting Gasol (at this juncture in his career) isn't going to put us in the position to win it all. The Rockets have THE youngest team in the league. Morey realizes the next move he makes with the cap space he's created is to tie it up in someone who's 1) worth it and 2) someone who's 23-28 yrs old. The core guys (Harden+Lin+Parsons+Asik) are young. We don't need 16 million wrapped up in some dude who"s 35-36 the next couple of yrs with barely anything left in the tank. Gasol isn't going to happen and thank god Morey isn't going there.
I'm not sure that matters. He's still getting the $17M from the Lakers, he could sign for the veteran minimum.
Maybe I'm not understanding how the amnesty works. I know if the lakers trade gasol to us, we'd only have to take on the remainder of his contract (2013-14). I thought if we win him off amnesty auction we would still only be on the hook for the amount we bid for, for the remainder of his contract as well. Some of the posts on here make it sound like we'd be committing to Pau like we're resigning him to a mulit year deal. Are we all talking about the same thing?
Gasol doesn't get a choice of where goes unless he clears the auction just like Scola didn't have a choice. He goes to the highest bidder and we are the only one's under the cap that would even want his services. We would be bidding against title contenders that are probably close to the luxury tax threshold and would only be able to bid up to their exception.
nope save the cap gasol is broken as you can clearly see and we dont need dwight when asik makes 12 mill less than him
Put some thought into this myself. I think the Rockets have a great package to offer the Lakers to reload with a slew of young bigs in the exchange for Gasol while also shedding MAJOR salary that almost no other team can give. * Keep in mind this is all assuming the Rockets have exhausted all other options to sign Dwight or trade for another long term solution like Kevin Love or LMA. Gasol gives you a 2nd star rental and fits perfectly with this team basketball wise, and gives you a 2nd offensive look too if teams start to learn how to defend the penetration of the Rockets dynamic back court. So how would a Gasol trade work- -well right now, we dont simply dont know salary wise how they can get it done, but I have some great ideas how they would make it work. Keep in mind the salary cap hasn't even been set yet, and in the Summer keeping the roster at a 15 max doesn't apply for that time frame. -First of all, the major value that LAL would be getting back would probably be 2 of the Rockets young PF's out of Robinson, D-Mo, Jones, or Smith, and of course the financial benefits. Could be sold to the fans as a chance to rebuild around Dwight moving forward with some youth, and flexibility for them to make short term moves next year to upgrade the roster. This is why the Thomas Robinson acquisition could turn out to be soooo important. He's a guy you really can sell as a major piece in a trade as a rebuilding piece. Patterson, Morris, Jones, D-Mo just dont carry the same weight in a trade as a major high upside rebuilding piece as Robinson does at least in the short term. -Secondly keep in mind that Garcia, and Delfino ARE NOT expiring contacts. They have a team option that allow the Rockets to trade them before the NBA so the Lakers would have the option to decline their option after the trades go down even though those players could be useful next year for them anyways. They could make up 9.4 million in contract that could go to LA. -Thirdly, do not forget that the Rockets have an open roster spot right now, and could very well give a large front loaded contract to a player available RIGHT NOW in Europe, with a team option after the season that the Rockets can use to front salary to make a Gasol trade work salary wise, and possible even keep Delfino out of the deal as well to keep next year. To finish my thoughts, I know that alot of people here think that Gasol is washed up, injury proned, and too ugly to play on their team, but keep in mind that just last season, he was still producing at a top 10 big man level, and many think that he was still being underutilized in 2011/12. Also, IF ALL OTHER 2ND STAR TRADES/SIGNING HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED SHORT TERM, the Rockets can get him on an expiring contract next season, go for a deep playoff run, and still be in the position to make the move for and upgraded 2nd star.
rather have j.smith, aldridge, or love, why go older? Gasol cant even stay on the floor plus hes lazy.
First Aldridge and Love are not available and won't be available until their contract is over. Secondly, I wonder how many NBA championships, playoff appearances, and world championships he would have if he wasn't lazy. And anyone that say Kobe got him those championships need to look at the Laker's record before and after Gasol got there. He took a non playoff team to the Finals.
My point is that would wouldn't have to pay the lakers at all for Gasol other than winning the auction. The Lakers have 3 choices if they want to resign Howard 1. Keep Gasol and pay an additional 65 million in luxury tax for him 2. Trade him without taking back any salary or they will be luxury tax for anything they take back. We are the only team under the cap that would have any interest in him. 3. Amnesty him - Since we are the only team under the cap that would want him, all we would have to do is bid slightly over the exception amount (6m?) for one year. In other words, if LA wants to keep Howard, we can get Gasol for around 6 million bucks or LA pays an additional 65 million for him to stick around for one year.
Gasol slacks on the floor nightly often needing criticism to boost him whether its kobe or the coach. Hes very streaky, did you forget he had Bynum the 2nd best center in the league on the side of him along with kobe bean bryant to guide them through the playoffs. Hes on his down slopes, rather see what D-Mo can do.
I disagree with this completely. The Josh Smith debacle for Atlanta, coupled with the new CBA preventing players from signing extensions (well, they can, but it would hurt them financially), is going to make the second-to-last year of contracts as the pivotal year for trades. If Minnesota and/or Portland don't have a clear path to contention, they're not going to want to wait until 2014-15 for an "answer". Because in the final year, the player has entirely too much leverage and the team's hands are tied. I think at least one of Aldridge/Love gets moved at some point between July 2013 and February 2014. Should Dwight not come, I think the first calls will go to Portland and Minnesota to check and see if they're open to anything. If they're not, though, Gasol is a great fallback plan. Obviously having cap room in the summer of 2014 is one possibility with it, but should Portland/Minny decide to pull the trigger at the deadline, Gasol's expiring deal would be easily movable in an Aldridge/Love trade. I'd bet almost anything that Gasol doesn't get amnestied, by the way. Most teams looking for a big this summer would be better served by Pau on a one-year contract than someone of the Smith/Millsap/Jefferson tier on a four-year, near-max deal. The Lakers don't have enough leverage to extract a ton in return, but they're not just going to give him away, I don't think.
He was a key piece...that's as far as I'll go. I think the "Black Mamba" was in the drivers seat. ................ ................ ................
