Will Morey go after Pau Gasol again?

That's just idiotic. Patterson's game fell off due to his health, or lack of. He's carrying an injury which might require surgery in the off-season.

 

Dwight demands to get the ball in the post. Asik as we have seen could care less about getting the ball on offense, it would easily work.

 

hmm on paper

J.lin/beverley.brooks
harden/delfino
parsons/garcia
gasol/t.jones
asik/smith

not bad at all. will free up asik because the crazy thing is, pau will get doubled in the post on our team if he is going off.

 

I know. So you're okay with using our cap room on Josh Smith?

 

Getting Pau has the advantage of playing him at Center for 15-18 minutes per game, so the young PFs can still get playing time and develop.

DMo has been compared to Pau, and could do well learning from him.

I had felt Pau wouldn't be able to play next to Asik well, but I think I was wrong. And with McHale almost certainly going to be here next year, I just hope we give him no reason to go with small-ball for extended periods again.

 

Hell no. There are only 2 max players that are FA this year. Josh Smith falls in with Andre (if he opts out) and Bynum (injury concerns)

 

This, it's pretty much a no brainer to go after Gasol if we strike out on DH/CP3

The question is what would LAL be able to get for him. They probably want draft picks and rookie contracts since they are in tax hell atm.

Simmons suggested Gasol for Parsons, but I'm not sure I like that for us.

 

The only people who would even consider a Gasol for Parsons trade are the delusional Laker fans. I can write a novel on reasons why this will never happen.

 

Oh and by the way, if the Lakers don't find a taker for Pau Gasol, they will amnesty him either way.

 

Lol does anyone besides me find it amusing that if we acquired Pau, there would only be one black starter on our team.

 

It was already like that when DMo was the starter

 

We had that for a while when D-Mo was starting at the 4. The most diverse starting 5 in the league.

Asian Point Guard
African American Shooting Guard
American Caucasian Small Forward
Lithuanian Power Forward
Turkish Center

 

Are they amnestying him? Why not Artest/Peace?

 

Gasol, at this point in his career, is a center.

 

Not sure about the exact numbers but amnestying Metta instead won't be enough.

 

Kobe $30m
Pau $19m
Dwight $20m

That's already right around $70m committed to just 3 players.

 

I didn't realize Artest's contract is also expiring. Hmmm, gives me hope. I would not mind Gasol at all.

 

If they amnestied Artest it wouldn't get them close to not paying the lux tax even without Dwight re-signing.

Also if they amnesty Gasol and re-sign Howard, they would still be above the lux tax.

Amnestying Metta/Artest doesn't make much sense at all. Amnestying Kobe would. In a perfect world they would be able to dump either of their salaries in trade and bring nothing back in return.

However there is NO WAY they can get Kobe's salary off the books in trade so Gasol is their only hope. In that case only a few teams like Utah, Atlanta, and Houston have the cap space to make the deal without giving back major salary in return.


So LA's options are-

1. -Bring back everyone and go into lux tax hell (most likely)

2. -Trade or amnesty Gasol to lighten the lux tax load slightly

3. -Amnesty Kobe, and keep Howard/Gasol/Nash/Metta & pray for good health.

4. -Try to trade multiple salaries of Gasol, Metta, Nash, Blake, Duhon

5. -Blow the whole damn thing up & start from scratch with or without Howard

I assume the linchpin here is going to be A. Howard's decision and B. Kobe's projected return from injury/thoughts on effectiveness.

I personally think they are going to keep everyone together for the most part. The most drastic move I could anticipate would be trading/amnestying Gasol.

 

"The Los Angeles Lakers could be facing some difficult financial decisions heading into the 2013-2014 season. The team paid $30 million in luxury taxes this year, and that number would jump to $85 million next season if their payroll remains above $100 million. One of the goals of the new collective bargaining agreement is to curb spending, and it may do just that.

With several veterans on their roster earning a hefty salary, the Lakers may decide to use the amnesty clause. According to the LA Times, Pau Gasol could be the player they use it on if LA is able to re-sign Dwight Howard this summer.

Waiving Gasol via the “amnesty” provision in July could potentially save them more than $60 million in luxury taxes. They would still have to pay his $19.3-million salary, though he could be snapped up by a bidding team that would owe the Lakers millions to help with that cost.

The Lakers could also use the amnesty provision on Metta World Peace, although it would not save them nearly as much money."

http://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/lakers-amnesty-pau-gasol/184764