While it was a terrible trade, it seems to have worked out for both team. Is chris wallace a genius or lucky?
How is it a genuis? They downgraded from Gasol to well...Gasol. Marc Gasol's pretty solid and on his way to becoming one of the top big men in the league but Pau's ALREADY one of the top big men in the league. Instead of having a Marc/ZBO combo they could have had a Pau/ZBo combo. Anyway, I guess you could say Wallace was lucky that Zbo decided to turn a new leaf in Grizzland. Had Zbo not done so they wouldn't enjoy the success they are enjoying today.
man this still pisses me off. they got a top player for virtually nothing and the impact will be felt for years. can you imagine how different things might be if this trade never took place ? lakers, wouldnt be the best, kobe would probably in the eastern conference.
What if the Lakers didn't make the trade? They definitely wouldn't have made it to the Finals versus the Celtics and probably wouldn't have done so last year either. But man....Bynum and Marc Gasol on the front line? Talk bout a land of zero opportunity for the opposing guards.
Also, Pau was already sick of the struggles, particularly after the Battier trade (remember, they were at least a playoff team before Battier left... just terrible after it, even during the time when Pau was healthy) he wasn't taking the team anywhere. It was time to hit reboot.
I was just about to submit my response to this thread which I was about to claim that Wallace is secretly a genius for dropping an expensive unhappy Gasol for a younger promising Gasol and getting Zach Randolph and having both work out. Then I realized he drafted Thabeet instead of Curry, Evans, Jennings, or Rubio even though we all know Conley sucks. So hes probably just a lucky idiot.
It was a bad trade no matter how you looked at it, but it needed to be done to obtain a fresh start and rebuild the team. But I doubt they expected things to turn around this fast (thanks to Z.Randolph).
Hindsight is 20/20, but I wasn't too thrilled with Thabeet at #2, either. There were a lot more quality players, and it seems Memphis was drafting him just because of his height even though they already had a young, blossoming Marc Gasol. Plus, Tyreke Evans' performance so far is ridiculous.
I thought Conley was a really poor pick but they needed a point at that time, and that draft was terrible for PG prospects. Honestly you look at the 07 draft right now and after Seattle/OKC landed Durant and Green you don't have a lot of quality until the later picks when Houston lands Brooks/Landry, Portland nabs Fernandez, then you've got decent guys like Wilson Chandler, Marc Gasol, Glenn Davis... As far as points go, Conley was regarded as the "best" that year, but it turned out to be a really poor crop of PGs and a couple of guys who weren't really considered pure points like Rodney Stuckey and Aaron Brooks right now are the two real "gems" of the 07 draft as far as guys who have become pretty good PGs, but Conley, Acie Law, Belinelli, and Javaris Crittenton certainly have underwhelmed.
i just still cant believe memphis passed up on the obvious pick in evans and took Thabeet instead. Conley has been very underwhelming so far as a starter and would have been a decent backup imagine if memphis threw out evans mayo gay randolph gasol as their starting 5? that would be as talented as any starting 5 in the league, get some experience and some chemistry and they would be a terror. they could fill out the bench with some late first round/2nd round picks or mle type deals. they are still starting to put it all together hopefully they dont let gay walk at the end of the year
I hope Gay walks, and I hope they don't get it completely together. The West was brutal before Memphis and OKC were this good.
The Pau and Zbo wouldn't of worked out cause they would play better at the 4 and needs the ball to be effective while Marc is a legit center, that can block bots rebound and gets garbage points.
You don't take a guy #4 overall hoping for him to be only serviceable. We lucked out getting Kyle because they couldn't admit Conley was a bust. It would have looked really bad on them so instead they got rid of the guy who was better than him.
