Pau has all the qualities and some more as a perfect second banana, when he's not asked to lead the team. He needs a tough guy to push him and trust him to some extend, aka Kobe or PJ. Can Harden and McHale do that? If yes, and the price is ok, I certainly would love to see him on the team. This year's Rockets team never had a mid-range game. Pau will open up for everyone, if he's used properly.
Artest has a player option for next season so I'm guessing the Lakers will amnesty him since they can easily find a taker for Pau Gasol. I would love to trade Trob for Gasol and make a run at Artest if he's amnestied.
Question is, do they really want to pay all those taxes with the same team this season who's another year older and with the uncertainty of how and when Kobe will come back from a major injury?
They can absorb the tax penalty, the problem is the other penalties from going over the cap. They can't use any of the CBA exceptions to sign players if they are over the cap. And they don't have many draft picks. Hard to improve the team.
Actually, there are plenty of teams that can take Gasol's contract, especially since they'd be trading away one of their players.
You have to think he could be had very cheaply. And his contract is only for one season, so it is very low risk. If he gets amnestied, that would certainly be interesting. I don't know if re-signing Howard would make them more or less likely to keep Pau.
Pau needs to be in the post to be effective, and he's still pretty damn effective in the Post, ranking #56 in that area per Synergy. Further, he's one of, if not the best passing big men in the post. He still gives you above average defense as well. At this point in his career, he is definitely a Center and he's is still a top 30-40 player if you play to his strengths. Not sure what we'd do with Asik though, cause I'm not sure how he would operate in the post with Asik down there.
If he is amnestied there isn't an asking price. We would bid against other teams that are under the cap, so we decide how much we are willing to spend. If someone outbids us then that's that.
Would the Lakers benefit more by trading him for scraps? If they just amnesty him, they would still have to pay his salary right? If they trade for Donatas (D'Antoni probably likes stretch PFs more than McHale) or something, their payroll is actually reduced and they get someone with some potential.
I think it would be better to trade for him as we would only be on the hook for one year. He would definitely get a multi year deal from somewhere. Lakers (Dantoni) might be willing to take Lin in exchange.
We should only trade for him if his subsequent multi-year deal is with us. And I don't think Lin is going anywhere. I think that b/c of the money he makes for Les, he's the most untouchable player on the roster.
Thats really interesting. Is shows that the Rockets franchise is looking abroad more and more to find great prospects. The league is also becoming more global. Stern pointed to China as one of the major reasons the league got a 20% ($5bn) rise in profits this past year.
