Re: Around the League - '24-25 Season
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 5:08 pm
To be fair... Jerry West left Memphis in 2007. Chris Wallace was the one who made the Gasol trade.Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:49 pmOK. I’m tracking you now. Yes, at the time without hindsight it was a terrible trade for the Grizzlies, although Crittendon was viewed as a high upside player after just being drafting at #19. As you noted, it ended up a decent trade for the Grizzlies because of how Marc Gasol turned out. But it would be interesting to know why the Grizzlies didn’t get more. Jerry West doesn’t fall into to the bucket of multiple idiot GMs. To the contrary he was one of the best. He’s on record saying he talked to at least one other team, which likely means he talked to multiple teams about Pau. Was there something about Pau that turned off a lot of GMs? Was Pau’s agent telling other teams not to trade for his client and insisting that the Lakers were the only team Pau would stay with if traded there?AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 8:21 am
Lip... maybe you missed my post going through the players of the Gasol trade earlier in this thread.
I'm not suggesting that it was as bad as the Doncic trade. But it was clear at the time the Lakers fleeced the Grizzlies.
You can't in good conscience claim that Kwame Brown was a player with upside. LOL. He was in his 7th season and was averaging less than 6 ppg for the Lakers. He averaged 3.5 ppg and started all of ONE game with Memphis. Why? Because they took him for the salary match since he was an impending free agent. They let Detroit get him in FA for HALF of what he was making the previous season.
Just because a guy gets drafted in the 1st rd doesn't make him a high upside player. Crittendon was averaging 13 mpg for the Lakers. He never even started for Memphis, averaging 18 mpg for a 60-loss team... before Memphis traded him after only 35 games.
So Memphis dumped its two prized young players with upside from the Gasol trade after a COMBINED 50 games with the team.
And remember, LA was battling for championships so the draft picks were both at the end of the 1st round and didn't amount to much. Oh, and let's not forget that Aaron McKie did not come out of retirement to actually play any basketball.
The only reason that trade isn't recalled more is because Marc Gasol surprisingly became one of the best mid/late 2nd round picks in modern NBA history.
[Note: I'm not suggesting conspiracy or anything here... only that the trade was ridiculously bad at the time. The Doncic trade has many more issues as you mention.]
Because we know that Jerry West was no fool, I suspect it was Pau’s agent scaring away all but a few teams if not all teams but the Lakers. That’s what Kobe’s agent did during the draft although Kobe admitted it was a tactic and that he would have played for any team that drafted him. But I also wouldn’t discount the possibility that Jerry West was convinced Marc Gasol would end up as good as he ultimately became. So while we have to admit based on hindsight that the Grizzlies weren’t actually fleeced, perhaps Jerry’s foresight told him this wasn’t such a bad deal for his team under the circumstances.
Greg Popovich was NOT happy... LOL... "What they did in Memphis is beyond comprehension," said Popovich. "There should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense. I just wish I had been on a trade committee that oversees NBA trades. I'd like to elect myself to that committee. I would have voted no to the L.A. trade."
[Note: It should be noted that Gasol was a good, but not GREAT player at the time. He made 5 of his 6 All Star games in LA.]
