…and Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley is one of those guys.
In a Yahoo Sports article, Heisley discusses the trade his team made with the Lakers that sent Pau Gasol (and a second round pick) to L.A. for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Marc Gasol and two first round picks. Without the trade, or “donation” as Kobe Bryant calls it, the Lakers would not be in the Finals.
The mere mention of suspicions over Memphis’ motives gets the Grizzlies owner’s voice rising on the telephone, gets him going on the gossip that suggests something unseemly happened on the way to a Lakers renaissance.
Michael Heisley starts to ask, well, who is ripping Minnesota for the Kevin Garnett trade?
Some did rip the Timberwolves for the trade that sent KG to Boston, though I think Kevin McHale did pretty well for himself (and that’s not something I say often). Let’s see, McHale got 23 year-old forward/center Al Jefferson, who averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds in his first season in Minnesota. Jefferson looks like a career double-double guy and a future All-Star. Can Heisley say that about any of the guys he got in the Gasol trade? McHale also got Ryan Gomes (who looks like a solid rotation guy), salary cap flexibility in the form of Theo Ratliff’s expiring contract and two first round picks.
Keep in mind that as part of the Gasol deal, the Grizzlies have to send the Lakers their second round pick in 2010, so in essence, with the Lakers looking strong and the Grizzlies looking weak, Memphis will just move up a few spots from the early second round to the late first round in 2010. That virtually eliminates one of those first round picks they got for Gasol.
How about Seattle and Ray Allen?
For Ray Allen, Sam Presti (the Seattle GM) got Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and the #5 pick (Jeff Green). Szczerbiak is overpaid and fading, but West is a starter-caliber player and Jeff Green averaged 11 points and five boards in his rookie season. Not bad. Presti later traded away Szczerbiak and West, and gave himself a ton of cap flexibility in the process. So the Sonics essentially got Jeff Green in return for getting rid of Ray Allen, his degrading game and his huge contract.
The difference here is that the Sonics are rebuilding, but they traded away a 32 year-old shooting guard who was overpaid, not a skilled, 27 year-old seven-footer who has a reasonable contract.
This begs the question – why can’t you build around a 27 year-old player? With Gasol and Rudy Gay, the Grizzlies would have had a nice core to build around.
“Is anybody jumping on Popovich in San Antonio because he traded that center to Houston for virtually nothing?” Heisley wondered.
“That center”? He’s talking about Luis Scola, who is usually lost defensively, but scores and rebounds well enough to get minutes. The main problem here is that an owner of a NBA team doesn’t even know the name of player about whom he’s trying to make a point. This is wrong on so many levels.
For the first time, even Heisley wondered whether his general manager, Chris Wallace, blew it by caving so soon to the Lakers.
“I don’t know if I got the most value,” Heisley confessed. “Maybe our people should’ve shopped (Gasol) more and maybe we would’ve gotten more, done a better deal. Maybe Chris did call every team in the league. I don’t think he did, but maybe he should’ve…”
Heisley is either loyal as hell to his employees or completely clueless about what it takes to run a NBA franchise. He thinks that “maybe” Wallace should have called every team in the league? Maybe?
One source with knowledge of the process said the Bulls had made the most credible offer. For Gasol and Memphis’ Hakim Warrick, the Bulls were willing to part with Andres Nocioni, Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, Thabo Sefolosha, possibly Adrian Griffin and draft picks.
I’d hate to be a Memphis fan after reading that. I can hear the phone conversation now:
Wallace: A proven forward (Nocioni) plus three promising prospects and draft picks? No, no, wait… Sorry, John. I’ve got Mitch Kupchak on the other line and I think he wants to offer up Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittenton.
“Chicago wouldn’t offer us any of their good, core players,” he said. “Our people told me that we weren’t able to get equal trade value for Gasol and that we needed to do a deal that would give us cap space and draft picks. It was no secret in the league that we were considering offers for him, but the Lakers were the one team that stepped up.”
I’ve got news for you – the Lakers didn’t offer you any of the their good, core players either.
“I have no buyer’s remorse,” Heisley said. “Listen, I can’t tell you how many people would tell me, wherever I went in Memphis, ‘Get rid of Gasol. …Trade Gasol.’ And then some of the same people are booing us because we traded him. But I don’t mind that. I’m a big boy. I can take it.”
I think those people that wanted you to trade Gasol were hoping that you’d actually get something in return. And why is a owner of a NBA team making personnel decisions based on what some schmo on the street is telling him?
This is absolutely mind-boggling.
Will somebody please buy the team from this guy?
This would be an interesting deal for the Bucks and new GM John Hammond, who did not draft Yi Jianlian and isn’t beholden to him. I watched a number of Bucks games early in the year and liked what I saw of Yi. He has a sweet jumper, can handle the ball and drive a bit, and can run the floor. He made a few eye-popping athletic dunks, but at times he just disappeared. That might have had more to do with the coaching staff and strategy, as he didn’t get many minutes in crunch time. He averaged 9.6 points and 5.7 rebounds in 27 minutes of action before the All-Star break, but was slowed with a wrist injury during the second half of the season.
