Memphis owner comments on Gasol trade

[Roy Hobbs]

For the first time, even [Memphis owner Michael] 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…”
...
 “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 have no buyer’s remorse".

That last part just shows he's an idiot.  As for Wallace, I'm still shocked that he'd take the Lakers offer without at least seeing what else was out there.  Maybe he truly was intent on screwing the Celtics over.

The article did shed some insight on at least what one of the offers was, as well:

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.

That's not the world's best package, but at least it was credible.

Link.

[GLS]

Chris Wallace has no business making decisions on the roster of any NBA franchise.  Yet this jacktard was making our decisions.  Thank goodness he is no longer around.

What Pitino saw in him, I will never know.

[RebusRankin]

Bulls had a better offer. The Lakers offer was a joke.

[wdleehi]

So Memphis could now have young guys and the number 1 pick? 




They gave him away for nothing. 

[nickagneta]

“I don’t know if I got the most value,” Heisley confessed.

Truly the understatement to end all understatements.

BTW Roy, Heisly isn't an idiot for making these comments, well, no, I guess he is. But what he's a real, honest-to-goodness idiot for is the hiring of Chris Wallace in the first place.

I'm surprised the Celtics only had to give permission to get rid of Wallace. When his name was first being mentioned, I thought we were going to have to give Memphis a first round draft pick just to take him off our hands.

[orrzor]

Is there any way the league can look into the fairness of this trade? I mean there MUST have been something happening under the table, given they did not shop Gasol to other teams. I can't believe they accepted the Lakers offer, merely because they were waiting for a team to do them the honor of asking for Gasol.

[Roy Hobbs]

BTW Roy, Heisly isn't an idiot for making these comments, well, no, I guess he is. But what he's a real, honest-to-goodness idiot for is the hiring of Chris Wallace in the first place.

I agree that any owner would have to be a moron to hire the architect of the Kendrick Brown and Joe Forte draft picks, or the guy who insisted that we trade Joe Johnson to Phoenix instead of Kendrick.  However, the one thing Wallace has proved adept at is saving his owners money in advance of a franchise sale.  Paul Gaston was very happy with Wallace's efforts to dump Kenny Anderson and take back Vin Baker, because it helped his bottom line at the time.  Wallace is great at that creative, "short term economically beneficial, long term disastrous" type of deal.

By the way, the only comment of Heisley's that I find stupid is the "I have no buyer’s remorse" one.  But then again, his sole concern is economics, so maybe not.

[nickagneta]

BTW Roy, Heisly isn't an idiot for making these comments, well, no, I guess he is. But what he's a real, honest-to-goodness idiot for is the hiring of Chris Wallace in the first place.

I agree that any owner would have to be a moron to hire the architect of the Kendrick Brown and Joe Forte draft picks, or the guy who insisted that we trade Joe Johnson to Phoenix instead of Kendrick.  However, the one thing Wallace has proved adept at is saving his owners money in advance of a franchise sale.  Paul Gaston was very happy with Wallace's efforts to dump Kenny Anderson and take back Vin Baker, because it helped his bottom line at the time.  Wallace is great at that creative, "short term economically beneficial, long term disastrous" type of deal.

By the way, the only comment of Heisley's that I find stupid is the "I have no buyer’s remorse" one.  But then again, his sole concern is economics, so maybe not.

Let's not forget that Chris Wallace was bailed out on Vin Baker's contract by the NBA's one-time, one player salary cap exemption. Also lest we forget Wallace was responsible or had a definite hand in the reacquisition of Mark Blount from Denver and the scouting behind the fabulous draft pick Jerome Moiso and the drafting of Marcus Banks. What stuns me about the Banks pick is that for about a month before the draft tons of draftniks and some insiders were saying the Celtics were extremely high on and was seriously considering drafting a kid from Brazil named Leandro Barbosa.

[Roy Hobbs]

BTW Roy, Heisly isn't an idiot for making these comments, well, no, I guess he is. But what he's a real, honest-to-goodness idiot for is the hiring of Chris Wallace in the first place.

I agree that any owner would have to be a moron to hire the architect of the Kendrick Brown and Joe Forte draft picks, or the guy who insisted that we trade Joe Johnson to Phoenix instead of Kendrick.  However, the one thing Wallace has proved adept at is saving his owners money in advance of a franchise sale.  Paul Gaston was very happy with Wallace's efforts to dump Kenny Anderson and take back Vin Baker, because it helped his bottom line at the time.  Wallace is great at that creative, "short term economically beneficial, long term disastrous" type of deal.

By the way, the only comment of Heisley's that I find stupid is the "I have no buyer’s remorse" one.  But then again, his sole concern is economics, so maybe not.

Let's not forget that Chris Wallace was bailed out on Vin Baker's contract by the NBA's one-time, one player salary cap exemption. Also lest we forget Wallace was responsible or had a definite hand in the reacquisition of Mark Blount from Denver and the scouting behind the fabulous draft pick Jerome Moiso and the drafting of Marcus Banks. What stuns me about the Banks pick is that for about a month before the draft tons of draftniks and some insiders were saying the Celtics were extremely high on and was seriously considering drafting a kid from Brazil named Leandro Barbosa.

That's the odd thing.  Wallace always expressed strong interest in very talented players -- rumor is we gave a promise to Gilbert Arenas, and we liked Tony Parker -- but he always ultimately decided to pass them by for inferior talent.

[footey]

I along with others have long suspected Jerry West's hand in this one-sided trade, given his connections to both teams involved. Vecsey, who has known West for decades, said West had nothing to do with it, and in fact recommended to Memphis ownership that Wallace be fired for making it. Pretty interesting.

[seccom]

The article did shed some insight on at least what one of the offers was, as well:

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.

That's not the world's best package, but at least it was credible.

The problem of Chicago offer is there is no big expiration contract similar to Kwame Brown's contract, and it is Chicago's cheap owner that kills the deal.

He could sign PJ Brown to a big 1 year deal (maybe about 10 million) and ship him to Memphis. However, he will have to pay Luxury Tax since his total payroll will increase by the new PJ Brown contract.

With the dollar for dollar luxury tax, his total new salary will be 20 millions more.

[KJ33]

BTW Roy, Heisly isn't an idiot for making these comments, well, no, I guess he is. But what he's a real, honest-to-goodness idiot for is the hiring of Chris Wallace in the first place.

I agree that any owner would have to be a moron to hire the architect of the Kendrick Brown and Joe Forte draft picks, or the guy who insisted that we trade Joe Johnson to Phoenix instead of Kendrick.  However, the one thing Wallace has proved adept at is saving his owners money in advance of a franchise sale.  Paul Gaston was very happy with Wallace's efforts to dump Kenny Anderson and take back Vin Baker, because it helped his bottom line at the time.  Wallace is great at that creative, "short term economically beneficial, long term disastrous" type of deal.

By the way, the only comment of Heisley's that I find stupid is the "I have no buyer’s remorse" one.  But then again, his sole concern is economics, so maybe not.

Kedrick is the bust, Kendrick is the guy we are hoping can contain Gasol.   

[Redz]

For the first time, even [Memphis owner Michael] 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…”
...
 “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 have no buyer’s remorse".

Ahem...wouldn't the correct term be "seller's remorse"?

[seccom]

Is there any way the league can look into the fairness of this trade? I mean there MUST have been something happening under the table, given they did not shop Gasol to other teams. I can't believe they accepted the Lakers offer, merely because they were waiting for a team to do them the honor of asking for Gasol.

If you think this trade is unfair, which team do you think can come up with a better deal, in terms of future talent and finanical relief?

The problem for Chris Wallace is:

1. He need a big expiration contract.
2. He cannot take on any more salary.

In NBA, talent = money. Better talent, more money. Equal talent = equal money.

Teams like Minnesota and Seattle has young talent and expirating contract but they also do not want to take Gasol's contract. Mavs, Spurs, Suns do not have expirating contracts. Portland has young talent but no expirating contract.

[Who]

If you think this trade is unfair, which team do you think can come up with a better deal, in terms of future talent and finanical relief?

I didn't think they should have traded Gasol period. Bone-headed move.

Memphis were a year or two away from being a serious team in the Western Conference. Young Rudy Gay was starting to figure it out, starting to become the go-to scorer on the perimeter that Gasol never previously had. Rudy is a 20/6/2 player by the end of the season. Imagine where'd be by next season? The best player Pau ever played with in Memphis was James Posey. The best scorer Pau had ever played with was Mike Miller. Now you have this young potential star who can get 20+ a night .... how don't you let that play out?

They had just added Mike Conley who's a talented young point guard. The team sucked anyways, so trading Gasol wasn't going to help them significantly in the draft. Add one more high lottery pick. Try to reshape the squad a bit and hey presto you have a good team on your hands.

Memphis' biggest problem was their unbalanced squad. They had talent. They had a nice inside presence with Gasol, an outside presence with Gay, a solid supporting scorer in Mike Miller, a young point guard, and a few mediocre talents filling out the roster. Unfortunately they had the worst perimeter defense in the league. At the same time their interior D was average, so that got killed from all these guards running down the lane against them. They already had the offense of a playoff caliber team, they just didn't have the defense. Give Rudy Gay some time and add a few role players who play defense instead of the lackadaisical effort they were getting from their present role players.

It was dumb to even consider a trade. None of those Pau Gasol trade offers were good enough to offer more value than Pau, and none of them were going to be off the table in 1-2 years time. There was nothing to lose. The only way Memphis could lose was to make the trade in that moment in time. So what do Memphis do? Make the trade. Well done lads. Way to mess everything up.