Zhiba NBA

Chapter 192 (190) The Terrible Big Deal

After the end of this terrible schedule, the Rockets finally relaxed a little. The Houstonians have just one game left in the final four days of November, and they beat the Hawks at home.

On the same day, the Lakers lost to the Spurs by 6 points away.Bryant was in poor form, scoring only 33 points on 9-of-25 shots without sending out an assist.Especially in the last 2 minutes of the game, the Lakers were only 4 points behind. Kobe hit 5 irons and ruined the hope of a comeback.After this defeat, the Lakers' record came to 9 wins and 4 losses, surpassed by the rival Clippers in the same city.

As the traditional giants of the league, the Lakers have always been the focus of media attention.This defeat has divided the media into two factions showing different views.One group, led by large sports media such as ESPN, believes that the Lakers failed to make the playoffs last year, and now they have a very good record.After all, the Spurs are a team in the Western Conference finals, so it is normal for them to have a gap in strength with the Lakers. The other faction, mainly based on the local media in Los Angeles, believes that the Lakers' deal was not effective enough, and they did not find a good enough helper for Kobe Bryant, the pride of Los Angeles.

Yuan Fei could only shake his head and smile wryly at the latter point of view.In his opinion, Jason Bass's operation couldn't be better.Bynum, Bletcher and the three Williams are all big names in the future, but they are still young and need time to grow.As for Barnes, he is a golden role player that many teams are scrambling for in the future. It is a robbery for the Lakers to sign him with a basic salary.But in the eyes of the media, the Lakers just got a few rookies and signed a few unknown people. What they want to see is to get a few big names.But the big names are the treasures of each team, how can they be acquired if they want?
But Jason Bass really did it.

On December 12, the Rockets beat the Grizzlies at home, which seemed to be the last straw for this dying camel.

A shocking deal was born the next day.Grizzlies boss Pau Gasol airborne Los Angeles Lakers!
In fact, the two teams of the Lakers and Grizzlies have negotiated many times on this deal. Grizzlies general manager West is a veteran of the Lakers. He watched Jason Buss grow up, and the two have a good relationship in private.Because of this, West will be patient and discuss this deal with Bass that will make him suffer.

First of all, the two parties decided to trade Gasol from the Grizzlies, and Kwame Brown (a strong former champion at the age of 24 who still has potential to rise) and Mo Williams (a young player who performed well last season) from the Lakers, but then there were differences.Since the wages cannot be balanced, the players that the Grizzlies are interested in are all Lakers' non-sale players (including Kobe, Deron and Odom).Bass hoped to take Chris Mihm or Devin George to balance, but West only wanted young players and rejected the 27-year-old Mihm and the 29-year-old George, and the negotiations reached an impasse.

At this time, West proposed to ask for Bynum (he didn't like Barnes and Bletche at all), and Bass pretended that Bynum was an important part of the team's future plan to raise the price, and then asked for Battier to join the deal.

After several rounds of discussions, the final deal was as follows: the Lakers signed retired veteran Rick Fox with a three-year contract totaling 3 million, including Fox, Kwame Brown, Mo Williams, Andrew Bynum and Luke Walton, plus a future draft pick, in exchange for Memphis Grizzlies top star Paul Gasol and defensive champion Sean Battier!
Since the combined salary of Gasol and Battier is about 1590 million, to balance the salary, the Lakers must pay at least players with a combined salary of 1264 million (drafts and cash are not included in the balance).The combined salaries of the Lakers' Brown, Moe, Bynum, and Walton are only more than 1100 million. For this reason, the Lakers specially signed Fox as a free agent to join the deal.

(Small knowledge: The real situation in history is that on February 2008, 2, the Lakers paid Aaron McGee, Brown, Crittenton, Mark Gasol’s signing rights and two draft picks in exchange for Paul Gasol and a draft pick from the Grizzlies. Aaron McGee was signed first and then traded to balance the salary. He received a salary of 1 U.S. dollars for almost nothing. It is worth mentioning that McGee was just hired as an assistant by the 75ers in October 07 Coach, for this salary, he completed a series of steps of resigning as an assistant coach, signing with the Lakers, and joining the Grizzlies on the day of the transaction. Three months later, he was laid off by the Grizzlies and re-became an assistant coach for the 10ers in the next season)
For a while, this big news caused an earthquake in the entire league, and many team owners immediately jumped out to accuse the Lakers of cheating.This Fox announced his retirement in 04, and now he was signed out just to balance the salary, which is really a shameless operation.Even the always calm Spurs coach Popovich couldn't sit still. He publicly stated: "A team can't pay such a small price for an All-Star insider. This is an unfair deal!"

The league has nothing to do about it. The Lakers and Grizzlies are willing to accept it without violating the rules. The trade rules are all formulated by the league itself, and the league can't find a reason to criticize it at this time.

(Small knowledge: In the next round of labor negotiations in 2011, the league deliberately added multiple clauses to prohibit such behavior. One is that the sign-and-trade can only be used before the regular season, and the sign-and-trade is prohibited after the regular season starts; the second is that players who are signed and traded must have completed the previous full season. Players like Fox who have retired for one year will be prohibited from signing and then trade.)

From the Lakers' point of view, it is really a big profit.Brown and Walton themselves are not part of the Lakers' future plans. It is equivalent to completing the transaction with only the payment of Xiao Mo and Bynum, who will take several years to grow up.The exchanged Gasol and Battier have the strength to start the field, and Kobe, Odom, Williams form a luxurious starting lineup.

From the Grizzlies' point of view, this wave of exchange is not too bad.After losing to the Rockets, they only ranked tenth in the Western Conference with 8 wins and 9 losses, and Gasol will continue to be absent for a while.Moreover, the Grizzlies have played in the first round for two consecutive years, and it may not be good to stick to this lineup.In exchange for four young players with potential, the oldest Walton is only 25 years old.After a bad season this season and a high-ranking rookie, the future is also promising.This is how the two-time champion Rockets came out.

Another very important point is that Jerry West is in the heart of the Grizzlies.Is this old man nicknamed "Godfather of the Lakers" for nothing?Although he has been away from Los Angeles for many years, he will never forget his roots when there is a sweetness, so let's treat this deal as an assist for his old club.

This time, the Lakers have the strength to compete and even crush the Rockets.

(The time was set wrong and the post was late, sorry)

(End of this chapter)