According to SLAM Online and BlogABull, and soon to be a few thousand million other sources:
The Grizz have traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and two future first-round draft picks.
Talk about sell low. Jeez. Is that really all it took to get Gasol? The commentors over at Blog-A-Bull (hardest blog name to type) are having a cow (pun intended) about this trade. I'm with them. I like the Red Bull (Andres Nocioni) and his crazy high voice, but I would give him up along with 2 draft picks in a second.
Anyway, I talk about fantasy basketball, and the Bulls are in the crapper right now anyway.
Impact on the Lakers
Kobe's jump to the number 2 spot on NBA.com's ratings will probably be short lived. Gasol will immediately take some of the scoring load off of Kobe, and he'll go back to playing more like he did before Andrew Bynum got hurt. Which is to say, probably still Top 10, but not #2.
Speaking of Bynum, his fantasy value takes a huge hit. But since he's out till probably mid-March, it may not matter all that much. Gasol could be injured himself by then, so if you're waiting with Bynum on your bench, don't go drop him right now for any old chump off the wire.
I can see both Kobe and Derek Fisher getting more open looks from deep with Gasol in there now. So, if you need a few more threes, D-Fish is probably not a bad guy to pick up. Luke Walton is also an outside thread, but probably topped out last season with his 0.8 threes/game. Lamar Odom might be able to pick his outside shot up off the bench now, and get it back closer to the 1 three/game he had last season.
Hopefully (for me) Gasol will be able to bring his game back to its Top 20 style form. One (that one being me) would think with the best scorer in the league on his team, it would actually be pretty easy to just sit under the basket and get half of his 20 ppg off the boards. The other half of that 20 would come when he decides to score instead of passing to one of the guys mentioned above for a three point attempt.
And finally, since Kwame Brown is gone, I'm afraid that Ronny Turiaf will continue to be the only backup PF and C that the Lakers have.
Impact on the Grizzlies
Free Darko?
Seriously, the Grizz are throwing in the Rebuild flag with this trade. I don't think Kwame's 5.7 and 5.7 is going to win him any more playing time in Memphis than it did in LA. Maybe there won't be so many people booing him?
Hopefully (for my wife) Darko is let loose to block 5 shots a game while scoring and rebounding in the double digits. I know it's possible.
Mike Miller, Rudy Gay, Juan Carlos Navarro, and pretty much anyone else who actually plays in games for the Grizzlies gets a boost in value with this trade. Rudy Gay will probably benefit the most since he's now THE MAN in Memphis.
I mean, I seriously can't imagine that Memphis is going to give Kwame Brown 30+ minutes a game. This trade was obviously for the picks, and their just taking one in the pooper and hoping they can get someone of Gasol's value out of the draft.
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