You really think West was trying to steer Wallace to do a bad deal on the Lakers behalf and Wallace, someone trying to establish his career, would do a bad deal just to please his former mentor? I find that extremely unlikely.
I was saying it slightly tongue in cheek, but ... I know it sounds a little "tin foil hat" ish, but when something that stupid or lopsided happens, you've got to at least wonder how something like that couldn't have been matched or bettered by about 20 teams in the league. I'm not claiming conspiracy, but I'll admit it did really make me question just how something like that goes down.
Yeah, I didn't think it was a good deal, but the other rumoured deals at the time were pretty crap too. Like the Bulls, it was something like Tyrus Thomas (before this "breakout" season), Nocioni and other flotsam. For some reason, the level of interest on Pau Gasol was tepid. It is odd that Wallace pulled the plug on the Gasol market a month early or so. But I don't think the deal was so legendarily bad as to imply some funny business. There have been much worse deals in NBA history.
If the Grizzlies can't get Rubio to come over, and everyone knows they can't (and you can bet his agent would make it common knowledge) then how much leverage would they have? I can't really see Heisley signing off on getting nothing in return. That's the first point. The second is that $3M means a lot to crappy-ass outfits like Memphis with cheap-ass owners like Heisley. The third is that it always turns out that it doesn't cost that much to move up even a few places in the draft, or certainly not as much as draft fanboys always imagine. We moved up from 4 to 2 by giving up Khryapa. Now I actually rated Khryapa, and he's a star in Europe where he can play PF, but nobody nobody who followed the Blazers on boards like this would've thought it would take that little. And what did we give up to move from 7 (Randy Foye) to 6 (Brandon Roy)? Wasn't it just cash? Finally, we don't know how our players are viewed by other teams. I bet you that there are people round the league who really rate Sergio. Hell, people on this board think he's on a par with Rubio, so getting him AND the #3 pick for Rubio is like two-for-one!
I'm really trying, but off the top of my head I can't think of many that were THAT panned at the time of the trade. I mean, yeah...Joe Barry Carroll for Parish and McHale was dumb. But GSW thought Parish was the price they had to pay to move from 3 to 1. Maybe K*be for Vlade (even though K*be only got to CHA at 13 b/c he said he was only playing for the L*kers? Barkley hamstrung the Sixers in 92, so you can't really count that one. The only one I can think of worse than that (and acknowledged as such at the time) was the Eddy Curry to the Knicks for multiple firsts. Gasol was a gift to the L*kers.
Shaq to Miami for Odom and Butler was panned enormously at the time, since Shaq was coming off a still-dominant season and Butler had been disappointing in Miami after a nice rookie season. He wasn't regarded then as he is now.
I think it's fair to say that there's a ton of difference between jockeying between a spot or two when you're already in the top ten and what it would take to move from the late first round to the second overall pick. Likely you'd have to be willing to absorb some really nasty contract(s) and give up some very good prospects, money and picks to get one of the two players in this draft that most people consider "can't miss." I suppose anything is possible, but getting Rubio seems like a pipedream ... especially when there are teams like Sacramento only two spots away who covet him and the Grizz can more easily work a deal with them where they trade down a couple of spots and probably get a nice young guy like Thompson or even an older vet like Nocioni who fills a position of need and they still get to pick a nice player at 4. Sergio + the 24th seems like an awfully poor counter offer.
I'm just not in favor of getting Rubio. I'm not in the mood of waiting another two seasons for this guy to develop and Brandon will be 27 by then. Our championship window is right now, we were good enough to get HCA this year and we're ready to take the next step -- we're not in the development of players stage anymore. Let's get some vets on this team and start winning now.
