<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Don't expect to hear too much Pau Gasol trade speculation in coming months, after such chatter was a staple last season. The Memphis Grizzlies on Friday reached a verbal agreement with the Washington Wizards to obtain the rights to Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro, reinforcing the notion that the Grizz have no intention of parting with Gasol. The Grizzlies and Wizards, according to NBA front-office sources, have an agreement in principle that would send a future first-round pick -- likely a 2008 first-rounder -- to Washington in exchange for Navarro, who is considered one of Europe's top guards and, of greater importance to Memphis, one of Gasol's best friends. Specifics about the draft pick and the lottery protection involved are still being finalized, sources said, but the Grizzlies are now exclusively negotiating a buyout of Navarro's contract with European club power FC Barcelona and operating as if he's their player. According to a deadline established by Barcelona officials, Navarro had to be traded by the Wizards by Friday if he wanted to be in the NBA next season. This trade in principle appears to have satisfied the Spanish club, which originally set a deadline of July 25 and then extended it. No buyout has been completed and it's believed that the 27-year-old will have to pay his Spanish employers nearly $2.5 million for his freedom, since league rules preclude Memphis from contributing more than $500,000 to the buyout equation. Yet all signs point to those arrangements materializing by next week, even though Memphis is likely limited to signing Navarro to a short-term, low-dollar deal after bestowing a three-year, $21 million deal on free-agent center Darko Milicic. </div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2960667 This was an awful deal, I was hoping we'd at least dump off Etan Thomas's ugly contract. There's no point talking a lottery protected draft pick as the Grizzlies are most likely not making the playoffs. I'm very dissapointed in Grunfeld's decision, he could've at least taken the Heat's first rounder then we would've known that we got something in return.
The pick might end up to be top 3 protected rather than lottery protected, but if that's not the case then this was a bad deal made. Obviously the Grizzlies won't make the playoffs, so we basically gave Navarro for free when we could've gotten a nicer deal else where. As for dumping Etan, we don't need to be in a rush to trade him off now. We have as long as the trade deadline and the NBA draft to do that. What's the rush?
You guys overrate Navarro. He'll be a fourth string point guard or a third string shooting guard, an undersized one at that. I'd be surprised if he got more than 10 mpg next season.
I actually think he'll be a solid NBA player. I'm not sure what kind of minutes he'll be getting in Memphis (don't know much about their guard situation), but he's shown the kind of all-around offensive ability in Europe that should translate well overseas. I do think you guys were overrating the Wizards bargaining position. Every team in the NBA knew they weren't going to keep Navarro, because they were saving the money for Blatche. Your management was asking way too much for him and it scared off teams like Miami and Boston. When it came down to the deadline, Memphis was the only team interested in him and Washington was basically forced to accept whatever they offered or risk losing him for nothing. I actually thought you'd get a lot less than a first rounder.
Receiving a 1st Round pick for 2008 is good value for the Wizards. Navarro is a question mark at this point, and the Wizards aren't exactly thin in the backcourt. Even if they brought Navarro over, where would he fit in? Current backcourt: Arenas, Daniels, Stevenson, Young Adding another 1st rounder opens up a lot of options for the Wizards next summer. They could potentially package their picks and move up, or ship out a bad contract like Etan with a pick.
I can't hate on a first round pick, but even with how young they are, Memphis might not be that bad with Gasol playing. I wonder how protected the pick is though. I would've liked the Wizards to somehow get Etan in, but that's okay. The draft pick itself can be used to package Etan later in the year.
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">You guys overrate Navarro. He'll be a fourth string point guard or a third string shooting guard, an undersized one at that. I'd be surprised if he got more than 10 mpg next season.</div> You're underrating him, he was arguebely the best scorer in Europe last season. He'll be getting solid minutes next season, may take a while for him to adapt to the NBA game but it shouldn't take longer than a couple weeks. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I wonder how protected the pick is though.</div> Lottery protected this year, if Grizzlies are in lottery than we get a top 3 protected pick in 2009. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I would've liked the Wizards to somehow get Etan in</div> Same, I'm hoping that Etan Thomas is on another team before the season begins, his contract is very un-attractive.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">You're underrating him, he was arguebely the best scorer in Europe last season. He'll be getting solid minutes next season, may take a while for him to adapt to the NBA game but it shouldn't take longer than a couple weeks.</div> What does being a star in Europe matter? He's way too small to be a shooting guard in the NBA. He lacks the athleticism to make up for only being 6'3", and he was a pretty weak defender already on the Euroleague level, so I can't even imagine what a liability he'll be on the NBA level. Where's he going to get playing time, over Mike Miller? How about at point guard, is he going to play over Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley, Jr., and Damon Stoudamire? Here's the Grizzlies rotation - PG - Kyle Lowry / Mike Conley, Jr. / Damon Stoudamire SG - Mike Miller / Tarence Kinsey / Juan Carlos Navarro Miller's a top five shooter in the game and a borderline All-Star, whereas Kinsey averaged 42+ mpg in the month of April, second in the entire NBA. With that rotation, I can't see Navarro playing any more than 8-10 mpg.
He could possibly get the backup SG spot over Kinsey, though I don't really know. When talking about Washington he was saying they don't have minutes at his position(s), but I suppose Memphis doesn't either. Kinsey ended the season nicely, averaging 18.8 PPG, but mind you he was doing it in 41.9 MPG. He wasn't much of a three point shooter, is a fairly weak rebounder, and not much of a passer. Juan isn't going to rebound better, but he should be able to shoot from 3PT land better and pass better. He will be a worse defender at SG though, being 6'3 compared to Kinsey at 6'6, though Tarence is a thin guy. Anyways, we'll see how it goes, it's not the Wizards problem anymore.
<div class="quote_poster">og15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">He could possibly get the backup SG spot over Kinsey, though I don't really know. When talking about Washington he was saying they don't have minutes at his position(s), but I suppose Memphis doesn't either. Kinsey ended the season nicely, averaging 18.8 PPG, but mind you he was doing it in 41.9 MPG. He wasn't much of a three point shooter, is a fairly weak rebounder, and not much of a passer. Juan isn't going to rebound better, but he should be able to shoot from 3PT land better and pass better. He will be a worse defender at SG though, being 6'3 compared to Kinsey at 6'6, though Tarence is a thin guy. Anyways, we'll see how it goes, it's not the Wizards problem anymore.</div> With Mike Miller starting at the two and Casey Jacobsen coming off the bench at the three, the Grizzlies stand to always have a three point shooter on the court, and our two-guards won't be required to do much ball-handling or playmaking with two point guards like Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley, Jr. running the show. I see him splitting time with Kinsey, possibly getting more. Even if he gets more time than Kinsey though, you have to assume that Miller's going to play 35-40 mpg, so that only leaves 8-13 mpg to be split between Kinsey and Navarro. Marc Iavaroni has also talked about running a backcourt of Conley, Jr. and Lowry at the same time, so if that happens frequently, you can count Navarro out of the picture completely. At the end of the day, I think this trade was made for one reason - to keep Pau Gasol happy. He's the future of this franchise and really underrated on the national level. He's arguably one of the top five power forwards in the game today, and if you consider him a center, the only center I'd rank ahead of him at this point would be Yao Ming. We're not going to just trade him away for a cheap package of Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, or some lame offer like that, so acquiring Navarro is a step towards retaining him.
Pau is a top 5 powerforward, you're right, however, he gets owned by Dirk every year so unless Dirk moves to the East or retires, Grizz can never get to the Finals.
<div class="quote_poster">NYC_Balla Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Pau is a top 5 powerforward, you're right, however, he gets owned by Dirk every year so unless Dirk moves to the East or retires, Grizz can never get to the Finals.</div> I don't think it's fair to draw your conclusions about Pau off of that one series. What about the 36 point, 15 rebounds, 5 assist game he had in a win in Dallas' home gym that same year? Besides, that's completely off topic. The point is, the Grizzlies wanted to secure Gasol, and acquiring Navarro will go a long way in making that a reality.
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">With Mike Miller starting at the two and Casey Jacobsen coming off the bench at the three, the Grizzlies stand to always have a three point shooter on the court, and our two-guards won't be required to do much ball-handling or playmaking with two point guards like Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley, Jr. running the show. I see him splitting time with Kinsey, possibly getting more. Even if he gets more time than Kinsey though, you have to assume that Miller's going to play 35-40 mpg, so that only leaves 8-13 mpg to be split between Kinsey and Navarro. Marc Iavaroni has also talked about running a backcourt of Conley, Jr. and Lowry at the same time, so if that happens frequently, you can count Navarro out of the picture completely. At the end of the day, I think this trade was made for one reason - to keep Pau Gasol happy. He's the future of this franchise and really underrated on the national level. He's arguably one of the top five power forwards in the game today, and if you consider him a center, the only center I'd rank ahead of him at this point would be Yao Ming. We're not going to just trade him away for a cheap package of Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, or some lame offer like that, so acquiring Navarro is a step towards retaining him.</div> I forgot about Casey Jacobsen even. He's not so good though, the only way it could work out for Navarro is Miller getting a lot of SF minutes, so he ends up being the starting SG, but playing a good amount of the game at SF when Gay isn't in. That will open up some more minutes at SG, though it would take away Jacobsen's minutes. Not that it's really a big deal, I don't know if Jacobsen has improved from just being a no defense catch and shoot guy who doesn't score that much and can't create anything.
<div class="quote_poster">og15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I forgot about Casey Jacobsen even. He's not so good though, the only way it could work out for Navarro is Miller getting a lot of SF minutes, so he ends up being the starting SG, but playing a good amount of the game at SF when Gay isn't in. That will open up some more minutes at SG, though it would take away Jacobsen's minutes. Not that it's really a big deal, I don't know if Jacobsen has improved from just being a no defense catch and shoot guy who doesn't score that much and can't create anything.</div> I think Jacobsen's still the player he was in Phoenix, but the whole reason he got playing time in Phoenix in the first place was because of Iavaroni, then an assistant. Now that Iavaroni's the head coach, I'm expecting him to get a lot of burn. Iavaroni is also planning on playing both Cardinal () and Warrick at the three. I guess injuries are inevitable though, so that should clear up time for Navarro at the two, but otherwise, I just can't see him getting much pt.
The deal is finalized and here's what we get in return: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">-The Wizards receive a top-19 protected first round pick in 2008, a top-16 protected pick in 2009, a top-14 (lottery) protected pick from 2010-2012, a top-12 protected pick in 2013 or a second-round pick and cash considerations if they have not received a pick by 2013.</div> Link From the way the Grizzlies look right now, it doesn't seem for a while until we'll get our hands on this draft pick. Of course, we hope the Grizzlies will do as best as they can so we can get it as soon as we can. Even though the Wizards don't necessarily need another rookie to develop, it can certainly be a good piece to use when they ship off Etan.
