<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Barcelona: Navarro Must Be Dealt By August 3rdJuly 25, 2007 - 3:05 pmAgent Alex Saratsis tells Henry Abbot of TrueHoop that this morning, Barcelona officials declared they would only let Juan Carlos Navarro out of his contract with a reasonable buyout if a trade is completed by August 3. As in, the end of next week.Grunfeld has only a short time to accept a deal, or else, according to Saratsis, Barcelona officials will take Navarro back, and give him a new contract with a buyout so massive it will essentially guarantee that he will never play in the NBA. Saratsis says he is certain the Barcelona officials are not bluffing.</div>LinkI hope Grunfeld doesn't feel the pressure and make a dumbass trade, we need to get some valuable pieces in return for arguably the best guard in Europe. It's good that he laughed at the idea of trading JCN for Miami's draft pick, though. So I definitely trust his decision-making in this situation.
This is a sticky situation, it should force the Grizzlies and Heat to dish out all they can to get Navarro. JCN will not play for the Wizards no matter what, hopefully it will pressure the Heat into including Posey or an expiring like Jason Williams and taking one of our expensive contracts.
With the signing of Andre Brown and Casey Jacobson, im sure a Grizzlies-Wizards deal isnt going to happen unless the Wizards hit Wallace up with a Stromile/Cardinal offer.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BluffCityBlue @ Jul 25 2007, 09:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>With the signing of Andre Brown and Casey Jacobson, im sure a Grizzlies-Wizards deal isnt going to happen unless the Wizards hit Wallace up with a Stromile/Cardinal offer.</div> Neither Stromile Swift or Brian Cardinal are expiring, so unelss Grunfeld can force Swift to opt-out next year, the Wizards would be left without enough money to sign Arenas and not go into the luxury tax. I'm sure that Grunfeld would likely ask for at least a draft pick or expiring to include with Swift, while giving up Etan Thomas. I know that Etan Thomas isn't the most attractive player in the NBA, however, the Grizzlies do have to keep Gasol happy as he has asked for Navarro to play on the Grizzlies next season. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>July 26, 2007 - 12:06 pm Washington Post - Eight teams have contacted the Wizards with interest in acquiring Juan Carlos Navarro, including the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies , but so far, no offers have been to the liking of Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld. The team has never seriously considered signing Navarro, who is seeking a contract that would pay him around $3.5 million, according to a league source.</div> http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/473...s_about_navarro At least we will have options when trading Navarro by the 3rd. Hopefully, Ernie can find a deal that benefit's the Wizards in time.
Awesome, I was under the impression Memphis wasnt in the running anymore, seems like we still are. Mainly probably because Gasol would love to have a teammate he practicly grew up with. I still would do Stro and restricted 1st for Navarro and Etan Thomas.We still have room for another player, but its been said we want to stop at 13 roster spots.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BluffCityBlue @ Jul 26 2007, 10:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Awesome, I was under the impression Memphis wasnt in the running anymore, seems like we still are. Mainly probably because Gasol would love to have a teammate he practicly grew up with. I still would do Stro and restricted 1st for Navarro and Etan Thomas.</div> Do you know if Swift would be willing to opt-out if Grunfeld were to ask him to? Also, assuming that we could get rid of Swift's contract next summer, this is a very attractive deal for the Wizards. The Grizzlies will probabely be in the mid lottery so it will bring in another solid young talent that will likely be used as trade bait. Getting an expiring is the main purpose of any deal involving Navarro.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BluffCityBlue @ Jul 26 2007, 11:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>We probably wont be in the mid-lottery.</div> Where do you think you will be? There are plenty of team's better than the Grizzlies in both conferences.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BluffCityBlue @ Jul 26 2007, 11:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I expect Memphis to be in the 20-15 pick range.</div> Then you expect them to make the playoffs, there are easily 8 teams better than the Grizzlies in the West. 1. Dallas 2. San Antonio 3. Pheonix 4. Houston 5. Utah 6. Denver 7. Golden State 8. Los Angeles Lakers 9. Portland Trailblazers 10. Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings, or Memphis Grizzlies In the East, I would still say that Memphis would struggle making the playoffs but still be close. They're a late lottery team at this point, I don't see the additions of Marc Iavoroni and Mike Conley Jr making that big of an impact.
The addition of them, and the subtraction of coaching problems, injuries, and front office problems should make us a playoff contender again. And you forgot to mention Darko Milicic, which finally solves out C problem. I think we can compete with the Lakers, Blazers, Golden St. and I think we will be better than the Kings and Clippers. You obviously dont realize why we were a lottery team last season, and we basicly addressed all of our weaknesses. We got another young PG, Gasol is going to come back healthy, we have a defensive minded coach who knows how to play defense in a uptempo style and we finally got the beef we needed in the middle. Not to mention young guys like Lowry, Kinsey and Warrick will be coming off the bench for us producing.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BluffCityBlue @ Jul 27 2007, 12:15 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The addition of them, and the subtraction of coaching problems, injuries, and front office problems should make us a playoff contender again. And you forgot to mention Darko Milicic, which finally solves out C problem. I think we can compete with the Lakers, Blazers, Golden St. and I think we will be better than the Kings and Clippers.</div> You may be able to play at the level of the Lakers, Blazers, and Warriors but will you be able to pry a playoff spot away from them? Blazers are young and athletic, they may not make the playoffs this season but have a great future ahead of them and will cause many teams problems this season. The Lakers have Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, those two have delivered a playoff spot hte past two seasons and I don't see why they wouldn't this year without all the injuries. The Warriors will win a ton of games when hot, you never really know when they will be winning a ton of games or be at rock bottom. As for the Kings and Clippers, both had bad seasons last year and both are capable for better. I know the Clippers are a capable playoff team even if it didn't show last year, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, and Cuttino Mobely are a very strong trio. Sacramento had problems with Artest last year, hopefully now that Ronny Ron Ron has apparently gotten his act together, they will be able to play near .500. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>You obviously dont realize why we were a lottery team last season, and we basicly addressed all of our weaknesses. We got another young PG, Gasol is going to come back healthy, we have a defensive minded coach who knows how to play defense in a uptempo style and we finally got the beef we needed in the middle. Not to mention young guys like Lowry, Kinsey and Warrick will be coming off the bench for us producing.</div> I'm not saying that the Grizzlies didn't improve but the West is really strong right now. They will be able to contend for a playoff spot but I'll be surprised if they snag it. Despite making strides for improvemnt, and with Gay/Conley they will make the playoffs in years to come, I still think this year there are too many teams wanting one of those last two seeds.
Well, we're just going to have to wait until the season...but I have faith we wont be a lotto team next season.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>July 27, 2007 - 1:21 pm Sun-Sentinel - Juan Carlos Navarro's American agent, Alex Saratsis, said on Wednesday that the Heat remains "a solid possibility" for the point guard if the Washington Wizards trade his rights. The two teams are in active negotiations, according to a source. Saratsis said Barcelona, Navarro's current team, has imposed a deadline of Aug. 3 for the Wizards to complete a deal. He said the Heat is one of seven or eight teams interested. The Wizards are over the salary cap but might not be eager to deal with the Heat because the teams play in the same division. "Barcelona dropped his buyout number from $14 million to $3 million," Saratsis said, "so he could play in the NBA. Barcelona begins training camp in a couple of weeks. If we don't get a deal done, they will sign him to a new contract, and his buyout number will be prohibitive, at least $14 million again.</div> http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/473...alking_navarro/ The information surrounding the Navarro situation is starting to get repetetive. It does seem as though the Heat have alot more interest than the Grizzlies. Saldy, a first round draft pick is not enough to pry Navarro away from the Wizards, Grunfeld really wants to swap one of his expensive veterans for an expiring contract.
I know the Wiz are bumping at the luxury tax, but $3.5M is hardly a huge expense. They'd pay about $3M or so in extra tax to sign him, but that's not any worse than buying a draft pick.</p> The guy is supposed to be a top flight player, so shouldn't they just suck it up and try to use a future pick or other compensation to move out Haywood or Thomas and get unde the tax? </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC)</div><div class='quotemain'> I know the Wiz are bumping at the luxury tax, but $3.5M is hardly a huge expense. They'd pay about $3M or so in extra tax to sign him, but that's not any worse than buying a draft pick.</p> The guy is supposed to be a top flight player, so shouldn't they just suck it up and try to use a future pick or other compensation to move out Haywood or Thomas and get unde the tax? </p> </div></p> </p> Well I believe the main reason is to clear up cap space so we don't fall into the luxury tax next season when we attempt to sign Arenas to a maximum contract. I would love to have Navarro on this squad as he was arguebely the best player in the euro league last season, but I don't know if I we should take the risk of potentially losing Arenas.</p>
It looks to me like we risk losing Gil if we just keep the status quo, or if we trade away productive players for cap space.</p> </p> That's the crux of the problem. If we take a step backwards there's the risk Gil walks. If we spend too much, we risk Uncle Abe shitcanning the whole operation and letting him walk. </p> I say spend a little more now, bring in a guy like Navarro who might really help, and try to unload one of the other centers to a team under the cap to free up space. It'd have to be Haywood, because his deal isn't unreasonable for his production. We'd have to give up something productive to get rid of Thomas, no one will touch him.</p> If Navarro can play, AD will become tradable too. </p>
