Exceptions don't disprove the rule. Like I said--if he can be obtained for ancillary pieces, then great. But it's reasonable to assume that that won't be the case.
The flip side about Neil not making any positive "game changing" trades, is that since he is so conservative, I don't worry about him making any stupid disastrous trades. True some trades did not work out for us, (Will Barton. Noah Vonleh) but still none of them really set us back. So I doubt he would offer anything for the 34 year old Gasol that would be a substantial loss.
For me, I don't believe for a second we are interested in Marc Gasol with the caveat being if there was a Nurk trade for something really good and we were trying to see if we could cheaply fill his void. Lets say hypothetically that Olshey did "aggressively" pursue Gasol though just to play along... I don't see an offer of Turner and Leonard as aggressive. To me an aggressive offer would include some mix of young players and/or draft picks. Therefore, I think it's reasonable to question why Olshey is pursuing a 34 year old center who would be a backup on our team using what little assets we have instead of other available players who could possibly fit better. If we are looking for a backup center a guy like Dewayne Dedmon from Atlanta would seemingly be much cheaper to acquire than Gasol. Even if you got Gasol for cheap and split Nurk and Gasol 24 minutes a piece that still seems like an awkward fit for both being willing to accept a lesser role than they have currently. It just doesn't make sense which is why it's probably not true. If it is true I think you can immediately scratch guys that have a contract beyond next year off our wish list because that would indicate that either Olshey is only pursuing players that end in 2020 or sooner or that Jody isn't wanting to add big long term contracts. That would eliminate a bunch of players like Love, Griffin, Porter, etc.
Like you say, the only way I can see this rumor being true is if Olshey has lined up another trade that moves Nurkic to bring in another major talent. Whether that would be Davis, or a lesser move like Love or Griffin, I think it would be Olshey going all in to try to win big in the next couple of seasons. I have a hard time seeing how that happens, but if he can pull it off, yippee!
Let's assume we were trading for Love since it would take likely take less to get Love right now than Griffin and Detroit has Drummond so I doubt they'd be requesting Nurk. If we are pursuing Gasol because Nurk is involved in the Love trade, is that even a good move, lol? We'd be talking something like Turner and Nurk for Love? Yikes, I don't like that one but I'll continue to play. So then we call Memphis and offer what? Leonard, Harkless, Trent/Simons, and a 2019 1st for Gasol? I guess I could see those other teams doing that but what does that leave us? Dame, CJ, Layman, Love, Gasol Curry, Aminu, Collins filling out the 8 man rotation Baldwin, Stauskas, Simons, and Swanigan for the deep bench I guess we'd have 3 open roster spots to to add buyout guys or for other trades. If Love and Gasol were 100% healthy it might be decent for this year and mayyyyyybe next year if Gasol opted in but overall I don't think that is really much better than we currently have and we'd have no real way to replace Gasol when he leaves or gets too old. You'd have to really believe that Collins would for sure be our center of the future because having Dame, CJ, and Love pretty much makes cap space an impossibility. THIS IS NOT A TRADE SUGGESTION! I'm simply seeing what it would look like to play out this scenario.
So your assumption is that the Grizz will sell for pennies on the dollar? Why is that assumption more valid than his assumption that they will want value in return?
I think Cup is making no assumption at all, and saying that no assumption/speculation is valid. Which is, of course, super fun...
When he becomes a FA in the summer of 2020, what are his options? 1. Take a big pay cut and stay in Portland as a back-up. 2. We grossly over-pay to keep him as a back-up. 3. He takes a good offer from a team that needs a starting center and/or goes ring chasing. If he was still in his prime, the PG13 comparison would make sense. Instead, he is at an age where big men tend to go south quickly.
What was that quote JLPark used to have in his sig - something about "living in Olshey's butt." Now that would be a great name for a punk rock band!
So - you aren't saying the world is flat - you are just saying it isn't round. Life is full of possibilities, but treating all possible outcomes as equally likely is silly. You know perfectly well that the odds are very high that the Grizz will set a high price for Gasol, but you are ripping other posters for saying it. How is that constructive? What exactly do you think you are adding to the debate? Seriously, what is your end game here?
