In publications all across this land, intelligent people looking for an explanation for the Grizzlies-Lakers trade hit on the same explanation: Salary dump.
The article goes on to say, much like the other article in the paper, that this explanation is false. False because some people have said it is false.
So let me get this right... all of the facts of the recent past will lead you to believe that this was another move to help cut costs, intelligent people all over the nation can see this, but Heisley and some other source said that it was not a fire sale. Hmmmmm. Honestly, anyone with a brain can see the truth. If you believe this crap, you are simply naive.
With that being said, the outcome of this trade is not that bad. The by-product of cutting costs could help the Grizzlies build a significantly better team in the future. In the end, this team has to get lucky and be better in the draft than they have been.
The trade is what it is, but I cannot help but laugh at the people killing it. It could not be more obvious that much of the national media has rarely seen Pau play. This was clearly more of a business deal than a basketball deal, but allow me to quickly address it from the basketball angle. WHY WAS THE TEAM ALWAYS AS GOOD WITH PAU AS THEY WERE WITHOUT HIM RECORD-WISE? WHY? Over the course of the last few years the Grizzlies have won 28% of their games with Pau, and 27% without him. How is that possible if the guy is so great? I defy anyone to give me a good reason. The suck with him, and now they will suck without him, but at least they will have some flexibility to improve (if they care).
The toughest part to swallow for me is that I was screaming from the rooftops a few years ago that this team should not be making Pau a max player. If that is what you had to pay, you had to let him walk. This franchise should have never given the guy the deal, and now we all pay for it.
