Grizzlies & Lakers

[Los Angeles Lakers]

I accept , Griffin is expected to be healthy next year with a bigger role if he or CP3 leave the clippers. Randle's value is going to go down with who ever the Lakers take this draft. I also give up all my waived contracts while getting the #14 overall pick in a very deep draft.

[Dallas Mavericks]

Grizzlies gets taken out behind some sheds and brutally slapped with a haddock in this deal.

The way I see it, the Lakers are sending Julius Randle and receiving Blake Griffin, #14, and $14m in cap space. Shabazz Muhammad and Andrew Harrison may not be great, but they're at least worth something.

I would accept Julius Randle for Blake Griffin, but giving up a first round pick and taking on waived contracts while giving up the best player in the deal just seems brutal.

I reject.

[alexpdx]

Lakers send:

Randle - $4,100,000 $5,600,000
Jennings - $2,500,000 $2,500,000
Rivers - $8,000,000
x John Henson $3,000,000 $3,000,000
x Andre Roberson $500,000 $500,000
x Tyus Jones $500,000 $500,000
x Ty Lawson $500,000 $500,000

total - $20.100,000 $12,600,000

Grizzlies send:

Muhammed - $500,000 $500,000 $500,000
Young - $500,000
Crabbe - $1,000,000 $1,000,000
Harrison - $500,000 $500,000 $500,000
Griffin - $21,400,000
2017 pick #14

Total - $23,900,000 $2,000,000 $1,000,000



I'm moving Griffin, and Randle is the best return I've been offered. He is young and going to end up with another solid point guard on his team so i see his value increasing. The rest is just making cap stuff work. I don't love the pick, but don't know that the pick will turn into a contributing member of the team so it's not a huge loss. I will still end up saving a ton of money after waiving Rivers. 

I removed my original post because I thought this thing was rejected and was hoping to keep any power at all in trying to find a new deal to move Griffin, but that's not how it works I guess, so here it is again. 

[murg]

I am also going to reject this.

Just too much. I can understand the Chris Paul selling low. Fair enough, at that point you were way over the cap and that sucks. But Griffin, while obviously you would want to move, isn't a life or death thing like Paul. It is just too much to give up.

Both Randle and Griffin are re-signs that must occur this period. Yes Griffin is on loads of money, but he will also produce more points than Randle next year, and you get to re-sign him and drop some cap instantly. Randle, who has huge potential, still has 2 years on his rookie deal, not that many, until he gets a big contract. So, while I'd prefer Randle over Griffin, I wouldn't complain at either really. So in my mind, Griffin for Randle + a few contract dumps (like $11m over 2 years) is pretty good. The 1st rounder, while not incredible, also throws this trade over the edge for me.

If you guys can agree some more equitable deal, I'd happy to accept, but as it stands, the fact that the Grizzlies aren't being forced to trade Griffin away, and the amount of assets being given up, has be thinking it is too one sided.

Sorry guys.

[Minnesota Timberwolves]

Huh. You'd think a guy could just leave for a couple of days.

Just last week I was looking at the Vancouver roster and genuinely thinking that they were just going to have to decline one of those two big options this offseason. When he went and got something for CP3, I didn't think it was a great return, but it was something, so I just shrugged at it and assumed he'd be keeping Blake then. So this is interesting.

Here's the thing though--this is a list of reasonable opinions:

• Blake's last three seasons: 67 games, 35 games, 61 games. There is reason to believe he's more than a little bit an injury risk, and to be honest, I'd be terrified of offering him a re-sign next season. I'd almost rather do CP3.
  
• Julius Randle is a quality young PF who gets stats across the board, making him a very fantasy-friendly asset.
  
• Shabazz Mohammad and Allen Crabbe are both waiver-wire caliber assets (Shabazz being incredibly streaky, Crabbe being a great 3pt shooter, but ultimately not a great fantasy asset).
  
• Is Andrew Harrison even still in the NBA?
• Both of these teams are going to waive Rivers, as would everyone else in the league. He shouldn't even be included here. Just erase him.
  
• #14 is not even possibly, but *likely* a wash.

Look. I don't hold all of these opinions--I'm scared of Blake at that price, but I'm not convinced Randle is even the best PF on his team(NANCE!). I don't think Vancouver wins this trade by a long shot, since the whole point of giving up Blake is to gain cap and the extra contracts neutralize that (unless you go ahead and waive Rivers on your test roster and see that this clears roster spots for Vancouver and sets him up with $21 million in cap space). And even though Lakers nominally wins this, it's kind of a gigantic risk, and one that could be catastrophic for his team, too. 

I could almost see me making this move. It lets Vancouver reset the team he inherited and rebuild the way he wants to. I have no problems accepting this trade.

[Denver Nuggets]

Let me throw out some patented Denv . . . I mean Sacramento thoughts concerning one of my fellow league GM's trades.

The thing that everyone here is not addressing, which I think should be, is that the trade committee is probably not capable of (as human beings) of evaluating this trade without being somewhat cognizant of the trade that just went down between Philly and Vancouver. It appears as if the trade committee, particularly Charlotte is attempting to prevent Vancouver form doubling down on a move that CHA, perhaps unfairly, believes is devastating to Vancouver's team.

Just a day prior, VAN had moved CP3, the 16th highest scoring player in the entire Guru league last year (per game basis). For 2 years of Will Barton (another dude who only plays 60 games per year) and the 14th overall pick. Will Barton is a fine guy to have on your team, but this was a plain salary dump. The 16th best player in the league was dumped for what amounts to a 6th man and the 14th pick.

THE 14TH PICK WAS THE REAL ASSET EXCHANGED! In response to CHA's criticism, Spurs justified VAN's move almost exclusively relying on the fact that the 14th pick is especially valuable this year, perhaps worth a top ten pick in any other year. Regardless, it wasn't a significant haul for the 16th best player in the league, it was just "something. "Others justified it because VAN couldn't afford both players, so at least he got something when he would have had nothing.

THEN, just a day later, the trade at issue occurs. It is worth noting that Blake was the 17th best player in the entire Guru league on per game basis. But, The 14th pick is just handed off to LAL. That's 5 cost controlled years of a lottery pick in this draft that VAN acquired to give up a player of CP3's caliber, and now he's giving up that much value just to dump a player of nearly equal value. It just doesn't make a lot of sense.

So, if we assume that VAN isnt so wild to be willing to simply give up CP3 for the 14th, only to then give it away for the right to also dump Blake, then Randle must be the reason right? VAN must just be really high on him. If that's the case then more power to VAN, I guess.

It is an AWFULLY HIGH PRICE to pay though. I don't believe that CHA and NOP are so upset about the present trade in isolation, they're worried about the effect that trading BOTH CP3 and Griffin for such paltry returns might have on VAN. It's simply highly unlikely that Randle, who has been a bit underwhelming since entering the league, will ever replicate Blake's numbers. There are only so many players in the league that will ever put up 40 fppg. Blake has proven he can do it, and Randle hasn't.

So the benefit must be money then . . . As Minnesota points out, VAN is going to have to resign Randle in this resign period. He's a 30 fppg scorer now, and only 22, so he could improve. In such case, he will have a resign value of at least 10 million, and perhaps even more. The money savings, aren't even that significant. It's around 12 million this year, and assuming a Blake resign value of 15 million, a savings of just around 5 million every year thereafter.

I've been rambling in one of my stream of conscience things for awhile now, so I'll sum it up quickly. I don't think it's a trade worth rejecting, but it, on top of the CP3 trade, just leaves me with an uneasy feeling. VAN is not saving a meaningful amount of money by making this move. Yet, he certainly threw away a shot at the championship this year by moving 2 of his best 3 players, and it just makes his CP3 trade make little sense.

[Dallas Mavericks]

Trade rejected.