NBA Free Agents 2013: Best Landing Spots for Top Shooting Guards on Market
As Danny Green continues to set the new standard for shooting guard play in the midst of his impressive NBA Finals performances, thoughts start to shift toward what NBA teams in need of a Green-like talent can do to bolster the position.
The Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks and Minnesota Timberwolves are a few teams with obvious needs at the position, but when it comes to free agency, you make moves to make your franchise better—bar none.
That makes the 2013 NBA free-agent shooting guard pool an interesting one indeed. Several players will be looking to cash in big after strong seasons while other candidates with Green-like potential will surely entice all 30 NBA teams.
With the NBA Finals preparing to close down, the 2013 draft and start of free agency will be here before we know it. Take a look at some notable SG free agents below, and the best landing spots for the top stars at the position.
Notable 2013 NBA Free-Agent Shooting Guards
| Player | Previous Team | 2012-13 Stats (PPG/RPG/APG/FG%) |
| Ben Gordon (PO) | Charlotte Bobcats | 11.2/1.7/1.9/40.8 |
| Gerald Henderson (R) | Charlotte Bobcats | 15.5/3.7/2.6/44.7 |
| Marco Belinelli | Chicago Bulls | 9.6/1.9/2.0/39.5 |
| O.J. Mayo | Dallas Mavericks | 15.3/3.5/4.4/44.9 |
| Andre Iguodala | Denver Nuggets | 13.0/5.3/5.4/45.1 |
| Brandon Rush | Golden State Warriors | 7.0/0.5/1.0/66.7 (2 games) |
| Jodie Meeks (TO) | Los Angeles Lakers | 7.9/2.2/0.9/38.7 |
| Tony Allen | Memphis Grizzlies | 8.9/4.6/1.2/44.5 |
| Ray Allen (PO) | Miami Heat | 10.9/2.7/1.7/44.9 |
| Monta Ellis | Milwaukee Bucks | 19.2/3.9/6.0/41.6 |
| J.R. Smith | New York Knicks | 18.1/5.3/2.7/42.2 |
| Kevin Martin | Oklahoma City Thunder | 14.0/2.3/1.4/45.0 |
| Nick Young | Philadelphia 76ers | 10.6/2.2/1.4/41.3 |
| Gary Neal (R) | San Antonio Spurs | 9.5/2.1/1.9/41.2 |
| Manu Ginobili | San Antonio Spurs | 11.8/3.4/4.6/42.5 |
| Alan Anderson | Toronto Raptors | 10.7/2.3/1.6/38.3 |
*TO=team option. PO=player option. R=restricted.
For a complete look at the 2013 NBA free-agent class, click here (via ESPN).
Best Landing Spots for Top SGs
Andre Iguodala: Detroit Pistons
Despite some resistance across the league, as noted here by Denver Post columnist Benjamin Hochman, AI is a shooting guard, and he’s performed reasonably well enough in that role to warrant consideration for both wing positions on any team.
Iguodala exercised his early termination option last week, and as noted by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, he will leave $15.9 million on the table to do so.
The 29-year-old wing must feel he’s worth a long-term contract in the neighborhood of that salary, or he simply sees a better option on the horizon outside of the friendly confines of the Mile High city.
There’s a number of teams that could show interest in Iguodala this offseason, including several listed above in the intro section and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have a strong core in place and two first-round picks in the 2013 draft.
But the Detroit Pistons offer Iguodala an opportunity to reunite with former head coach and move closer to his Illinois background. A core of Brandon Knight, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond, along with the No. 8 pick in the draft, may also weigh strongly in Iguodala’s offseason decision-making.
Iguodala is a big-time performer, and the fact that he’s been to the playoffs the past three seasons might make a team closer to contention more reasonable. The money and the chance to lead right away, though, comes in the form of the Pistons.
O.J. Mayo: Minnesota Timberwolves
Mayo had a strong start to the 2012-13 regular season, taking over for the Dallas Mavericks in stretches as Dirk Nowitzki rehabbed from knee surgery.
He faded fast after the turn of the calendar, though, struggling to carry his strong start to the second half of the season. Mayo lost favor with Rick Carlisle, opted out of his contract and has to face the facts that he was a so-so player for most of the year after he so wanted to prove Memphis wrong by signing a low-dollar contract with the Mavs.
Mayo can still play some good ball, though.
One of the best three-point shooters in the league last year, Mayo connected to the tune of a 40.7 percent clip, and that’s exactly the kind of off-the-ball abilities Minnesota needs from its shooting guard in the current offense.
With Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love and Derrick Williams in place, the T’Wolves are a few pieces (and some good fortune in the medical department) away from really surprising some people in the West.
Although Mayo was frustratingly disappointing as a closer (33.3 percent free-throws in the final minute of a game last year), he won’t have to be that guy in Minnesota. Love and Rubio will take care of the big plays, and Mayo can really extend his role as a knockdown three-point shooter in a strong offense.
Monta Ellis: Sacramento Kings
Monta Ellis is another player who opted out of his contract despite the status of the new CBA keeping teams from breaking the bank these days, but he’ll still be a sought-after player because he can flat-out score.
As B/R’s own Ethan Norof notes, Ellis must really want out of Milwaukee, where he was traded in 2012 for Andrew Bogut:
The combo guard averaged over 19 points per game this season, tops for any shooting guard currently on the open market. Playing in tandem with Brandon Jennings, he asserted his will as one of the NBA’s hardest players to guard—no matter what position he was playing.
Ellis also averaged six assists per game, a strong number that suggest he does have greatness in him if harnessed the right way.
Although I’m not sure that greatness will be harnessed fully in Sacramento, a return to the west coast in the form of the Kings would be a smart move for a franchise that looks dead on offense at times when dealing with the inflated likeness of DeMarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans.
Former Golden State mentor Mike Malone is the new head coach of the Kings, and that relationship has been described by Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears as a potential plus for the free-agent journey Ellis is about to embark on.
Personally, Ellis is a very good sixth man who should average 25-30 minutes per game on a good team. His defense is atrocious and his decisions are questionable at times, but there’s little doubt he can carry the second unit (or first unit) of an offense.
No matter what Malone decides to do with Ellis, the Kings are a nice fit for the guard to return to California and earn a prominent role on a team oozing with misplaced talent.
J.R. Smith: Atlanta Hawks
After nine seasons as a premier NBA sixth man, J.R. Smith finally has a chance to cash in like a starter.
A victim of the lockout in 2011, Smith was a late signing of the New York Knicks later that season when he returned from his commitment overseas.
All he’s done since then is carry New York’s second unit, earn the green light from head coach Mike Woodson (although I’m not sure anyone on the roster has a red light) and average over 18 points on just over 42 percent shooting from the floor in his second season in the Big Apple.
There’s plenty to like about the Smith/New York relationship.
One thing that won’t go over well, though, is the salary situation.
Smith made just under $3 million this season, and with Tyson Chandler, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire making double-digit millions on a cap that could easily stretch to $85 million if the Knicks don’t find a way to clear some space, where is the money in the budget to sign him?
Sure—the Knicks have money. But this is a franchise known for throwing money at players who stay on the books for years, even if they no longer where blue and orange.
Enter the Atlanta Hawks.
Loaded with cap space, opportunities and still in the mix for a big free-agent name even with Smith in the fold (think Andrew Bynum), the Hawks would be a great place for Smith to flex his muscles as either a starter or a sixth man yet again.
I think the Knicks have Smith’s heart, and rightly so, but they don’t hold the best interests of his wallet in mind, and we might be looking at another Jeremy Line situation if the Hawks (or any other team with hefty cap space) offers up a contract that shouldn’t be matched.
The shooting guard market is an interesting one to pay attention to, as many notable names might end up just trading places with other guards. These four are the big ones to watch, though, and should be monitored until the dotted line is no longer empty.
Follow Bleacher Report FC Ethan Grant (@DowntownEG) on Twitter.
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Andre Iguodala Rumors: George Karl’s Departure Gives Guard Reason to Test Market
The 2013 NBA Coach of the Year won’t be back to attempt a repeat performance next season, and along with George Karl goes any certainty of the Denver Nuggets retaining shooting guard Andre Iguodala.
As David Aldridge of NBA.com noted, Karl’s departure (along with that of Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri) is sure to create a ripple effect that could impact what the 29-year-old decides to do this summer when he becomes a free agent.
Aldridge was in contact with Iguodala following Karl’s dismissal, and he tweeted a text the guard sent him in regards to the news:
That’s probably not the response Nuggets fans would have hoped for given Iguodala’s importance to the budding championship contender. Things didn‘t exactly go according to plan when Denver made its playoff appearance this season, but the pieces are (or were) in place for another attempt in 2013-14.
The No. 9 pick in the 2004 draft, Iguodala needed a couple seasons to adjust to the pace of the NBA. But in his third season, the Arizona product made a huge leap in tallying 18.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game, giving the Philadelphia 76ers plenty of hope for his future with the team.
After three more terrific seasons, Iguodala’s production began to decline. Then in 2012-13, he found himself on a Nuggets squad with some tremendous young talent and a very good chance to make waves in the postseason.
But with a premature exit from the playoffs, Iguodala was left to contemplate a big decision. As quoted by Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post, the shooting guard still has to let it all sink in:
When I got to Los Angeles and sit down and talk to my agent — we’ll start having conversations. I didn’t really think the season would be ending this early. It was never on my mind what I would do next year.
I know what type of potential this team has; so that won’t weight heavily on my decision. … The timeline of my career going forward, I definitely want to win a championship. At the same time, it’s a business, but I don’t think it’s a factor. The front office knows what I bring to the team, so we’ll see what happens. There are so many factors that I haven’t even thought of yet. Which is why I’ll just sit down and weight all my options, take my time with it, and not rush into anything.
None of those factors probably had anything to do with George Karl. With the nine-year Denver head coach out the door, Iguodala will have even more to think about.
As he hinted to Hochman, Karl’s determination was one of his focuses when discussing the future:
“I think that started with bringing me here. He’s really hungry, Coach [George] Karl is hungry, and we have a lot of hungry players as well.”
With Karl and Ujiri gone, the loyalty factor is all but dried up. Apart from a one-year stint with his Denver teammates, Iguodala has no reason not to test the market in search of a team with more stability and a greater chance of making a championship run next season.
That’s not to say the Nuggets aren‘t still in position to compete, but the offseason process is fluid. With one big free-agent signing (like Dwight Howard or Chris Paul), plenty of teams could become contenders, especially with a complement like Iguodala in the fold.
And it still remains to be seen what Denver will choose to offer the shooting guard this summer. Given the team’s total unwillingness to entertain the idea of retaining Karl, why should Iguodala expect a competitive offer when he becomes a free agent?
So much of this is speculative at this point in the process, but there’s reason to believe Iguodala will be more inclined to test the waters with Karl no longer in town. He doesn‘t exactly have a history with the Nuggets and, apart from some young talent, there’s no longer a comfortable foundation to stand on.
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Good trade market for Pierce?
From an article by Steve Bulpett in this morning’s Boston Herald: “There is reportedly healthy interest in Pierce out on the market. But the Celtics won’t be giving him away. Ainge has noted that his captain had a strong overall year, and while he wasn’t quite up to his own par in the playoffs, there are valid reasons for that. (Without Rajon Rondo, Pierce’s job description grew dramatically.)” The Paul Pierce most of us remember right now is the guy who turned the ball over 5+ times a game in the New York series. But let’s not forget that for the season he still averaged 18.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game; not to mention a 19.2 PER (Player Efficiency Rating), 33rd best in the NBA. That’s also a great point about the effect Rondo’s absence had on the Captain. Without his point guard Pierce was often forced to be a primary ball handler and play maker, especially in the playoffs. Some of the same reasons why Avery Bradley’s game suf…
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NBA A-Z: Is Sacramento as good a market as Seattle?
Marketing expert talks about the two markets and if there’s a clear-cut best choice
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New York Knicks watching J.J. Redick trade market; Bulls, Pacers interested
The New York Knicks are in the market for another sharpshooter, possibly J.J. Redick.
ESPN New York reported that the Knicks are monitoring the trade market for Orlando Magic bomber J.J. Redick. The speculation is that the Magic would ask for Iman Shumpert in a deal. No word on whether there’s actually an offer on the table.
Rumors Saturday also mentioned Shumpert as a target of the Phoenix Suns, who may offer Jared Dudley and a future first rounder. Hoopsworld’s Alex Kennedy tweeted that the Knicks would rather give up Ronnie Brewer. Of course, they would.
Also Saturday, the Milwaukee Bucks emerged as a potential destination for Redick. Other teams with “strong interest” in the gunner: the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls tried to sign Redick as a restricted free agent three years ago, but the Magic matched.
Knicks would prefer to trade Ronnie Brewer, but Suns want Iman Shumpert. They have really liked Iman for awhile. They nearly draft…
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Doing the Math on LeBron James’ Would-Be Worth on the Open Market
LeBron James is the most underpaid player in the NBA. Though he will make a reported $17.5 million this season, according to Shamsports, every team in the NBA would gladly pay him several multiples of that salary if it were permitted to under the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
He simply brings that much value. But exactly how much is he worth?
Well, with a $17.5 million salary, LeBron is “getting hosed,” Kevin Grier, a University of Oklahoma economist, told Taylor Tepper of NPR. According to Grier and the other economists interviewed, James should be making more like $40 million.
Looking at all the ways LeBron can bring value to a franchise, even that number sounds low, and this isn’t just economist mumbo jumbo.
LeBron himself knows his salary is being artificially restrained.
“If this was baseball, it’d be up, I mean way up there,” said LeBron, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Endorsements
Forbes calls James the world’s fourth-highest-paid athlete and puts his annual endorsement revenue at $40 million. Given the profit margins of brands like Nike, McDonald’s, Sprite, Powerade and Bubblicious, they probably aren’t overpaying for his services.
In fact, the seven-year, $90 million endorsement deal that Nike gave James out of high school, according to USA Today, was likely one of the better deals the company has ever made. While it sounds like an astronomical sum, it turned out to be a bargain, and that is exactly how a team would feel if it was allowed to pay him $40 million per year to play basketball.
If we use the Nike deal as a conservative baseline for the amount an NBA team would pay simply to have LeBron’s image associated with its franchise, that makes $15.6 million per year when the 2003 contract figure is adjusted just for inflation.
Ticket Sales
The year before LeBron James signed to play for the Miami Heat, the team ranked 15th in the league in attendance, according to ESPN. It then finished fifth and fourth the two seasons after he arrived and is currently third overall this year.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly lost a lot of fans after he left.
During LeBron’s seven years in Cleveland, the team ranked (from 2003-04 to 2009-10) ninth, sixth, fifth, third, third, fifth and second in attendance. The year after he left, the Cavs still managed to draw, finishing third in the league in attendance in 2010-11. But they finished 19th last season and sit at 19th again right now.
And in case there was any confusion about how much LeBron had to do with the temporary passion for professional hoops in Ohio, just look at the the attendance numbers the season before LeBron showed up: Cleveland ranked dead last.
With an average ticket price of $48.48, according to Team Marketing Report, the 3,565 extra fans that the Heat have welcomed per game this year compared to the Cavaliers equals an extra $172,831 per game. Multiply that by the 41 home games Miami will host this regular season, and team owner Micky Arison will gross $7.1 million more than Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert this season due, in large part, to LeBron.
Merchandise
Based on the latest figures from the league, as reported by Tom Rotunno of CNBC, James has the NBA’s top-selling jersey, and only the New York Knicks sell more jerseys than the Heat. His effect on merchandise sales appears even more pronounced when you look at all the other products the team puts his name, number and face on.
There are no public reports listing the actual number of jerseys sold, but if you look at all the alternate versions available and see just how many people at the average Heat game are wearing LeBron jerseys, it seems reasonable to assume the team is moving 10,000 per year.
With a retail price tag of $89.99, that makes $899,000 per year. Throw in the headbands, iPhone cases, t-shirts and bobble heads, and we can probably round that up to $1 million per year.
National Television Contract
It may be a leap to say that any one player could inflate the price that television networks would pay to broadcast national games. But both league insiders and reporters routinely credit Magic Johnson and Larry Bird for saving the NBA in the early 1980s, and Michael Jordan certainly brought the league to new heights of popularity as he captivated the world throughout the 1990s.
We may be able to pencil in LeBron’s as the next person who belongs on that list.
Because the national television contract, which is the biggest source of revenue for most teams, expires in 2016, and one of the major networks is going to pay a King’s ransom for broadcast rights to the NBA.
The current deal with Disney and Turner pays the league $930 million per year, according to Rachel Cohen of the Associated Press. Mike Ozanian of Forbes, predicted that the next deal is likely to be for at least $1.2 billion per season—and that estimate came before the league survived major backlash against the lockout.
In short, the NBA is only getting more and more popular by the year, and LeBron has clearly been the driving force.
With an 11.8 rating, according to the Sporting News, the opening game of this year’s NBA Finals drew the most viewers since the Shaquille O’Neal/Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers played the New Jersey Nets in 2002.
This is the continuation of a multi-year trend of double-digit ratings for the Finals after a down stretch throughout the mid-2000s. The NBA will likely never match the 18.7 rating posted during Jordan’s final title run, according to Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret News, but there is only one player who could come close to enthralling the masses in a similar way over the next three seasons.
If LeBron continues to lead his team to the Finals in subsequent years, and his popularity continues to rise, the entire league may have him to thank for ABC or NBC shelling out an extra couple of billion dollars to broadcast the league.
If we use Ozanian‘s conservative estimate for the next broadcast deal ($1.2 billion per year), the league as a whole will be bringing in an extra $270 million per season beginning in 2016-17 compared to the current contract. If we give LeBron credit for 10 percent of that total, we can add at least another $27 million per year to his value.
This is highly unscientific, but it might be the figure that best shows how much value LeBron; by 2016, he may add almost a $1 million per year in revenue to the teams he doesn’t even play for.
Salary to Play Basketball
Obviously, LeBron deserves some compensation for, ya know, playing basketball. We are presuming free-market conditions, so an owner like Mark Cuban who wanted to win a title badly enough could conceivably pay even $100 million per season for the best player in basketball even if it doesn’t make sense financially. Maybe Mikhail Prokhorov would even pay five times that amount.
It’s impossible to say.
So, for this factor, we could just use the highest current salary in the NBA, which is Kobe Bryant’s $27 million. Obviously, that number already factors in much of the financial considerations already discussed, so to avoid double counting, I will arbitrarily drop it down to $15 million owed to LeBron purely for basketball reasons.
He produces on the court at historic levels, according to ESPN, and $15 million is a nice, round number that sounds to be in the ballpark of what he deserves for getting his team wins.
Total Worth Per Year
If we add up all the numbers ($15.6 million in endorsements, $7.1 in ticket sales, $1 million in merchandise, $27 million in television rights and $15 million in salary for on-court production), we are talking about a player who is “worth” upwards of $65.7 million per season.
The estimates and logic used here are rough, and revenue sharing means that some of these profits would not wind up in the vault of a single team owner, but just the fact that a final total this high seems reasonable shows just how much LeBron James is worth.
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Ranking The Hottest NBA Fantasy Pickups Still on the Market
Whether your fantasy hoops team is struggling or thriving, there’s always room on the roster for some quality waiver-wire pickups.
A slew of injuries has owners searching for short- and long-term answers, and surprisingly, there are plenty to be had.
Now, with owners scrambling, some players that many never expected to see logging minutes for their teams are contributing in big ways.
Here are the hottest fantasy basketball pickups right now.
Note: All stats accurate as of Sunday, December 16th.
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NBA Rumors: Temporarily Pulling Gasol off Trade Market, Right Move for Lakers
Pau Gasol belongs in Los Angeles, and the Lakers might have finally realized that.
According to Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, the Lakers may be looking to hang on to Gasol after all.
“The Lakers continue to tell teams that call that they will not consider dealing the Spaniard until L.A. can fully assess its roster after the return of injured point guard Steve Nash.”
Gasol’s name has been dragged through the rumor mill all season, especially after Kobe Bryant told Gasol to “put your big-boy pants on” (h/t ESPN).
Since then, the Toronto Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves have reached out to Los Angeles about an offer for Gasol, despite the 32-year-old currently sitting out and nursing tendinitis in both of his knees.
Stein and Shelburne reported that the Raptors offered Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon and Linas Kleiza for Gasol, while the Timberwolves have been trying to convince Gasol to join fellow Spaniard Ricky Rubio in Minnesota.
Teams are going to come out of the woodwork to express interest in Gasol, but the Lakers are making the right move by hanging onto him for now.
We’re talking about a guy who’s averaged close to a double-double for his career, and who helped lead Los Angeles to back-to-back NBA titles in 2009 and 2010.
Gasol has been frustrated with his role—or lack thereof—in the Lakers’ offense, and rightly so.
The seven-footer has one of the sweetest jumpers in the game, and utilizes his size to his advantage in the post, which has helped him average 18.5 PPG over his 11-year career.
We’ve seen in the past what Steve Nash can do with the basketball, which is why the Lakers need to wait until their roster is at full strength before moving Gasol.
If Nash returns and things still aren’t clicking for Los Angeles, I can see the Lakers moving Gasol for viable pieces in return, but Gasol is too good of a talent to just scapegoat because the team isn’t winning games.
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How the LA Lakers Are Setting the Trade Market for Pau Gasol
According to Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN LA, the Los Angeles Lakers have declined two trade offers for embattled power forward Pau Gasol. The teams reported to have made offers are the Minnesota Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors.
As a result of their rebuff, the Lakers are setting the trade market for Pau Gasol.
It is important to note that Gasol has not been benched in recent games because of a pending trade. Instead, the Spaniard is resting because of tendinitis in both of his knees (via ESPN LA).
Stein and Shelburne outline such in their previously alluded to article.
Trade speculation involving Gasol nonetheless shows little sign of abating, even as the 32-year-old is being held out of the lineup to combat a worsening bout of knee tendinitis. Gasol has not been shelved because a deal is imminent, sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com Tuesday, but Kupchak has advised Gasol’s representatives that the Lakers will have no choice but to start exploring a trade if the former All-Star is unable to eventually adjust to [head coach Mike] D’Antoni‘s system.
Whether it should be Gasol or head coach Mike D’Antoni that is let go is up for debate. With that being said, Gasol is one of the few players in the Lakers’ rotation that has had difficulty adjusting to the new system.
Whether that system offers the Lakers a legitimate opportunity to win a title is another conversation entirely.
Gasol is likely to see a continued level of trade interest. Whether from Minnesota, Toronto or another NBA franchise, there will be offers to approve or decline.
So what is Gasol’s market at this point in the season?
The potential Josh Smith for Pau Gasol swap certainly makes sense.
Smith is an athletic, floor-spreading big that would fit a Mike D’Antoni coached Lakers squad to perfection. The Atlanta Hawks, meanwhile, are in desperate need of a back-to-the-basket scorer and Gasol is one of the best in the league.
Just don’t hold your breath on that one.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, the Atlanta Hawks have no interest in trading Josh Smith for Pau Gasol. They cite age as the major reason, with the possibility of losing Kyle Korver as another red flag.
Sources say that the Hawks, at present, have no interest in parting with Josh Smith and Kyle Korver even if the Lakers were willing to surrender Gasol. Or Smith and lesser parts for Gasol.
…Atlanta has not been enticed in the least by the prospect of parting with the 26-year-old Smith — even as he heads into unrestricted free agency — for the 32-year-old Gasol.
So that’s the end of that.
Minnesota Timberwolves
In Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne‘s report, the duo touches upon the possibility of a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. They note the “open secret” that T-Wolves GM David Kahn has a high level of interest in acquiring Gasol’s services.
This is on par with Minnesota’s recent trade offer for Gasol that the Lakers rebuffed.
It’s an open secret around the league, meanwhile, that Timberwolves general manager David Kahn has been trying since last season to acquire Gasol to join fellow Spaniard Ricky Rubio in a three-man core with All-Star forward Kevin Love, but sources say the Lakers continue to resist Minnesota’s attempts to build a trade offer around 2011′s No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams and center Nikola Pekovic.
Until the T-Wolves come up with a more considerable offer, it appears as if Minnesota is out of the equation.
Stein and Shelburne proceed to outline and write off the possibility of a trade with the New Orleans Hornets. Although power forward Ryan Anderson may be the perfect fit for the Mike D’Antoni system, the necessary level of mutual interest from the Hornets is not present.
Even if Anderson is the Los Angeles Lakers’ No. 1 target.
It is widely presumed around the league that Howard’s former Orlando teammate Ryan Anderson, now in New Orleans, is the Lakers’ No. 1 trade target if they were to consent to dealing Gasol. But sources told ESPN.com on Wednesday that Anderson is regarded as a virtual untouchable by the Hornets.
So far, no good.
Toronto Raptors
Here is where things get interesting.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports reports that rival executives believe the Toronto Raptors are the most likely candidate to acquire Pau Gasol. Although general manager Bryan Colangelo is reluctant to part ways with what could be the necessary pieces, the Raptors’ youth movement could call for a more adequate veteran leader than Andrea Bargnani.
So who might be involved?
Rival executives believe the most likely landing spot for Gasol is Toronto, which could offer Andrea Bargnani in return and bolster the Lakers’ point-guard deficiency with Jose Calderon, who is backing up Kyle Lowry. Sources say Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has shown no willingness to part with Bargnani, but if pressure mounts for him to bolster the team’s youth movement and win now by adding a veteran with All-Star credentials like Gasol, that could change.
Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne confirmed this in their report.
Stretch power forward Andrea Bargnani, veteran point guard Jose Calderon and fellow vet Linas Kleiza are among the players, sources say, whom the Raptors have discussed making available to the Lakers in a deal for Gasol.
Could Toronto be the team that finally pries Gasol free from the Los Angeles Lakers? There is a great chance that they do just that.
Just don’t jump the gun and label this a certainty.
What They Want
Pau Gasol is clearly garnering trade interest from opposing NBA franchises. Whether the deal is made, however, hinges directly upon Gasol’s ability to produce once Steve Nash returns from injury.
via ESPN LA:
…the Lakers continue to tell teams that call that they will not consider dealing the Spaniard until L.A. can fully assess its roster after the return of injured point guard Steve Nash.
And that’s the only way to go about this.
If the Los Angeles Lakers are going to give head coach Mike D’Antoni the “wait-and-see” treatment with the pending return of Nash, they must do the same with Gasol. No matter how tempting it may be to accept a trade early in the season, Gasol has helped guide the Lakers to two NBA championships over the past four seasons.
Until he’s proven incapable of performing alongside Nash, we have nothing to speak on. Which is exactly where the trade market stands for Pau Gasol.
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Anderson Varejao on the market? Are the Boston Celtics a fit?
Speculation out of Cleveland is that Cavaliers big man Anderson Varejao’s improvement this season could be make him an attractive trade target for contenders as the trade deadline approaches. Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plains Dealer writes: “The Anderson Varejao trade talk will heat up again, especially with the incredible Cavalier leading the NBA in rebounding — [...]
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