Trades are an essential part of the NBA ecosystem and a crucial tool relied upon by teams to change things around. With there being various limiting factors, navigating the trade market becomes an unenviable task for GMs.
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With trades being bilateral, the obvious hope is that both teams come out as winners once the trigger is pulled. Fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, that isn’t how things pan out in all instances.
The trade between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies that involved the Gasol brothers is a trade that might go down as one such move. In 2008, the Lakers were desperate to get Kobe Bryant some help.
Bryant was playing the best basketball of his career, and wasting his prime would have been criminal. It was at that stage that the Lakers contacted the Memphis Grizzlies in hopes of getting the services of their star big man, Pau Gasol. The Lakers didn’t have a lot to offer and may not have been too hopeful of the move going through.
However, it did materialize and the rest as we know, is history. At the time, the move created visible confusion among the public and even coach Phil Jackson. After all, Kwame Brown was the most renowned player who went the Grizzlies’ way in the trade.
Phil Jackson admitted to not believing it was possible to get Pau Gasol with the resources at their disposal.
The Zenmaster had been around the NBA long enough to know how trades work. And it was his strong belief that the Lakers couldn’t possibly get the Grizzlies to part with Pau Gasol with the assets in their possession.
The Grizzlies, however, thought otherwise. Looking back all these years later, while the Grizzlies did get the rights to Marc Gasol in the deal, the rest of the offer looks laughably bad.
There was some contributory negligence from the Grizzlies that makes the deal look worse in hindsight too. The Lakers had parted way with two first-round picks to acquire Pau’s services. However, the Grizzlies ended up selecting two players who barely contributed to their “Grit and Grind” era.
While Kwame Brown was a former #1 pick, he was barely a role player with the Lakers. The fact that Brown, along with Javaris Critterton, Marc Gasol, and two insignificant first-round picks was deemed enough to get the Grizzlies’ all-time top scorer seemed ridiculous. Phil Jackson’s sheer surprise is therefore not tough to comprehend.
The move marked the end of a mini-trophy drought during the Kobe era for the Lakers. After more than half a decade of relative mediocrity, the Pau-Kobe pairing got the Lakers back to the promised land.
Pau Gasol even went on to have his jersey retired in LA.
Pau went on to have a really successful career in Los Angeles and recently had his jersey retired in Los Angeles. To have his name among the creme de la creme of the most successful NBA franchise is quite an achievement indeed.
To think that Kwame Brown and Javaris Critterton were the only two active players involved to acquire a star like Pau is preposterous. Pau went on to be a member of multiple All-Star and All-NBA teams and enjoyed the most successful stint of his career in LA.
While his brother Marc did go the other way and overtake Pau atop most statistical categories, the Grizzlies weren’t able to break their ceiling. The Lakers, on the other hand, added two championships to their glittering resume. A win-lose trade on multiple accounts if there ever was one.
