Bucks/ClippersIamQuailman wrote:Bucks send:
Rafer Alston
Bucks 07 1st
Clippers send:
Beon Udrich
7 points
Bucks Accept
Good negotiating with ya man. Relatively painless (as always!)... good luck and go get that playoff spot!
A pretty simple and straightforward early bird deal here. The Clippers feel (with good reason) that a solid PG is what they need to claw their way into 8th/7th seed contention, and they're willing to give up some youth in Beno Udrih to get that PG. Alston is a pure dish-n-defense PG who will certainly benefit from having the Clips' lethal shooters on the receiving end of his passes. Still, the Clips will have their work cut out for them in their playoff push, especially with Butler and Marshall out for about a week and a half. For the Bucks, after an offseason that saw their entire crew of young wings slack off and party instead of practice, finding youthful replacements was key. Udrih is a promising young combo guard with tons of potential (A's in JPS, FTS, 3PS, and HND, B's in PAS, PRD, and STL), and plenty of time to fulfill it at 22. The thing I'm not quite sure about is why the Bucks gave up their '07 1st in the deal. Despite having a stud like Artest coming into his own and a great complementary piece in Manu, this is still a young, developing team, and now they've just traded away a future safety net in case of another offseason disappointment. I dunno what the thought process was behind including the pick, but it's the only negative in an otherwise solid deal, personally.
RUMOR: Gasol On the Move?
Despite most GM's going into the red without fear ever since its inception, Lux Tax is nothing to take lightly, as the Grizz can certainly attest to. After barely paying off their tax bill the season before, fears of another high, possibly unpayable bill and harsh penalties have caused the Grizz to shop 24-year-old Pau Gasol, an RFA next season, hard. Why? Because not only could the Tax penalties prevent LoCo from re-signing Gasol, the certain max that Gasol will command in RFA would bring the Grizz's tax bill even higher (in the neighborhood of 20 mil) if they avoided the penalty and were able to match. Despite this, my thoughts are that if anyone should go, it should be current stars Vince Carter or Shawn Marion. The Grizz have completely nosedived this year after back-to-back seasons of 2nd-Round eliminations, so with few options to improve the team via FA or the draft, one would think that this incarnation of the Grizz has already maxed out its potential. As such, it might be better to trade VC/Matrix/Both, reduce the tax, pick up young pieces/picks, retain Gasol, and rebuild around him, rather than sacrifice Gasol and wait another year (and pay another tax bill) for Stackhouse and Payton's contracts to expire and free up a little bit of cap room, but with a depleted roster to work with. It seems like LoCo's open to both options though, as rumor has it that VC and the Matrix are indeed available as well. Given that Gasol's both a current and future stud, and VC and Marion are considered franchise-level talents, "What will the Grizz do?" is without a doubt one of the biggest stories at this year's deadline.
