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Quote:Source: Wiz to trade Gasol ally Navarro to Grizz

08/03/2007 18:09 PM - Don't expect to hear too much Pau Gasol trade speculation in coming months, after such chatter was a staple last season.

Don't expect to hear too much Pau Gasol trade speculation in coming months, after such chatter was a staple last season.

The Memphis Grizzlies on Friday reached a verbal agreement with the Washington Wizards to obtain the rights to Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro, reinforcing the notion that the Grizz have no intention of parting with Gasol.

The Grizzlies and Wizards, according to NBA front-office sources, have an agreement in principle that would send a future first-round pick -- likely a 2008 first-rounder -- to Washington in exchange for Navarro, who is considered one of Europe's top guards and, of greater importance to Memphis, one of Gasol's best friends.

Specifics about the draft pick and the lottery protection involved are still being finalized, sources said, but the Grizzlies are now exclusively negotiating a buyout of Navarro's contract with European club power FC Barcelona and operating as if he's their player.

According to a deadline established by Barcelona officials, Navarro had to be traded by the Wizards by Friday if he wanted to be in the NBA next season. This trade in principle appears to have satisfied the Spanish club, which originally set a deadline of July 25 and then extended it.

No buyout has been completed and it's believed that the 27-year-old will have to pay his Spanish employers nearly $2.5 million for his freedom, since league rules preclude Memphis from contributing more than $500,000 to the buyout equation. Yet all signs point to those arrangements materializing by next week, even though Memphis is likely limited to signing Navarro to a short-term, low-dollar deal after bestowing a three-year, $21 million deal on free-agent center Darko Milicic.

The strongest signal that Navarro will soon be a member of the Grizzles appears on Barcelona's own club Web site, which carries an announcement that the parties will be working over the next few days to finalize the player's release.

Gasol's growing frustration with Memphis' long-term outlook and the Grizzlies' willingness to move the 7-footer were well-chronicled before and after last February's trade deadline. A series of moves since the end of a 22-60 season, however, appears to have brightened that outlook in spite of team president Jerry West's recent resignation.

Although the Grizzlies didn't land a top-two pick as they hoped, they came out of the draft with Ohio State point guard Mike Conley. They also hired on-the-rise Phoenix assistant Marc Iavaroni as their new head coach and landed Milicic as Gasol's new frontcourt sidekick.

The progress made by new general manager Chris Wallace in signing Navarro, though, will undoubtedly please Gasol most.

The Wizards, meanwhile, will be getting a future first-round pick for a player that they realistically couldn't bring to the NBA next season, given Washington's salary-cap limitations and lack of roster room. Navarro was a second-round pick in the 2002 draft, selected No. 40 overall by the Wizards during the period after Michael Jordan relinquished his front-office duties to make one last comeback and before current Wiz president Ernie Grunfeld began running the team.

After adding coach Iavaroni, point guard Mike Conley, center Darko Milicic, and now shooting guard Juan Carlos Navarro, the Grizzlies should be back in the playoffs soon. New GM Mike Wallace has put together one of the best offseasons in Grizzlies franchise history.

it should be interesting to see how things play out in the new system...the negatives are that there is not a lot of depth on the frontline and the newcomers, while having potential and talent, are still largely unproven on the NBA level...JCN and somewhat Casey Jacobsen give the more outside shooting which should help relieve some of the burden on Mike Miller...

6'3" is short for a shooting guard in the NBA.

Put 6'3" together with the Griz's very small point guards and teams will be posting up their guards with regularity.

mphsfan Wrote:6'3" is short for a shooting guard in the NBA.

Put 6'3" together with the Griz's very small point guards and teams will be posting up their guards with regularity.

many teams will, but with the defensive rules of today that isnt as bad as it used to be. if it was colby would post up like michael and scottie used to when they were the biggest back court in the nba. (i know sottie was a pt fwd, but there were many times when those two were the backcourt. they could play man d.)

I sure hate giving up first round draft picks though.

UofMark Wrote:I sure hate giving up first round draft picks though.

agree, but it is a lottery protected pick - given the Grizzlies record of drafting outside of the lottery (Troy Bell, Dahntay Jones, Alexander Johnson, Robert Archibald, et cetera) it probably isn't that big a deal...Kyle Lowry might be the only good draft pick they have made outside of the lottery since the team moved to Memphis.

UofMark Wrote:I sure hate giving up first round draft picks though.

I don't. At 15+ it's a crap shoot, and Navarro is a really exciting prospect.

Psicosis Wrote:

UofMark Wrote:I sure hate giving up first round draft picks though.

I don't. At 15+ it's a crap shoot, and Navarro is a really exciting prospect.

:iagree: Navarro is a great pickup. The guy can flat out shoot the ball. I'm very impressed with what Chris Wallace has done so far.

HoopDreams Wrote:it should be interesting to see how things play out in the new system...the negatives are that there is not a lot of depth on the frontline and the newcomers, while having potential and talent, are still largely unproven on the NBA level...JCN and somewhat Casey Jacobsen give the more outside shooting which should help relieve some of the burden on Mike Miller...

I don't know why, but I'm expecting Stro to play like his next contract is dependant upon his production this season. He should help our frontline this year. Navarro is going to be a huge plus. He will be one of the top 3 point shooters in the NBA. He will be great on the pick and roll, and he reives and dishes with the best of them. Navarro is not a great defender but he is going to help improve the Grizz team chemistry immensly. I'm really starting to get excited about the Grizz this season.

MemphisTigerPawr Wrote: I don't know why, but I'm expecting Stro to play like his next contract is dependant upon his production this season. He should help our frontline this year. Navarro is going to be a huge plus. He will be one of the top 3 point shooters in the NBA. He will be great on the pick and roll, and he reives and dishes with the best of them. Navarro is not a great defender but he is going to help improve the Grizz team chemistry immensly. I'm really starting to get excited about the Grizz this season.

For the life of me....I don't know why either!!!

Navarro shot 45% from the arc for the Spanish Team. That'll help. If he makes a three on offense and gives up a two on defense we can live with that.

"I can't quit you, Juan!"

mphsfan Wrote:6'3" is short for a shooting guard in the NBA.

Put 6'3" together with the Griz's very small point guards and teams will be posting up their guards with regularity.

This team wasn't designed to be a half-court, banging team. It was designed to run, run, run. While they may get posted up, they'll also get a lot of steals and fast-break layups.

MemphisTigerPawr Wrote:

HoopDreams Wrote:it should be interesting to see how things play out in the new system...the negatives are that there is not a lot of depth on the frontline and the newcomers, while having potential and talent, are still largely unproven on the NBA level...JCN and somewhat Casey Jacobsen give the more outside shooting which should help relieve some of the burden on Mike Miller...

I don't know why, but I'm expecting Stro to play like his next contract is dependant upon his production this season. He should help our frontline this year. Navarro is going to be a huge plus. He will be one of the top 3 point shooters in the NBA. He will be great on the pick and roll, and he reives and dishes with the best of them. Navarro is not a great defender but he is going to help improve the Grizz team chemistry immensly. I'm really starting to get excited about the Grizz this season.

I like the deal. Good for the Grizz and keeps his Pau-ness happy. The thing about Stro is....if he's not careful he could lose minutes to a guy like Andre Brown. He couldn't do any worse. If Stro does play for a contract that'll be good for us but ( and I've always loved Stro's potential) but he's the very definition of a bust.

Considering the fact that Gasol missed 23 games, Miller missed 12 games, and Kyle Lowery missed 72 games, the Grizzlies really never had a chance last year. Couple that with the fact that Fratello hated playing younger players, and preferred a slow, grind-it-out style and they were going to be really bad.

Put lightning quick guards on the floor like Conley and Lowery, add in the three-point shooting of Miller and Navarro, toss in the freakish athleticism of Rudy Gay, and add the twin 7-footers Gasol and Milicic, and you have a team with a lot of potential. Coach Iavaroni has one of the best pedigrees in the game, so hopefully he'll be able to develop these young players and turn them into a dangerous fastbreak team.

The oldest starters will be Mike Miller and Pau Gasol at 27. If the Grizz brass can keep the core together, this team could be really, really good.

They should be alot more fun to watch.
They need to play enough defense to win some games...even if they don't it's more fun to watch a game that winds up 108 -102 than one that ends 85 to 79.

From the New York Sun:

Quote:Remember the Memphis Grizzlies? It was only a year ago that they won 49 games. But they fell so hard to last season's abysmal record of 22-60 that it was easy to think they were always bad. With the acquisition of Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro, the Griz are poised to complete a dramatic turnaround.

Navarro, a close friend and national teammate of Grizzlies center Pau Gasol, was acquired from the Washington Wizards for a conditional first-round draft pick. The New York Sun's John Hollinger translated Navarro's performance from the Euroleague last season into NBA performance, and the results should make Griz fans smile: 18.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists per 40 minutes, and a shooting percentage of 43.7. Pair him with rookie Mike Conley in the backcourt with some combination of Hakim Warwick, Rudy Gay, and Mike Miller up front, and Gasol and Darko Milicic in the middle, and new coach Marc Iavaroni has a rotation that could bounce right back into the playoffs and finally win a postseason game or two.