Pau Gasol will meet with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Chicago Bulls and Golden State Warriors in free agency. The New York Knicks are also believed to be interested in Gasol, while the Los Angeles Lakers haven't been ruled out. Gasol has been with the Lakers since being traded there by the Memphis Grizzlies in February 2008. Read more http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-lakers-20140630-story.html
Gasol will be 34 on Sunday. He earned $19.3mil last season. He averaged 17.4-9.7-3.4 per game last season with 48% shooting accuracy in 31.4 minutes played per game. What sort of a contract do you think he'll end up getting?
In the case of Gasol I'd say that it's the years, not the dollars, that are going to be critical. He was still a very productive player so I don't see a problem with giving him a short deal for a high dollar amount. If we whiff on Melo I like Gasol on a 2 year 20 million year deal as a plan B. None of the other wings are that good and a Gasol-Taj-Noah frontcourt is its own unique matchup advantage that we could lean on every night. If we could bring over Mirotic as well we might have the best 4-5 combination in the league. Sign DJ for the room MLE and call it a day. Derrick/DJ Jimmy/Snell Dunleavy/McD Taj/Mirotic/Barestow Noah/Gasol/Smith Not sure if Gasol would be willing to come off the bench (or Taj, for that matter), but we'd be legitimately 10-deep, with a pair of 2-way seven footers to go along with a rehabbed Derrick. I like that a lot better than throwing the farm at Gordon Hayward.
Depends on what Pau is looking for. I would think he may want to go play with his brother, but then Zach was resigned. He could come off of the bench. He would have to do that here as well. Back up both Gibson and Noah. Would help insure Noah be healthy for the playoffs. I agree with rosenthall. He may want years and not millions. If we sign him what does this do to Mirotic on the Bulls? Just enough room for so many big men.
I think Gasol gets MLE money. He'll go to the Spurs or maybe to play with his brother. Rather than 2yr/$20M, he'd take 4yr/$20M.
