Lakers trade veteran Gasol back to Memphis
The deal ends center’s ‘chaotic’ 1-year run in L.A.
Marc Gasol’s NBA tenure began when the Lakers traded his draft rights to Memphis 13 years ago. The stage is set for his career to end with the same move.
The Lakers traded the 36-year-old center to Memphis on Friday, ending a tumultuous one-year campaign that saw Gasol oscillate between starter and benchwarmer and didn’t end the way either party would have liked. Gasol averaged just 5 points and 4.1 rebounds last season — at times showing signs of his All-Star past, but at others winding up disgruntled with his shifting role.
ESPN was first to report the deal, which was confirmed to Southern California News Group by a person with knowledge of the transaction.
In the end, the Lakers sweetened the deal for Memphis with a 2024 draft pick and cash to get out from a contract that would have cost them about $10 million with added luxury tax. The Lakers received the draft rights to Wang Zhelin, a 7-foot Chinese center. The Lakers added two other centers this offseason, Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan, effectively squeezing Gasol out of a role.
While Gasol told media during his run in the Tokyo Olympics with the Spanish national team that he anticipated
As part of the Gasol deal, the Lakers acquired the draft rights to China’s Wang Zhelin, a 7-foot-center.
a return for a second season, a person with knowledge of the relationship between the parties told SCNG that the Lakers were privately concerned that Gasol was not invested in making another run with L.A. The Lakers had a role ready for him as a spacing big (he shot 41% from 3-point range) in a rotation with Anthony Davis and Howard, but the move to acquire Jordan in the past week spelled out that the end of Gasol’s Lakers tenure was approaching.
Gasol himself called his first season with the Lakers “chaotic,” after injury and chemistry issues led the team to a first-round playoff defeat. He saw much of his playing time evaporate midseason when the Lakers signed Andre Drummond, which soured a reunion with the franchise that drafted him and won championships with his brother, Pau Gasol in the lineup.
Gasol acknowledged after the season that he might have pushed for a buyout from the Lakers if it had happened earlier in his career.
“Maybe if I didn’t have a family and I was 10 years younger I would have chose differently,” he said in June. “But the reality is that I wanted to stay here, I wanted to contribute, wanted to help the guys.”
The trade is anticipated to be a feel-good note to the end of Gasol’s career: He spent 11 seasons in Memphis, one of the pillars of the Grit-n-Grind Grizzlies who reached the Western Conference Finals at their peak. ESPN reported that the Grizzlies planned to negotiate a buyout with Gasol to allow him to remain with family in Spain, where his brother now plays professionally.
If it is the end for Gasol, he leaves behind a sizable NBA legacy that includes three All-Star appearances, the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year nod and the 2019 NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors.
Zhelin, 27, is a fixture in the Chinese Basketball Association for the Fujian Sturgeons. Since being drafted in the second round by Memphis in 2016, he has never played an NBA game.