The proverbial you-know-what has been hitting the fan in Memphis the past few weeks. The Grizzlies, currently losers of eight straight games, fired their head coach David Fizdale yesterday after he benched Marc Gasol and are now dealing with rumors of blowing the team up.
According to Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports, it appears other NBA teams are trying to capitalize on all of the uncertainty by acquiring the all-star center.
Mannix said that multiple teams have inquired about Gasol in the past 24 hours, only to be quickly “rebuffed.”
With the reported strained relationship between Gasol and Fizdale and the swift decision to fire him immediately after benching Gasol, it seems pretty opaque that the team is valuing Gasol and want him to be a part of their franchise moving forward.
It makes sense for a smaller market team like the Grizzlies who struggle to generate revenue as you need to do your best to field a competitive team every season and hold on to the best assets that you have by locking them up to longer term deals instead of trading them away because it may be harder for you to afford or entice big-time players in free agency. Paying Chandler Parsons $24 million per season doesn’t help as well.
Gasol is 32 now and his play has seemingly started to decline, so if you are ever going to move on from him and get value now would be the time.
I doubt they rock the boat anymore than they already have for the reasons outlined above, but it does appear their streak of seven straight NBA Playoff appearances is in serious peril.
