Rare is the NBA free-agent-to-be who divulges his plans months or years in advance.
Marc Gasol is no exception.
The 2015 free-agent class is loaded with star possibilities. From Goran Dragic to Rajon Rondo to Kevin Love to LaMarcus Aldridge to DeAndre Jordan and others, this upcoming summer will be awash with available talent.
Slowly, surely Gasol’s name is beginning to top the list of everyone. Not only is he having a career year amid another Grizzlies title chase, but he seems obtainable. Love isn’t going to leave LeBron James, and Aldridge has already declared his intent to stay in Portland. It essentially removes them from the free-agent ranks. That leaves Gasol to dominate headlines—unless, of course, he would like to tell us where he’ll be signing in July right now.
Which he won’t.
Because he can’t.
From The New York Times‘ Billy Witz:
Gasol will consider many factors in deciding whether to stay, but the most important, he said, will be the level of his team’s commitment to winning.
“That’s going to be huge for me,” he said. “Because you’ve got to go to work every day and feel good about it, knowing that everyone is seeing the big picture, which is having the biggest chance to win a championship.”
He added: “I’d rather wait and see how we all feel after the season. Then you make a decision for the next four or five years of your life, and you’re feeling good about it and knowing that’s what you want to do.”
No surprises here. Players don’t typically announce their offseason intentions unless they’re totally sure they’re not going anywhere. Though the Grizzlies have the inside track on re-signing Gasol—they’re currently dominating and have housed him for the last six-plus years—he’s at an age (30) where he has to weight winning against paydays and locations. If he doesn’t think the Grizzlies can contend for years to come, or if he doubts whether they’ll spend the necessary cash to continue contending for years to come, he could bolt.
The Spurs and Knicks are just two teams expected to make a play for the 7-footer. There will be others, too. Gasol is the rare big man who can do everything—pass, shoot, score, post up, face up, defend, run the floor, etc. With the salary cap expected to explode in 2016, there will be scores of teams prepared to tender a max-conract offer.
Any outside interest may invariably be futile in the end, of course. But Gasol does seem ready to explore other possibilities, no matter how well the Grizzlies are playing. That’s what free agency is all about, after all: options.
And Gasol is going to have plenty of them in a few months time.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
