Top 25 NBA Free Agents 2016: Who Could Lakers Sign?

15. Pau Gasol, Chicago Bulls (Player Option)

The mere sight of the name Pau Gasol almost certainly has Lakers fans dipping into a pool of nostalgia about his glory days with the organization playing alongside Kobe—you know, back when the Lakers were contending for titles. Now there’s a good possibility that the veteran big man will be back on the open market if he declines his $7.8 million player option for next year and, given what he showed this past season with the Chicago Bulls.

Even in one of the most overpopulated frontcourts in the entire NBA, Gasol was the driving force of the Bulls on the interior. While he’s not nearly the defender nor the same type of dynamic player that he once was in his prime, he’s still a skilled big man with legitimate size that can score, rebound, and even block shots at a high rate in the NBA.

It would certainly be a degree of poetic to have Gasol come to Los Angeles in a post-Kobe era to help along the young players on the Lakers roster. However, with the clear animosity that Gasol harbors for how he was treated by the front office, it doesn’t seem like there’s a chance of hell he’s going to be wearing the Purple and Gold again.

Next: No. 14 Beal