Los Angeles Lakers free-agent target: Marc Gasol
While he is no longer the player he used to be, Marc Gasol can still contribute to a championship team, just look at the Toronto Raptors last year as proof.
Gasol’s overall output has taken a tumble since joining the Toronto Raptors. No longer is the ball running through Gasol, these days he defers to Kyle Lowry, Fred Van Vleet, Pascal Siakam, and at times Serge Ibaka and OG Annouby.
It is uncertain how Gasol feels about this development but one thing is for certain, winning his 1st NBA championship last year with the Toronto Raptors probably helped him get over his lack of touches.
That is not to say that Gasol has been ineffective. Quite the contrary, when he is on the floor he has been incredibly effective.
Whether it is his effort on defense, his ability to stretch the floor or assist the ball at an extremely healthy level, Marc Gasol has been able to be whatever his team needs him to be on a game to game basis.
When you have LeBron James and Anthony Davis as teammates, this is an incredibly useful skill-set to have.
You might ask, with Javale McGee, Dwight Howard and potentially DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins on the roster next season, what use is there for Marc Gasol?
Gasol is a clear upgrade over McGee, with Gasol’s ability to stretch the floor he offers something new that the purple and gold don’t possess amongst their big men. If Cousins comes back and looks every bit the star he was before his 2-year injury hell, then signing Gasol could potentially be redundant, but the likelihood that Cousins gets back to this level is not particularly high.
If Gasol could come in, give the Lakers important minutes, space the floor for AD, work hard on defense, and dish the ball out of the post to an open teammate when needed, then the Lakers will have found themselves a valuable piece to help them win another ring.