Pau Gasol Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Young, Cavs, Pistons, Turner

April 13th, 2014 at 8:18pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kentucky freshman James Young hasn’t made a decision on if he’s entering the NBA Draft yet, reports The Kentucky Advocate Messenger. Young’s godfather, Sean Mahone said, “I am not even certain what the deadline is for deciding. That shows how we are not fixated on the draft. That is just an innocent admission of where we are and what we have been thinking about. It’s just been chaos the last few weeks during this incredible run with a lot of late night worries and anxiety and then some great, great moments. That was our focus, not next year.”

Kennedy Notes: Draft, Gasol, Sixers

April 4th, 2014 at 8:34pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders held his weekly chat. He touched on a number of topics, and some of the highlights are listed below:

Kennedy believes the biggest sleeper pick in the upcoming NBA Draft is Wichita State’s Cleanthony Early. He also believes the player most likely to be taken too high is Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein.
Pau Gasol is most likely done with the Lakers after this season, opines Kennedy. He cites the Lakers’ desire to have cap flexibility heading into the summer of 2015, as well as Gasol’s reluctance to be part of a rebuild.
On who the Sixers will take in the draft, Kennedy believes the team will simply select the best two players available. His draft scenario has the team selecting Andrew Wiggins and Dario Saric.
He doesn’t believe that Victor Oladipo is the long term answer for the Magic at point guard. Kennedy believes the team should look at drafting Dante Exum and keeping Oladipo at shooting guard.
Kennedy also believes the rumors that Kyrie Irving wants out of Cleveland. He opines that Irving might sign an extension and then demand a trade from the Cavs.

Bulls, Cavs, Bobcats Likely To Target Pau Gasol

April 4th, 2014 at 10:10am CST by Chuck Myron

The Bulls, Cavaliers and Bobcats will likely court Pau Gasol in free agency this summer, executives from around the league tell Chris Mannix of SI.com. The executives add that the Grizzlies will be in the mix, too, if Zach Randolph opts out, echoing a report from last month. The Arn Tellem client, who’ll turn 34 in July, has a decent chance to receive an offer worth $10MM a year, a front office official from an Eastern Conference team says to Mannix.

That Eastern exec suggests that there are two schools of thought regarding Gasol, with his most aggressive suitors believing that the environment in Los Angeles and the Lakers’ style of play have hindered Gasol the past two seasons, and that an escape could revive his career. Others insist that Gasol is past his prime, the unnamed exec tells Mannix.

Gasol has said he won’t rule out a return to the Lakers, and according to Mannix, the Lakers feel the same away about re-signing the 7-footer. Teammate and friend Kobe Bryant has said he believes there’s an 80% chance the Lakers will bring back Gasol, but Bryant and Gasol reportedly would like to see coach Mike D’Antoni replaced, and the Lakers appear to be leaning toward keeping D’Antoni. Gasol, who appears likely to miss the rest of the season with vertigo, tells Mannix that a team’s chances of winning will be paramount as he makes his decision.

“I want to be in a team that is going to be built to win a championship,” Gasol said. “That’s my top priority. Money won’t be the main priority. Length and money are factors, but we’ll see. Until I know all the options, I won’t be able to measure them. But we’re getting close to the end of my career. I want to be in a good situation. It’s an important decision to make.”

The Bulls and Grizzlies appear to be closest to winning a championship among the suitors that Mannix lists. Executives have doubts about Charlotte’s ability to defend with Gasol and Al Jefferson as their primary rim protectors, as the SI.com scribe notes. The Cavs were deep in talks with the Lakers about acquiring Gasol via trade when Cleveland was shopping Andrew Bynum in January.

Pau Gasol, Henry Done For Season?

April 3rd, 2014 at 8:35pm CST by Ryan Raroque

The Lakers are leaning toward sitting Pau Gasol for the rest of the season, reports Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles times, who adds that Xavier Henry is not expected to return to the lineup either. The news may not seem too significant considering that there are only seven games left on the team’s schedule, but it’s worth noting that both Gasol and Henry are headed for unrestricted free agency this summer.

Gasol is reportedly dealing with a severe recurrence of vertigo, which has caused him to miss five of L.A.’s last six contests. Henry has dealt with knee and wrist injuries this season, and – as we noted earlier today – had recently been playing through pain against medical advice in order to prove his worth. Although Gasol’s desire to stay in Los Angeles remains a question mark, he recently said that he wouldn’t rule out returning to the Lakers if the circumstances are appropriate. On the other hand, Henry has made it publicly clear that he’d like to re-sign with the team this summer.

The 33-year-old Gasol is finishing up the final year of a three-year contract extension that he signed in 2009; his next deal would presumably be much less than the $19.3MM he made this year. Henry – finishing up his one-year deal for the NBA’s minimum salary – has been a bright spot for the Lakers this year, averaging career highs in points (10.0) and minutes (21.1). However, it’ll be interesting to see just how much he’ll be able to market himself if he undergoes wrist surgery this summer as expected.

Western Notes: Stotts, Gasol, O’Neal

March 30th, 2014 at 9:13am CST by Eddie Scarito

Terry Stotts is on the last year of his contract, and management hasn’t said whether he’ll be back for a third season on the Blazers’ bench, writes Mitch Lawrence of The New York Daily News. Stotts’ staff is not feeling very good about their chances of returning after sliding down to fifth place in the West and in danger of finishing even lower, reports Lawrence. Since starting the season atop the West by winning 33 of their 44 games, the Blazers have been sub-.500, losing 16 of their last 29 games entering the weekend. In six seasons as a head coach with the Hawks, Bucks, and Blazers, Stotts has a record of 195-244.

Grizzlies Have ‘Secondary’ Interest In Pau Gasol

March 21st, 2014 at 10:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies are eyeing soon-to-be free agent Pau Gasol, who said in December that Memphis would be an “appealing” option, but the team would make Gasol a “secondary” priority to re-signing Zach Randolph if Z-Bo opts out, USA Today’s Sam Amick reports. Gasol’s brother Marc Gasol is under contract with Memphis through next season, but it appears the team would prefer to keep its current frontcourt pairing intact rather than seek out a family connection.

Grizzlies CEO Jason Levien said last month that he hoped that Randolph would remain with the team long-term. The power forward has voiced frustration with the club this season and remains undecided on his roughly $16.9MM player option, but he said in November that he’d like to retire in Memphis, and as Amick notes, he’s made his affection for Memphis clear on multiple occasions.

Pau Gasol has said a team’s chances of winning will weigh most heavily on his decision in the summer, and while Memphis has been significantly more successful than the Lakers this season and last, the Grizzlies are scrapping for one of the last playoff berths this year. The Lakers, armed with cap room and a lottery pick in June’s draft, have an 80% chance of re-signing Gasol, according to teammate and close friend Kobe Bryant. Still, both Bryant and Gasol would reportedly like to see the Lakers replace coach Mike D’Antoni.

In any case, Gasol seems primed for a drastic cut in pay after making more than $19.2MM this season. If Randolph opts in or re-signs for a salary close to what he’s in line to make in 2014/15 under his current contract, the Grizzlies will have about $65MM in commitments for next season. That means they’d be limited to the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception of $5.305MM for Gasol.

And-Ones: Jackson, Draft, Parker

March 17th, 2014 at 9:07pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Agents aren’t pleased with the notion of raising the NBA’s minimum age, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News examines. They feel shut out of the union’s search for a new executive director and they’re worried that whomever the union picks will be hurried to the bargaining table to discuss the age issue, Deveney writes.

Lakers Rumors: D’Antoni, Gasol, Jackson

March 14th, 2014 at 4:50pm CST by Zachary Links

The latest out of Los Angeles..

The Lakers lost 131-102 to the Thunder last night, but bigger problems are looming for L.A., writes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. Kobe Bryant reportedly isn’t wild about coach Mike D’Antoni, but the Lakers are reluctant to part ways for a number of reasons. First, they think he’s a capable coach and they don’t want to be known as a franchise without coach stability. Perhaps more importantly, the club doesn’t want to pay him $4MM to not coach them after making a similar move with Mike Brown. In another interesting wrinkle, many of the club’s younger players enjoy playing in D’Antoni’s offense because their inflated scoring totals give them more value as they look ahead to their next contract.
Pau Gasol supports Kobe’s open criticism of the Lakers, writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “I’m glad that he spoke his mind,” Gasol said. “He wants to win. He’s got two years under contract with the franchise. He wants to be in the best possible position to win. Whether you do that publicly or internally, that’s totally up to you. He spoke his mind and you have to respect him for that.” The big man reportedly isn’t a fan of D’Antoni’s either.
On Wednesday, both Kobe and Magic Johnson made public pleas to Lakers management to hire Phil Jackson, but a Lakers source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News that team VP Jim Buss has little interest in bringing back the Hall of Fame coach.

Western Notes: Lakers, Faried, Butler, Ledo

March 13th, 2014 at 7:32pm CST by Alex Lee

After Kobe Bryant‘s news conference on Wednesday, the Lakers may have to abandon any strategy not aimed at an immediate turnaround, writes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. Pincus has an intricate plan in mind for the purple-and-gold that entails trading their 2014 first rounder for Kevin Love, waiving Steve Nash, re-signing Pau Gasol and much more, all designed at arming the aging Bryant with running mates capable of staging one last run at a title.

Let’s take a look at what is going on elsewhere in the Western Conference:

Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried is happy that the trade speculation is behind him, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Faried is having an impressive March, scoring 21.1 points per game and grabbing 10.1 rebounds on 64.5% shooting from the field. Teammate Ty Lawson also believes that the trade talk was hurting his play somewhat, noting that he has been more aggressive since the trade deadline came and went.
Thunder trainer Joe Sharpe had a lot to do with Caron Butler‘s decision to sign with Oklahoma City this season, Jeff Caplan of NBA.com writes. Sharpe held a similar position at UConn when Butler was there.
While we pointed out a pair of D-League success stories earlier tonight, Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram opines (via Twitter) that Ricky Ledo may have become a high lottery pick with the proper collegiate seasoning. Ledo, who has bounced between the Mavericks and the Texas Legends in his rookie season, attended Providence College though he never played for the Friars. He was selected 43rd overall by the Bucks last June.

Western Notes: Mavs, Lakers, Presti

March 12th, 2014 at 9:21pm CST by Eddie Scarito

It doesn’t matter whether the Mavericks go one-and-done, miss the playoffs or end up in the conference finals, the offseason game plan is the same, writes Eddie Sefko of Dallas Morning News. He says they are going to figure out a way to use the $34MM dollars of cap space they anticipate having to try and add a premier small forward and/or center. Sefko floats the possibility of Luol Deng and Marcin Gortat being their prime free-agent targets. The article also mentions that the deeper the team goes in the playoffs, the more appealing they will become to any free agent, including LeBron James, though Sefko admits that landing LeBron is a long shot at best.

Here’s some more from out west:

With the news from earlier that Kobe Bryant wants Mike D’Antoni gone, it seems that he’s not the only Lakers player that would feel that way, tweets Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. He mentions that Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill would also like to see a new coach next season.
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times supports Bryant calling out Lakers management. He hopes the star player’s comments bring about the needed changes in the organization. Plaschke also thinks that it’s a good thing for the team that Kobe is done for the year as it will help them secure a higher lottery pick. The article also questions the decision to re-sign Bryant when they did. Plaschke believes that Bryant would have signed for less now in order to free up cap space to help the team sign players to make a run during his final years.
Thunder GM Sam Presti shared his thoughts on tanking with Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Presti said, “Oddly enough, I think it’s a narrative that was created to tweak the league office, and they are showing to be quite reflexive to it. I’m actually a bit surprised they have fed into it and devoted so much public energy to it given the lack of evidence. The records of the teams in the bottom four of the league are in line with those over the last 20 seasons. If anything, they are actually slightly above those averages. I’m missing the epidemic on this, really. I would hope we’d focus our attention on a lot of the great things our players are ding and that the league has in place now.“