The firing of David Fizdale was a stunner in the NBA world and, in the aftermath of that maneuver, more and more information is coming to light when it comes to the overall thinking of the Memphis Grizzlies. The focus immediately shifted to Marc Gasol given his public frustrations (and leaked issues) with Fizdale, and it appeared that the organization was choosing their veteran star over their relatively new coach.
With Fizdale gone, it seemed like a message that Gasol was in Memphis to stay, but there is now buzz that the Grizzlies moving on from Fizdale is not the only thing that could be on the table for the franchise in the relatively near future. Sean Deveney of the Sporting News brings word from what he describes as a league executive and, in short, fireworks could still be coming out of Memphis in the form of a trade involving Gasol.
“I don’t think they’re done making changes. They could still move Gasol, they could still go into a rebuilding situation, but it would be harder if Gasol was saying he wants out. They have had plenty of offers for Gasol, and they have a couple of months to sort out whether they pull the trigger. But don’t be surprised if they do, even after this.”
It isn’t hard to imagine several NBA teams tossing out offers for the All-NBA center and he would help quite a few teams, especially given his defensive profile and ability to space the floor offensively. However, Deveney’s bombshells continued as he noted that while Memphis has “resisted getting actively involved” in marketing Gasol, the team was already “on track to revisit the possibility at this year’s trade deadline” even before parting ways with Fizdale amid tensions.
There are a number of obstacles to moving Gasol, ranging from a bleak salary cap situation for the Grizzlies outside of their top-tier players to the pure logistics of trading a player with a $20+ million annual salary. Still, it could be reasonably argued that Memphis should at least explore deals for Gasol if the franchise can talk itself into something of a rebuild and, with haste, as it has become one of the lead storylines of the early NBA season.
