NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Pau Gasol done with the Lakers?
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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Pau Gasol might have played his last game in a Lakers uniform. The team is leaning toward sitting him for its final seven games while he recovers from a severe recurrence of vertigo. He won’t play Friday against Dallas after dizziness kept him confined at the team hotel Wednesday while the Lakers played Sacramento. He flew back on the team charter that night after missing a fifth game because of the illness.
Gasol is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason and it is widely assumed that the Lakers is going to go in a different direction. Gasol has been a centerpiece of two Laker championship teams, but has also nearly been dealt on a couple of different occasions – most infamously in the vetoed Chris Paul trade.
Gasol still has some real supporters within the Lakers organization. Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has always spoken very highly of Gasol and appreciated his understanding of the business side of things. Kobe Bryant went on the record saying that he wants him back and with his Bird rights the Lakers do hold the ability to offer him more than any other team this offseason.
We’ll have to wait and see if they end up doing so. If reports of Mike D’Antoni potentially returning next season are true, it’s hard to imagine that Gasol would even want to say. The two have not exactly had a smooth relationship over the last two years. If the Lakers are going to sign a max-level free agent this offseason, they’d have to renounce Gasol’s rights. They could use them in a sign-and-trade deal – potentially to the Minnesota Timberwolves in attempts to land Kevin Love. The Timberwolves were highly interested in Gasol during the David Kahn era, but not at the price of Love. Even with Love being a pending unrestricted free agent next season, it’s highly unlikely Kahn’s replacement, Flip Saunders, feels pressured enough to deal him this summer to avoid losing him for nothing. That kind of move likely won’t happen until February, if it does at all.
Will be surprising if rookie Erik Murphy, waived by the Chicago Bulls today, goes unclaimed. Around the league, there’s interest in him.
Murphy never really got a chance with the Bulls, averaging just 2.6 minutes in the 24 games he did appear in this season. Big men with the ability to stretch the floor are always difficult to find, though, and at 6’10 and 23 years of age with a nice jump shot, Murphy is a unique talent worth investing in, especially considering the price. He won’t dictate more than the league minimum.
Murphy is not playoff eligible, so only lottery bound teams that believe in his potential for next season will consider adding him at this late junction.
Doc Rivers: Jamal Crawford & Danny Granger “out or a while,” adds “I’d be surprised if we saw either of them before the playoffs.”
The Clippers recently clinched their spot in the playoffs at 54-23 are not really in a position where they can climb or slip at all. They’re pretty much locked into where they are, so these are about as timely of injuries as you could ask for, as long as they don’t linger into the playoffs.
The Clippers did get J.J. Redick back on Thursday night against the Dallas Mavericks, who they fell to 113-107.
