NBA Trade Rumors: How The Memphis Grizzlies Could Deal Marc Gasol To The Portland Trail Blazers

The NBA Trade rumors keep on coming surrounding the Memphis Grizzlies. It has been reported that the Portland Trail Blazers have interest in Marc Gasol.

The Memphis Grizzlies made Mike Conley and Marc Gasol available just over a week ago. The NBA trade rumors keep on coming and the latest team showing interest in Gasol are the Portland Trail Blazers.

At the moment it doesn’t seem like anything is close to happening but it is something to keep an eye on for the next week. Rip City Project had a piece breaking down this news from a Trail Blazers perspective.

Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders has been covering the NBA trade deadline and he has the latest rumors on many different players. He had Portland as the likely landing spot for Gasol.

People will say it’s crazy considering how well Jusuf Nurkic has played and how relatively cheap his contract is but this team wants to get better and this is one way they can do that.

This season Nurkic is averaging 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game on 50% shooting. Gasol is averaging 15.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game on 44% shooting. He also makes 36% of the 4.2 three-point attempts he shoots per game.

That is the biggest difference in their games. Nurkic is shooting just 12% from three-point range while attempting just 0.5 per game. Another way Gasol would help is with his passing. His ability to create for others is a big part of the Grizzlies offense as he has been the best passing big man in the league until Nikola Jokic started balling.

The Trail Blazers also run a lot of pick and rolls which is a way Gasol could help. We’ve all seen the Conley-Gasol two-man game combo and he would be able to do that with both Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Those guys shoot a lot of pull-up jumpers and having a pick-and-pop threat in Gasol could help open those shots up for them even more.

Lillard and McCollum have both attempted over 200 jump shots, as well as over 200, pull up jump shots. Having a big screen setter would make those even more effective.

They aren’t getting a lot of assisted shots either. These two look to create for themselves and pull up jumpers are a big part of their offense.

Gasol setting those screens would help that but getting him the ball in the paint could also open up the floor a little bit and he would be able to find shooters on the perimeter more than they’ve done so far this season.

These two guys have been one of the best backcourts in the league in recent years but it hasn’t led to a lot of success. They have won two playoff series during their time together but they haven’t ever been close to the conference finals. In both their conference semifinals appearances, they lost in five games.

Adding Gasol may not make them a threat to beat Golden State but we all need to be honest with ourselves, no team can realistically improve enough to beat this current Warriors team assuming they stay healthy.

If they trade for Gasol they would have to send back a bad contract to Memphis to make it work and they have some that they would love to get off of. Evan Turner is the obvious candidate as well as Meyers Leonard.

Both of those guys are free agents in the summer of 2020 with Turner slated to make $18.6 million next season and Leonard making $11.3 million.

Rumors that Portland has interest in Garrett Temple and JaMychal Green came about a few days ago and it’s very possible that one or maybe even both could be included if they wanted. They both have expiring contracts which should be something Portland is interested in bringing on considering they have some bad contracts they want to get rid of.

This is probably the most likely deal that would take place. Giving up the first-round pick would be tough but if they really want Gasol then that may be needed to get it done. They could try to trade a young player like Anfernee Simons and a second-round pick instead but that might not be enough.

This deal could include Green going to Portland and Leonard going to Memphis as well though that seems like a lot going on for both teams. If that’s what the Trail Blazers wanted then the Grizzlies should certainly give them that.

The Grizzlies need to trade Gasol and start this rebuild so they may be willing to take a little bit less than they would like. We’ll just have to wait and see how the market develops over the next week.