MVN - Most Valuable Network

Marc Gasol Reportedly to Sign 3-year, $10-million with Memphis

Marty Burns of SI (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/marty_burns/07/01/gasol/) seems to be confirming the rumor that Pau Gasol’s younger brother, Marc, will indeed sign with the Grizzlies, with it reportedly being a 3-year, $10-million deal.

The signing of Marc Gasol will actually give Memphis one of the better center tandems in the league, to go along with Darko Milicic, who played much of last season battling various injuries.

The only question now appears to be who will get the starting nod and the majority of the playing time.

Darko, the incumbent, battled through injuries last season, is still only 23 years old and is heading into the second year of a 3-year deal of his own, this one worth $21-million.  Darko battled through injuries last season, playing in 70 games while putting up averages of 7.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks.  I still would give the nod to a healthy Darko, as he was solid defensively while showing flashes of some offense last season.

Marc Gasol is really a wild card because no one really knows what he can do in the NBA.  Gasol was one of, if not the best young player in the European leagues last year, as he was the MVP of the Spanish League, averaging 16.2 points and 8.3 rebounds.

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace has publicly said that Gasol would have been a lottery pick in last week’s draft.  Now, while I’m pretty sure that this is a little over-hyped on Wallace’s part, I think Gasol can definitely be a solid center in the NBA, putting up compatible numbers to Darko last season.

Regardless, this is a very solid pick-up for Memphis, as it gives them a couple of legitimate NBA centers, something that most NBA teams can’t say.

It also gives them more ammo to say that the Pau Gasol trade last season wasn’t so bad, as they now have three young, promising players on the team from that trade in Gasol, Javaris Crittenton, and Darrell Arthur.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Grizzlies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.