Los Angeles Lakers: Pau Gasol worth a flier in free agency
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking for players to fill out the roster and potentially have an option available in former Laker, Pau Gasol.
Despite the star power on the team, the Los Angeles Lakers have a pretty thin roster as it currently stands. That will undoubtedly change as the team still has a max slot available and will add pieces with that money.
The team is either going to sign Kawhi Leonard and then make use of veteran minimums and a mid-level exception to fill out the roster. Or, if Leonard does not sign, the team has all of that money to spend on one-year deals to keep the cap space flexible to add serious role players next summer.
Whichever way the Lakers go, there is one old friend that should be getting some interest in the team in Pau Gasol. After a successful surgery on his fractured foot, Gasol is locked, loaded and ready to play next season.
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Gasol is almost undoubtedly going to be a veteran minimum signing after the not-so-impressive numbers he put up last year. In just 30 games, Gasol averaged 3.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Those numbers might make you turn your head at the idea of the Los Angeles Lakers signing Gasol but you have to keep in mind that Gasol was not fully healthy and only played 12 minutes per game.
He is at his best when he is a 20-25 minutes guy and can give the Lakers that off the bench to give Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma a rest. When you look at his numbers the previous two seasons, when he is healthy, it is apparent that Gasol can still contribute in this role.
There were 14 players in the NBA during the 2016 and 2017 season that averaged at least 15 points and 11 rebounds per 36 minutes (while also having 3,000 minutes played). Pau Gasol was one of them.
Of those 14 players, only Enes Kanter had fewer minutes than Gasol, proving that Gasol can be up there with some of the best if he is given the right workload.
He won’t put together the same kind of numbers as he has gotten older and still is coming off foot surgery. However, if given 20-25 minutes per game, there will be nights when Gasol grabs 10 and 10 and he can be a consistent, veteran presence in the second unit.
Gasol already has two rings in Los Angeles and deserves to win more. This is more than just a player deserving something, though, as Gasol can legitimately be a productive bench piece in his age 39 season.
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And if it does not work out then the Los Angeles Lakers are not risking anything long-term as he would just be a veteran minimum signing. However, based on his healthy numbers which weren’t that long ago, it appears as if Gasol still has something left in the tank for one last run.