Everything Marc Gasol

[LJ2]

Well, a) Serge can't handle starting bigs. He's a bench player through and through.

And b) if you are going to rest Gasol, give him the night off. Why waste his minutes in bench units that struggle to shoot and lose games because you're getting caved in with Serge playing against starting bigs? If you are going to throw games for rest, just sit Gasol and Lowry and give yourself a preview of the future with FVV, OG and Siakam being asked to carry the team and see if younger pieces like Boucher, Davis, Thomas can fill in and take on bigger roles in the rotation for a night.

Is Serge that awful against starting bigs? He was our starter from when we traded JV up until near the playoffs if I'm remembering correctly (admittedly I'm foggy there). We still managed to get the second seed.

[DanH]

Is Serge that awful against starting bigs? He was our starter from when we traded JV up until near the playoffs if I'm remembering correctly (admittedly I'm foggy there). We still managed to get the second seed.

I mean, he's not awful, but he's a significant step down from Gasol.

Last year:

Starters with Serge: 547 MP, +9 net rating
Starters with Gasol: 161 MP, +14 net rating
Starters with JV: 140 MP, +21 net rating

The starters had three all star calibre players and one of the top 3+D players in the league. But they were far better with both Gasol and JV than with Serge. This year we have no Leonard to make up for Serge's mediocrity. And worth noting what happened to Serge's numbers when Nurse couldn't pick and choose his matchups and he had to deal with the bigger starting C's out there:

Starters with Serge between Dec 14th to Feb 7th: 134 MP, -3 net rating (this is even filtering out the time Lowry missed as it's the same starter lineup as above)

As for making the 2nd seed, the Raptors were 2nd seed with Scola starting and he sure wasn't a starting quality PF.

The Raptors can survive with Serge starting at C. But they are pretty definitively worse playing him as their starting C when they have Gasol just sitting there.

[bertarapsfan]

I dont think gasol should go to the bench but i think there is something to be said about closing some games with that pascal,O.G, Ibaka frontcourt. That can be a deadly defensive frontcourt that can switch onto almost anyone in tight games when defensive stops are key.

[Borsnahan]

I'd never bench Gasol either. I believe he's still critical to the team.

[Scraptor]

This deserves to be posted twice:

[JawsGT]

Marc is in embiids head...like the 6ers didnt even seem to know what to do with embiid last night.

[SkywalkerAC]

Winner.

[planetmars]

I hope we can keep Marc when his contract is over (at an avg of like $10-$12M).

Pau is 39.. but got to 77 games at the age of 37 in SA.

Marc is *only* 34 (35 in January).. so he has 3 years left before he potentially becomes dead weight. If we can get him for a 2+1 with a team option in that third year for about $36M or less, that would be awesome.

Or even better would be a 1 year Lowry size contract.. and then hope he signs back in 2021. But I could see him getting some looks in free agency. We'll feel his loss if he moves on.

[DanH]

I hope we can keep Marc when his contract is over (at an avg of like $10-$12M).

Pau is 39.. but got to 77 games at the age of 37 in SA.

Marc is *only* 34 (35 in January).. so he has 3 years left before he potentially becomes dead weight. If we can get him for a 2+1 with a team option in that third year for about $36M or less, that would be awesome.

Or even better would be a 1 year Lowry size contract.. and then hope he signs back in 2021. But I could see him getting some looks in free agency. We'll feel his loss if he moves on.

Yeah, the big one year deal is definitely the play.

[Zak24gege]

Trading Marc is another option. I certainly can't see a Lowry size contract.

[DanH]

Trading Marc is another option. I certainly can't see a Lowry size contract.

Why not? They won't have significant cap space in 2020 regardless if they are keeping FVV, so why not keep Gasol an extra year so long as you can still duck the tax?

Now, it may not be Lowry sized, but the concept of a big one year salary is exactly what they should be driving at. Heck, they should be trying to get him to extend his current deal one year like Lowry. If they can't by the deadline, then that's a good reason to explore trading him. Same goes for Ibaka (though they probably only want to extend one of them, and which one is open to a one year deal, if either are, could be the deciding factor for who they trade).

[KeonClark]

Why not? They won't have significant cap space in 2020 regardless if they are keeping FVV, so why not keep Gasol an extra year so long as you can still duck the tax?

Now, it may not be Lowry sized, but the concept of a big one year salary is exactly what they should be driving at. Heck, they should be trying to get him to extend his current deal one year like Lowry. If they can't by the deadline, then that's a good reason to explore trading him. Same goes for Ibaka (though they probably only want to extend one of them, and which one is open to a one year deal, if either are, could be the deciding factor for who they trade).

I think the emergence of Boucher makes Ibaka expendable. There's teams out there that need him more than us. But not as a salary dump, this is all part of the grand scheme to get a Jrue Holiday or a Bradley Beal, or in a dream scenario, a Dame Lillard

[DanH]

I think the emergence of Boucher makes Ibaka expendable. There's teams out there that need him more than us. But not as a salary dump, this is all part of the grand scheme to get a Jrue Holiday or a Bradley Beal, or in a dream scenario, a Dame Lillard

I could see them accepting draft assets for Ibaka as well, if a star is not immediately available, for use or for leveraging in a later trade for a star.

[planetmars]

I don't think we should trade Serge. If Marc gets hurt we'd be screwed. I like Boucher but he's not really a starter yet. Serge can play that role if he has to.

If we're trading anyone I'd be fine with Norm. Mainly because he has that player option into 2021. But also because he's our most inconsistent player. Package him up with SJ or McCaw and a first and we may be able to upgrade the backup SG spot.

[slaw]

I think the emergence of Boucher makes Ibaka expendable. There's teams out there that need him more than us. But not as a salary dump, this is all part of the grand scheme to get a Jrue Holiday or a Bradley Beal, or in a dream scenario, a Dame Lillard

I'm not sold on that succession planning quite yet. Ibaka was critical in the playoffs last season and I don't see Boucher being able to replicate his presence (at least not yet). The question of how this team could be materially improved this season is really interesting because they have no glaring weakness (other than they don't have a top-5 guy) and the team as a whole is more than the sum of its parts. You mess around with that and it could go sideways.

But Blazers and Pelicans bear watching. Have to think both those situations could be in flux depending on how December and January go for each of them.