Pau Gasol Rumors: Could Spurs sign-and-trade with Lakers?

The future of Pau Gasol seems to be up in the air at the moment but he could land in any number of places before free agency wraps up. While the world waits to see what is up with Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, Gasol is positioning himself as the third or fourth most talked about and coveted free agent next to Chris Bosh or Luol Deng.

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Of the teams interested in Gasol, not all of them have the cap space to sign him to a deal he may want which would mean a sign-and-trade is in order. That’s what the San Antonio Spurs might consider doing, if for no other reason than to keep Gasol away from the Oklahoma City Thunder this summer.

According to Nate Duncan from Baketball Insiders, the Spurs could eye Pau Gasol but giving up Tiago Splitter or anything of real value to get him seems like a big mistake.

"Splitter is a much better player for the Spurs than Gasol would be right now, since he provides the rim protection, pick and roll, and post D. Did you see how well he played Dirk and LMA in the first two series? Pau might play a little better next year on D with more health and motivation, but he was absolutely horrendous defensively last year. It also must be noted that those limitations make Pau a center exclusively on defense, and even on offense playing power forward has been a much worse position for him for at least 4 years now if not longer."

It’s a risky prospect to say the least to add Gasol and giving up someone like Splitter is stupid idea. Gasol may punish the Spurs if he lands with the Thunder but he’s an aged veteran at the end of the day who may end up breaking down in the near future, or at the very least become less effective than he has been in the past.

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