NBA Trade Rumors: Pau Gasol to Kings?

The Bulls and Kings have been discussing a trade that would send Pau Gasol to Sacramento

The Chicago Bulls’ plans for Pau Gasol leading up to the 2016 NBA Trade Deadline with conflicting reports that the team was shopping the 35-year-old center and reports that Chicago was merely gauging interest. However, the latest word is that the Bulls are “motivated” to move Gasol before the deadline and the Sacramento Kings might be lining up to make a move to acquire the big man.

According to a report from Chris Mannix and Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical and Yahoo! Sports, the Kings and Bulls have been in discussions over the past couple of days involving a trade that would send Gasol to the Kings in exchange for Ben McLemore, Kosta Koufos, and the Kings lowering the protection on a 2016 first-round draft pick that Sacramento owes to the Bulls.

Wojnarowski and Mannix note that the Kings would have to work out something with the Philadelphia 76ers to make that discussed trade go through as the Sixers and Kings have the rights to a pick-swap on the line for this year’s draft.

For the Bulls, the move would make a great deal of sense. The big concern with trading Gasol would be not being able to adequately fill the frontcourt, but Koufos answers that. Plus, McLemore gives them a talented young asset on the wing and they get a potential lottery pick for the 2016 NBA Draft.

For the Kings, however, things are far less clear in regards to intention. Though the frontcourt of Gasol and DeMarcus Cousins is at least intriguing, it also has the potential to be a major disaster. But given the reports that the Kings are “aggressively” pursuing this deal and general manager Vlade Divac saying that he expects a deal to be done soon, this could be close to happening even if it doesn’t make much sense.