Is Marc Gasol in the C's future?

[Sophomore]

Depends on which route they go.

1. Horford at center, backed up by Theis. Put as many wings on the court at the same time, positionless basketball.

2. Horford at PF, Gasol at Center. They would be going big and they would be deadly on offense. They would be good at defense inside and they would control the paint. But can they guard the entire floor and a team that puts several shooters out there?

This is why I'm more interested in getting JaMychal, if he's available, in a sign-and-trade. Also, because he'd be cheaper in terms of future assets. If you could get him for AB and Crowder, the trade works and we shed a couple million in salary. JaMychal would not be a first option on offense, but he can shoot the three ball and he's a plus offensive rebounder (wouldn't a few garbage baskets be nice, now and again?) He's a solid, solid perimeter defender. He doesn't have the huge body to bang with the bigger centers and PFs, but we don't need that in the playoffs very often. Sign a vet min big who can eat minutes during the regular season and run this lineup out in the playoffs:

IT/Smart
J Brown/Rozier
G Hayward/G. Green
J Green/Tatum/Theis(?)
Al/Zizic

You're starting two elite shot creators, five players who can shoot the 3, much better rebounding than this year's team. On defense, *very* switchable 2-5, and if we just need one stop, substitute Marcus in for IT and that is a very, very good defense.

[jbpats]

Depends on which route they go.

1. Horford at center, backed up by Theis. Put as many wings on the court at the same time, positionless basketball.

2. Horford at PF, Gasol at Center. They would be going big and they would be deadly on offense. They would be good at defense inside and they would control the paint. But can they guard the entire floor and a team that puts several shooters out there?

This is why I'm more interested in getting JaMychal, if he's available, in a sign-and-trade. Also, because he'd be cheaper in terms of future assets. If you could get him for AB and Crowder, the trade works and we shed a couple million in salary. JaMychal would not be a first option on offense, but he can shoot the three ball and he's a plus offensive rebounder (wouldn't a few garbage baskets be nice, now and again?) He's a solid, solid perimeter defender. He doesn't have the huge body to bang with the bigger centers and PFs, but we don't need that in the playoffs very often. Sign a vet min big who can eat minutes during the regular season and run this lineup out in the playoffs:

IT/Smart
J Brown/Rozier
G Hayward/G. Green
J Green/Tatum/Theis(?)
Al/Zizic

You're starting two elite shot creators, five players who can shoot the 3, much better rebounding than this year's team. On defense, *very* switchable 2-5, and if we just need one stop, substitute Marcus in for IT and that is a very, very good defense.

I think Green is the reason why Gasol is available. If Memphis is looking to rebuild, i think he's who they are rebuilding around.

[Moranis]

Brown could be in the trade instead of one of Crowder or Smart (Bradley has to be in it no matter what).  If Crowder is in it, then Boston can also get back someone like Martin, Davis, or Harrison (and if it is Smart that isn't (so Bradley, Crowder, Brown) then 2 of them could go back to Boston).  That would provide a bit more roster depth and a prospect to look at to replace guys like Jackson and Mickey who would be cap casualties.  Brown might also allow Boston to keep the picks (or maybe just give Memphis back its own). 

[Tr1boy]

If we can make it work, then YES PLEASE.
Big with an outside shot. If he can stay on the court I think this puts us ahead of Cleveland in the East.

How can it work? We dont have enough salary to match

Unless we trade for trade exceptions?

Anyone can provide insight..

[hpantazo]

Gasol and Horford?

I don't think so, with most teams going small

LeBron usually plays the 4, too. That one would be ugly

The Cavaliers most effective lineup against us, and most commonly used lineup, is with Thompson at the 5, Love at the 4, and Lebron at the 3. I am confident Horford and Gasol could guard Thompson and Love.

[Fireworks_Boom!]

I feel like Gasol and Horford are redundant, personally.

Yeah... I'm more interested in getting an athletic 4 to play next to Horford.

Horford is the athletic 4 who is playing out of position at the C position. Horford's strength is doing the little things. I can't see how anyone could argue (contract aisde) adding Gasol wouldn't be a good thing.

But not setting aside contract (because you can't) this will force us to make future roster decisions that nobody will like (i.e. say goodbye to Bradley/Smart, and potentially say goodbye to IT4 given we will have 3 max contracts players with Hayward/Horford/Gasol). We could in theory carry 4 max with our young squad filling out the rest of the roster but are that leaves us thin and many of this young bench is still so unproven.

[jpotter33]

Not a fan of the Gasol/Horford pairing. I like Green's fit next to Al more than Gasol's fit.

[jpotter33]

I feel like Gasol and Horford are redundant, personally.

Yeah... I'm more interested in getting an athletic 4 to play next to Horford.

Horford is the athletic 4 who is playing out of position at the C position. Horford's strength is doing the little things. I can't see how anyone could argue (contract aisde) adding Gasol wouldn't be a good thing.

But not setting aside contract (because you can't) this will force us to make future roster decisions that nobody will like (i.e. say goodbye to Bradley/Smart, and potentially say goodbye to IT4 given we will have 3 max contracts players with Hayward/Horford/Gasol). We could in theory carry 4 max with our young squad filling out the rest of the roster but are that leaves us thin and many of this young bench is still so unproven.

I don't understand where this notion has come from that Al is a PF. Al has been a center his entire NBA career, and really the only times he's played PF for longer stretches is last year with Amir (who functioned as our center) and in college with Noah.

[RJ87]

I feel like Gasol and Horford are redundant, personally.

Yeah... I'm more interested in getting an athletic 4 to play next to Horford.

Horford is the athletic 4 who is playing out of position at the C position.

Yeah, maybe 3 years ago. Don't get me wrong, he's still got some hops left but when I think of athleticism at the 4, I don't think of Al Horford.

[kmart12]

I feel like Gasol and Horford are redundant, personally.

Yeah... I'm more interested in getting an athletic 4 to play next to Horford.

Horford is the athletic 4 who is playing out of position at the C position. Horford's strength is doing the little things. I can't see how anyone could argue (contract aisde) adding Gasol wouldn't be a good thing.

But not setting aside contract (because you can't) this will force us to make future roster decisions that nobody will like (i.e. say goodbye to Bradley/Smart, and potentially say goodbye to IT4 given we will have 3 max contracts players with Hayward/Horford/Gasol). We could in theory carry 4 max with our young squad filling out the rest of the roster but are that leaves us thin and many of this young bench is still so unproven.

I don't understand where this notion has come from that Al is a PF. Al has been a center his entire NBA career, and really the only times he's played PF for longer stretches is last year with Amir (who functioned as our center) and in college with Noah.

It stems from exactly what you're referencing - about ten years ago he was considered a PF and played out of position in the NBA when the Hawks failed to pair him with a traditional C. With that said, he's developed into a C and I don't think his current athleticism would do well against the modern PF's of the league defensively.

[saltlover]

I would love Marc Gasol on this team. We would be complete as a roster. How the heck can we fit his contract into the cap and still make room to sign Hayward though. Doesn't Gasol make 25 million a year? We are having trouble making room for Hayward as is, and I am sure we would not trade Horford for Gasol.

If Hayward signed for just below the max, we'd have to send out $17 - $18 million in salary. (I think Gasol makes around $22.5 million).

That means we'd trade AB, Jae and Smart, just to make salaries work. Then, figure we're giving up the Memphis pick, and a couple of more #1s.

Is it worth it?

Gasol / Zizic
Horford /
Hayward / Tatum
Brown /
IT

We'd obviously have to fill out the roster beyond just our rookies, but I'd do it.

Gasol would also have to waive at least $1.74 million of a trade bonus, in addition to Hayward foregoing about $1.2 million over the life of his deal.  And we would have to find a LOT of backup guards for pretty much the minimum.

The odds of this occurring are pretty near zero at this point.  Maybe later in the season when we can use whomever we sign with the room exception as some salary filler it will become more viable.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I was going to say that a Marc Gasol - Al Horford pairing might be too slow, but then it worked with Memphis with Zach Randolph.

God, this would be insane if we get him. But how?

[kmart12]

I was going to say that a Marc Gasol - Al Horford pairing might be too slow, but then it worked with Memphis with Zach Randolph.

God, this would be insane if we get him. But how?

This is a good point. It's not as if Randolph is athletically superior to Horford. Horford's a better defender, passer, and outside shooter as well. I think they could work despite some of their shortcomings.

[RJ87]

I was going to say that a Marc Gasol - Al Horford pairing might be too slow, but then it worked with Memphis with Zach Randolph.

Completely different games. Offensively, Zach is brute in the post, back to the basket type of player. It complemented Marc's finesse game. Marc and Horford would just be two finesse guys.

Defensively, people underrate the impact of Mike Conley and Tony Allen. Their ability to hound perimeter guys with Marc being the last line was perfect. You could pretty much put anyone at the 4 with them at that point.

[Smartacus]

About a year and a half or so ago I was exploring the idea of trading for Marc Gasol  in a "which max guy to target" thread and most people felt he was too old/slow footed back then so I'm not surprised at the backlash now. Myself, I'm still a huge fan of the notion.

Gasol is the ideal Stevens style center. Incredible passer, works through the mid post, already has integrated the 3 point shot into his game. He'd essentially be everything we hoped KO would develop into and that same ground bound game that has so many turned off should also help him age well.

I do think Gasol and Horford could work together since while neither are fast-twitch athletes they do both have an excellent understanding on how to cut off angles before shots can be created. They are space eaters on defense in the same way KG and Perk would lock down inside the arc only in this case the Perk of the pairing is also a brilliant offensive mind.

I'm just not ready to give up on big men quite yet. In my opinion Golden State's success with the small ball is in large part an effect of a historically dry big man crop that lasted for half a decade. Things seem to be correcting itself these past few years with guys like Towns, Cosuins, Davis, Gobert contributing on high level teams. We're not going to out small ball GS, the juggernaut frontcourt is a legitimate strategy to hit them with something that few else are trying. Really hope this goes down.