Why the Chicago Bulls should keep Pau Gasol
Pau Gasol received a warm welcome at the Staples Center late Thursday night.
Maybe it was because he has the unique distinction in recent Lakers history of being a big man who maintains a good relationship with Kobe Bryant. Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard couldn't pull that off.
Before the opening tip of the Bulls' easy 114-91 victory over the Lakers, Gasol and Bryant shared an embrace. Bryant also talked about what made Gasol special when they teamed up to win NBA titles in 2009 and 2010.
“It was his intelligence and his ability to communicate clearly,” Bryant said, according to The Associated Press. “His ability to have extreme poise, his ability to put his arm around the guys, laugh at them, beat them up verbally, encourage them and bring them along. It's all those attributes. On top of that, he's just a great player.”
They shared a bond as teammates, but Bryant and Gasol took different paths when the game began. Bryant, 37, is struggling badly in his final NBA season. He finished with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting against the Bulls, as the Lakers stretched their losing streak to eight in a row.
In contrast, Gasol. 35, turned in a solid performance. He finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists.
Gasol and Bryant are just two years apart in age, but Bryant has played five more seasons in the NBA, and has logged 105 more playoff games than Gasol. Bryant is worn down and washed up, playing on a terrible team. He's having the worst fade for an NBA superstar since Allen Iverson.
Gasol, though, is holding steady and can probably keep this up for two or three more seasons. The biggest difference is Gasol doesn't rely on athleticism. His strengths are his extreme length (long arms on a 7-foot frame) and shooting touch. It doesn't take tremendous effort to reach over people for rebounds and drop in 17-foot jumpers.
That's just a fact of life in the NBA — big men usually have a longer shelf life. Tim Duncan is a great example, still contributing on a good team at 39.
Gasol is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract this summer and become a free agent. The Bulls, meanwhile, will try to remake the roster into the more fast-paced style coach Fred Hoiberg prefers. But maybe re-signing Gasol for two or three more years makes sense for the Bulls.
The simple argument is this: The Bulls' big three of Gasol, Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose has been productive this season when Rose is healthy. A better supporting cast might turn the Bulls into a legitimate Finals contender.
The Bulls could conceivably re-sign Gasol and still have cap room to add a significant free agent. Without Gasol or fellow free agent Joakim Noah on the books, the Bulls' have roughly $67 million in salary commitments next season. The salary cap is expected to make a big jump, possibly to $90 million, as the NBA's ridiculously generous television deal kicks in.
So in theory, the Bulls could re-sign Gasol at $10 million per season and still have about $13 million in cap space.
The problem is, just about every NBA team will have ample cap room this summer, which makes free-agency an uncertain proposition.
Coming off five years of coach Tom Thibodeau and his 30 different strategies to attack pick-and-rolls, Bulls fans have been understandably frustrated by Gasol's refusal to step away from the basket on defense. Opposing pick-and-rolls usually result in wide-open jumpers, because Gasol prefers to stay in the lane.
If they decide to keep Gasol, that's something the Bulls will have to accept. Is there evidence Gasol attacked pick-and-rolls when he won two titles with the Lakers? Probably not, although he was younger then. The fact is, there aren't many big men who can do everything Gasol does.
Would Gasol be willing to stay? That seems to be an easy one. Gasol's Instagram page contains endless visits to the opera, symphony and theater in Chicago. Gasol is all about culture and until the NBA puts a team in Rome, he'd have to go to New York to improve his night life experience, and the Knicks don't appear to bring him any closer to an NBA championship.
It's difficult to predict what will happen in the NBA this summer, with the salary cap about to soar. If the Bulls have a chance to lock up one of their stars, maybe they should take it.
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