Marc Gasol to the Portland Trail Blazers: Thoughts From Rip City Project and Beale Street Bears Writers

Do you think a deal between the Blazers and Grizzlies actually happens? Does Gasol go elsewhere? Does he even end up getting traded?

Chris: I am very hopeful a deal will happen but I am leaning towards no, a deal won’t happen. I will say that Portland is the most likely landing spot at the moment and I don’t think it’s very close. I just think there haven’t been many teams interested in him and rightfully so. There just aren’t many playoff contending teams that need a center.

There are some other teams that have shown interest such as the Detroit Pistons and the Sacramento Kings but both of those seem that they’ve already hit a dead-end in talks and those teams likely have already moved on from making a potential deal for Gasol.

The Charlotte Hornets are another team that could consider making a deal for Gasol. They need to bring in another guy to pair with Kemba Walker and if they’re willing to give up their first-round pick and a young player such as Malik Monk then Memphis would be more than willing to take on a bad contract or two in return.

This deal with Portland is probably the best shot to trade Gasol. A lot can change over the next few days so this will be a situation to monitor as we get closer to the trade deadline. Some teams will continue to inquire about a potential trade but as things currently stand I would be surprised to see him actually get traded.

Shade: Just going off of year’s prior, I’d say I doubt that this deal gets done. The Blazers did just make a deal for Rodney Hood though, so do they stay active? It seems like an exciting deal, but just not the perfect fit. It has been reported that the Blazers are aggressively shopping a first round pick, so I do think that they will make some kind of deal, but I don’t know if it will be this deal. It seems like the Blazers have a bigger need at their starting forward spots. If a potential deal comes up where they can improve at those spots I think they would probably do that over trading for Gasol.

In a recent article I wrote, I ranked Gasol’s odds of being traded pretty high. I still believe that he will be traded; I am just not very confident that it will be to Portland. I think Memphis needs to get some draft capital and/or some young assets out of Gasol before he loses all of his value.  So I think they will try to aggressively shop him as the deadline nears whether it is with Portland or a someone else.

What do you guys think? Does Gasol get traded? Is it to the Blazers? How do you like Gasol’s fit with the Blazers? Stay tuned in the next few days to see what happens with the Marc Gasol situation and what other crazy trades happen. Can’t wait to see what happens between now and the February 7th trade deadline!