Portland Trail Blazers: It was the right move to waive Pau Gasol

Sadly, Pau Gasol announced yesterday that he would be waived by the Portland Trail Blazers as he hadn’t recovered sufficiently from the foot injury he suffered last year.

Pau Gasol was signed by the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer on a veterans minimum deal in the hope that he could provide some big man minutes while Jusuf Nurkic was out injured. Gasol had surgery to repair the foot last year but as him and the team realised this week, he wasn’t progressing at the rate both parties would have liked.

Though its sad for Gasol as this looks it may be the end of his hall of fame career, it was the best move for all involved. Gasol posted a video announcing the development yesterday.

https://twitter.com/paugasol/status/1197276671763722242

With the recent signing of Carmelo Anthony to the fifteenth and last roster spot, the Blazers lost a lot of flexibility in terms of trades or being able to replace an injured player. With Gasol not on the team now, they have this last roster spot back in the event of an emergency or the need to take two players back in a trade.

In another positive, the Blazers had injury protection on the contract signed with Gasol, meaning they incur a smaller cap hit. This was signed with the injury to Gasol’s foot in mind.

This will place slightly more pressure on the big man rotation of Hassan Whiteside and Skal Labissiere though. Even though Gasol never played a game for this team he was expected to return to be the third big that you need on every NBA roster.

It would be a disaster if Whiteside or Labissiere were injured now as the only big man who could cover would be two-way player Moses Brown, but this is limited to a maximum of 45 days with the team in one season.

Neil Olshey may look to act now and use the last roster spot to get another big man, be it via trade or free agency. Watch this space.

Though this is a sad development for Gasol, he still expects to return to the court, and the Blazers have very graciously encouraged him to be part of the team in another yet to be determined off-court role.

Gasol has had a legendary career and will go down as one of the greatest European players of all-time. Though he didn’t get to don the red and black of the Blazers, it was great for player and club that they come to an understanding that worked for both parties.

Olshey and co can now focus on righting the ship. Currently with a lowly record of five wins and ten losses, adding some depth to this team could be the first step towards getting back to a .500 record.