One big man in the crop of NBA free agents appears to have already made up his mind in free agency. Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol will be meeting with the Grizzlies once the free agency period begins on Wednesday.
Luckily for the Grizzlies, Gasol will be meeting with the Grizzlies and only the Grizzlies in his native Spain and there are no plans to meet with any other teams.
Following from Marc Stein of ESPN.
In the latest signal Marc Gasol is going nowhere in free agency, the Memphis Grizzlies’ center is scheduling no meetings with rival teams interested in him, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that Gasol will instead host a contingent of Grizzlies officials in his native Spain on Wednesday morning, raising the possibility that a verbal agreement on a new contract will quickly follow.
Gasol’s representatives, sources say, will undoubtedly field cursory calls from potential suitors once free agency begins after midnight ET on Tuesday.
But all indications are that Gasol and the Grizzlies will quickly reach terms on a new deal that keeps one of the league’s top two-way centers with the only franchise he’s ever known.
Unfortuneately for the fans of teams like the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers or San Antonio Spurs, it appears Gasol is locked in on returning to the city he’s called home since he was 16. It was reported that the Knicks were out of the running long ago and the handling of his brother in Los Angeles might have eliminated the Lakers out of contention for Gasol.
Now as he returns, the Grizzlies will look to make a move to improve their roster. They already tried to trade for Joe Johnson but maybe they can make a deal with a team to bring in a cheaper talent or somehow talk a guy like Monta Ellis into joining the team on a super cheap contract.
