Marc Gasol’s Contract Bought Out by Grizzlies After Trade from Lakers

Eric Gay/Associated Press

Marc Gasol’s second stint with the Memphis Grizzlies has come to an end.

The team announced Wednesday that Gasol has been waived. According to NBA reporter Marc Stein, the move could allow the center to return to play in Spain. 

The Grizzlies recently acquired Gasol, a 2024 second-round pick and cash from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the draft rights to Wang Zhelin. 

Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Grizzlies were going to work with Gasol on a plan to waive and release the three-time All-Star. 

Wojnarowski noted that Gasol decided he wanted to at least start the 2021-22 season in his native Spain with his family “after the tumult of the Orlando bubble in 2020 and the COVID-19 restrictions of the 2020-2021 season.”

Despite a difficult 2020-21 season on the court with the Lakers, Gasol made it seem like he was going to be back for at least one more year in the NBA. He told reporters after Spain’s exit from the Olympics in August he was going to play the upcoming season. 

Gasol admitted last season that he struggled adjusting to a reduced role off the bench after the Lakers signed Andre Drummond. 

“Things can change quickly in the NBA, just as they have changed for me,” he told reporters in April. “But I’m committed to this team. It’s a hard pill to swallow because I know I’m going to be out of the lineup at some point. That’s never easy on the player. As a basketball player you want to play, you want to contribute, especially when you’ve made that commitment for that reason, but we’ll see.”

Gasol set career lows in scoring average (5.0), rebounds (4.1) and minutes per game (19.1) in 2020-21. The 36-year-old has seen his on-court impact decrease over the past two seasons as he has gotten older. 

Getting traded to Memphis has the potential to be a full-circle moment for Gasol’s career, if this is in fact the end of his time in the NBA. He began his career in the United States with the Grizzlies in 2008, spending 11 seasons with the franchise before being traded to the Toronto Raptors in February 2019. 

Gasol ranks second in Grizzlies history with 769 games played, 11,684 points scored and 2,639 assists. Mike Conley is the only player ahead of him in all three categories. 

The trade to the Raptors led to Gasol winning the first NBA championship of his career. 

Gasol has played a total of 13 seasons in the NBA with the Lakers, Grizzlies and Raptors. He has averaged 14 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in 891 appearances. He was named to the All-NBA team twice, including a first-team selection for the 2014-15 season.