Reasons why Memphis Grizzlies shouldn’t let Marc Gasol go in the next NBA season (Part 1)
The 26 year old Marc Gasol, who had last played as the centre for the Memphis Grizzlies, was also among the free agents of this season. Because of his terrific performance with the Grizzlies in the past few seasons, Gasol earned
himself a good repute among the big franchises and therefore he wouldn’t be short of suitors whenever the free agents market hit the floors.
Among such suitors, the top ranked are the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, who have been looking to strengthen their interior by adding this solid centre in their line-up. However, even with this kind of strong following,
Marc still like to stay in Memphis.
Gasol expresses the reason behind this desire as "I grew up in Memphis. I feel like it's my home."
The Grizzlies are also very much interested in resigning the talented centre and the franchise has already made an offer to Gasol. The qualifying offer was made by team’s General Manager Chris Wallace back in June this year, which
was $4.5 million.
With lockout hitting the National Basketball Association, Gasol has got enough time to think about the offer made by the Grizzlies, but the negative aspect of this work stoppage is that he hasn’t got offers from other teams in
order to compare it with Memphis.
In this feature we will give numerous reasons why the Grizzlies should not let Gasol go away and increase the qualifying offer if the need so arises. Here are the reasons why:
Top shooter of the side
The most important reason for retaining Marc Gasol is that he is among the top shooters in the side. Gasol’s precision can be judged from the fact that he during the previous season; he led all his team-mates in field goal shooting,
with 52.7 percent from the region.
Gasol shot 58.1 percent from the field back in 2009-10 season to achieve the best-ever single-season record of the franchise. On top of it he also maintains the career field goal percentage record (.545) for the Grizzlies.
This career field goal record of Marc also puts him above his brother Pau Gasol by a margin of 3.9 percent. Marc doesn’t just beat his brother in the shooting record; he also edges past Mike Miller in by 0.2 percent in career shooting
percentage record (.596).
A player with these kinds of impressive stats in shooting attract multiple takers, therefore the Grizzlies should remain careful as no one would like to lose a quality player like Marc.
Loosing Marc means that the Grizzlies wouldn’t just lose a good centre, but also a top shooter, without whom they would definitely suffer in the low post. Although the Spanish national looks committed to stay with the Grizzlies,
but in NBA things do not take long to change. If the younger Gasol gets an offer to play in some established championship contender, he might opt out.
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