Spanish forward Pau Gasol will leave the Los Angeles Lakers next season which could pave the way for potential number one pick Andrew Wiggins, according to an expert NBA journalist.
Gasol currently on a $19million contract enters his final year; due to end in the summer of 2014, a few months before the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain begins. And with the departures of Dwight Howard and Metta World Peace, the editor of Sheridan Hoops, Chris Sheridan is extremely confident that the seven-foot Spaniard will depart Hollywood.
“He [Gasol] is going to be playing for one of the worst teams in the Western Conference,” Sheridan said.
“So there will be a bidding war from contending teams trying to get their hands on Pau Gasol and one of those teams is going to say to the Lakers ‘look, we know you need draft picks to rebuild, we’ll give you this player and that player and we’ll also give you two first round draft picks or three first round draft picks’.
“So you look for Pau Gasol to be traded, whether it happens this summer or whether it happens sometime closer to the NBA trading deadline in mid-February, but Pau Gasol will finish next season with a different team and I can assure you 100 percent.”
Sheridan also hinted that Canadian Andrew Wiggins, who looks set to be a one-and-done player from Kansas this year could potentially be a first round pick that the Lakers could be aiming for.
The Lakers will be in rebuilding mode this upcoming season, so they can free some salary space for upcoming drafts in the next few years.
Former Lakers coach Phil Jackson expressed his feelings on Twitter humouring the center by saying that he is better off playing for the Major League Baseball side the Houston Astros.
“He left a distaste in Lakerland. The Lakers will be fine,” Jackson said.
“What DH brings to the game is power and D. This past year didn’t show due it to rehab and confusion. If he is better [off] an Astro, so be it.”
John Hobbs spoke with Chris Sheridan on the TalkBasket podcast, volume 38.
