The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired the draft rights to Wang Zhelin in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies for Marc Gasol, a future second round pick and cash considerations.
According to multiple reports, the Grizzlies plan to waive Gasol.
Per the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “Gasol has not publicly announced any decisions on his future. If Memphis does becomes his final NBA stop, it brings his career full circle after the Lakers traded his draft rights in 2008 in a deal involving older brother Pau.”
And per the Los Angeles Times, “the move saves the Lakers more than $10 million in luxury-tax penalties and creates a roster spot.”
Gasol (7-1, 255) has appeared in 891 regular season games (866 starts) and has averaged 14.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 32.2 minutes over his 13-year NBA career with the Grizzlies, Raptors and Lakers. A member of the Grizzlies’ Western Conference Finals team in 2013, Gasol helped guide the Grizzlies to seven consecutive playoff appearances during his 11 seasons in Memphis. The Barcelona, Spain, native became the first European-born player to earn the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award (2012-13), was named to the All-NBA First Team (2014-15) and was selected to a franchise-record three NBA All-Star Games (2012, 2015, 2017) while with the Grizzlies.
Wang was drafted by the Grizzlies with the 57th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
