Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 at 9:00 am  |  75 responses

Pau Gasol: ‘My Desire Is to Stay With the Lakers’


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Ever since his epic flameout in the Playoffs this summer, what was once an inconceivable thought — the idea of the Los Angeles Lakers trading away Pau Gasol — has turned into a full-fledged rumor.

There’s talk out there that a deal for Kevin Love and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ number two pick in Thursday night’s Draft for Gasol has become a possibility.

As far as Pau Gasol is concerned, however, he doesn’t want to leave sunny California for Minneapolis, or anywhere else for that matter.

The AFP reports:

Spanish forward Pau Gasol, who has been linked to a move to the Minnesota Timberwolves, said Monday he wants to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers for “as many years as I can”. The Timberwolves have reportedly been strongly pursuing Gasol to pair with Barcelona guard Ricky Rubio, who will play for the NBA side next season.

“My desire is to stay with the Lakers. I don’t have control over it but I want to stay with the Lakers for as many years as I can to be able to remain eligible for the maximum possible championships,” Gasol told reporters in the northeastern city of Alicante.

Even if the Draft comes and goes with no movement, Pau Gasol can continue to expect seeing his name bandied about in trade rumors well into next season.

After all, Dwight Howard is still out there.

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  • Jer dawg

    Lakers have had great success with Gasol. I believe he’s going to stay put and if damn Jim Buss can understand Dwight Howard for Andrew Bynum is a coup #1 pick for #10 pick, only older by maybe 2 years, more athletic, durable, defensive and an intimidator. Plus, he won’t be an ingrate like Bynum screaming for the ball and doesn’t rebound for a 7 footer.
    Bynum’s two pluses over Dwight is low post moves and free throws. Bynum barely plays to close out games anyway. Howard and Gasol would be championship good enough. IF Love happens to come to LA then nobody grabs more rebounds then those two guys and they will stay out of each others way on offense. I do think a guy like Love on a team with other superstars will be the missing link to championship team. Unselfish, tough, and rugged player.

  • Double J

    lmao at k-love being an LA native, he played for UCLA but he comes from OREGON!

  • Double J

    epic win by “Hambone” it’s ovaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  • http://slamonline.com Kap

    @Jer Dawg…Bynum is a pretty good rebounder. I don’t know what games you watch but he is a great defender and rebounder when he’s on THE FLOOR.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    Kap, sorry but Bynum is not a great defender/rebounder, he’s very good in both areas but not great. DHow is a great defender/rebounder, Prime TD was a great defender/rebounder, Prime Shaq was an underrated defender/great rebounder, same with Hakeem, Kareem and a few other greats. I don’t think Bynum is on the same level as those guys.

  • quinton

    let Gasolgo! peace out you coward! we will take K love anyday for he hs heart and will score plus rebound. with D howard. along with Deron williams.

  • http://yahoo Mr. Anthony J. Guay

    Because Lakers lost to DALLAS in its quest for 3-peat we will dispose the talent of PAU GASOL right away? NOT A FAIR PROPOSITION. DALLAS are able to get the Title and BEAT the TALENT loaded MIAMI HEAT convincingly. Maturity and indomatable desire drive them for that coveted Title.THIS IS JUST A GAP IN GREATNESS OF LAKERS. KOBE and PAU have accomplished what apother GREAT LAKER PLAYERs did not. This GAP will be fill be FILLED GLORIOUSLY in the FUTURE. Who knows it may be STILL is KOBE, PAU and DERRICKs’ TIME.

  • http://slamonline.com Tracy

    You can thank Gasol for being integral to 3 championship appearances, because if it weren’t for that aberration of a trade, the lakers would go straight to sh!t. But even in the dallas series when Kobe still played subpar to his expectations, Gasol was still taking the brunt of the blame..i’m not a gasol stan but doesn’t anyone remember the one point when people actually said that Pau was playing like the best PF in the league? “They love you, then they’ll hate you, then they’ll love you again.”

  • http://slamonline.com Tae

    Timeout, am i tha ONLY Lakers fan that wants Gasol to stay??? Really, our front court is fine tha way it is. No need to break them up

  • madhatter

    Blake Griffin is much more exciting and with all that athleticism, he can probably be molded into a dynamite defender by Mike Brown. If anything the Lakers should steal Blake Griffin from the locker room across the hall. All he needs is a couple post moves and he’ll have a much higher ceiling than Love. Love is a great rebounder but I don’t think his lack of defense will slide by Mike Brown.

  • idrees

    yes there is.

  • http://sdkjflf.com Jukai

    NBK: Yer right bro, sorry. When I said “upside” I should have said “ceiling.” My bad.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    You’ve been so logical lately. I was like wait a second. No stress lol

  • http://sdkjflf.com Jukai

    Hahaha, wait, what’s this lately talk! You sayin’ I ain’t always logical? Those sound like fightin’ words!!!

  • holiday

    The difference between accomplishments and potential is what is important here, Yes Gasol has held his own but he is about 8 years older than love and clearly on the decline. However Love is coming into his prime breaking records and what not, plus you add in a PG with awesome potential like Knight or Walker that could be taken under the wing of fisher or perhaps the option of taking Derrick Williams or Kanter…. they’d be dumb not to take the deal if Wolves are down!

  • holiday

    By the way anybody that believes the Clips would give up Griffin for Gasol is clearly a dilusional Lakers fan, he’d have to be accompanied by a lot more!

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    lmao @ Hambone. That’s the first time I’ve heard Ron Artest’s shooting described as “shot-putting.” Good stuff.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Haha I don’t remember what it was about but there was a few posts where I was like wtf are you talking about late in te season. But you were barely even around and only commenting late in discussions. It’s irrelevant I ain’t got issues with you either way. Where you been anyway?

  • BIGBLUE

    first of all, all you laker fans that think pau gasol is done need to quiet down. without him you would not have made it to 3 straight final apperances. so he had a bad post season? dosent mean hes finished. as for the trade? rubbish. the only trade scenario for pau that should even be CONSIDERED is if hes traded for dwight. k-love cant play the c postion at all while pau can, plus pau is infintly times more versatile than love is. and so what if hes younger? if the lakers want to focus on the future than they would do it, but the general consensus is that they want to compete for another championship next year. *note heavy sarcasm. keep the entire frontline of bynum, pau and odom. just upgrade the point postion and the lakers will have another great shot at a championship

  • http://sdkjflf.com Jukai

    NBK: too many racist and homophobic comments drove me away from SLAM for a while, I just read the articles and stopped commenting. The lack of moderation was astouding.
    Seems to have died down with the end of the season, so I’m postin’ again.

  • matt

    Stupid!look at the deal K. Love has got was more skill he is younger and look at the year he had. K. love to L.a for Pau and Brown at least

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Man I feel that it got nutty for a minute. We’ve lost a lot of regulars. Plus other then Bryan Crawford and AllenP almost nobody that writes for Slam comments or is active in the conversations like they used to be.

  • Matthew

    Keep Gasol.

  • hillbilly

    Der Stern: “With the second pick in the 2011 NBA draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves select……Brandon Knight from the University of Kentucky.”

  • http://yahoo bonnie parrish

    pau needs to be more agreesive and make the right mores against his oppentsand not be intimadated by them

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