Report: Bulls in talks to trade Gasol to the NBA's worst organization
Pau Gasol is not only an All-Star big man who's averaging 17 points and almost 11 rebounds for the Bulls this season, but he's also one of the nicest players in the league.
Gasol will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, however, which is the main reason that Chicago is shopping him as Thursday's trade deadline draws near.
Still, trading him to the Kings would seem especially cruel, considering that they've been the NBA's worst-run organization for the last several seasons. Talks are ongoing between the two teams, and (via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports) were still lingering on Wednesday.
The Bulls have discussed deals with multiple NBA teams on Gasol, but one discussion lingered on Wednesday, league sources told The Vertical’s Wojnarowski and Chris Mannix: Gasol and Tony Snell to the Sacramento Kings for Kosta Koufos, Ben McLemore and a lowering of the lottery protections on the 2016 first-round pick that Sacramento owes the Bulls.
The pick is protected Nos. 1-10, but the Bulls and Kings discussed lowering the protections further to give Chicago a better chance of obtaining use of the pick in 2016, league sources told The Vertical.
That's not a great offer for a player with Gasol's set of skills, but the Kings can't give too much more without assurances that Gasol would consider re-signing in Sacramento as a free agent this summer.
And we all know that's not happening.
Gasol's stated preference to re-up with the Bulls may make him difficult to deal at all. Teams aren't going to give up real assets in exchange for renting Gasol for a couple of months, so he may end up remaining in Chicago for (at least) the rest of this season.