On the day of the NBA’s trade deadline, the Toronto Raptors made their all-in move for the playoffs, adding Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright, C.J. Miles and a 2024 second-rounder.
While Gasol, in his age-34 season, has clearly fallen off from his days as an All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year, his skill level remains high as a passer, three-point shooter and help defender. He doesn’t move quite as fast as he used to, and he was never a speedster to begin with, but moving from the lowly Grizzlies to a title-hungry Raptors team may just rejuvenate his game some.
After their Thursday night win against the Atlanta Hawks, members of the Raptors dished on Gasol’s addition to the team, including his former Grizzlies teammate, Kyle Lowry.
Meanwhile, Raptors president Masai Ujiri also spoke on the departure of Valanciunas, who has been a Raptors lifer since the team drafted him in 2011.
While it will surely be sad to see players nurtured in the Raptors system leave — Wright, drafted by the Raps in 2015, has also been another successful developmental project — the addition of Gasol has the potential to kick the team into a new gear.
Other contenders in the conference are also loading up, the 76ers by trading for Tobias Harris and the Bucks with Nikola Mirotic, so if this trade works out in the way that the Raptors envision, then they will be well-positioned to hang with the best of the East.
