Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Marc Gasol returning to Memphis on 5-year deal

Larry Kuzniewski

In what has been widely speculated but not firmly reported (outside of some Spanish sources like Basket Express), Marc Gasol has agreed to a 5-year, $100 million (plus) deal to return to the Grizzlies:

The original source reported that Gasol’s deal was 5 years, $108mm; Woj here says $100mm+ and Marc Stein has since tweeted that the deal is “worth $110 million.”

Whatever the money works out to, this is a huge deal for the Grizzlies franchise, as it cements Gasol’s place on the team for the future. With the projected increase in salaries over the next two or three seasons, signing Gasol to a long-term deal at or near the current max is a bargain deal going forward, and a five-year commitment from Gasol is a big win for Griz management, as there’s no reason to think Gasol would’ve signed this deal if he thought he could’ve been in a better situation somewhere else.

Gasol is set to announce tomorrow that he will not play for Spain in EuroBasket 2015, and may talk more about his return to the Grizzlies at that point. We’ll just have to see. Obviously we’ll be talking more about Marc Gasol over the summer, but it’s good that the waiting is (mostly officially, though he hasn’t actually signed anything and can’t until later in the week) over.