The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to trade Marc Gasol back to the Memphis Grizzlies, who will then seek to waive the veteran center can remain in his native Spain, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Friday.
The Lakers will also send a 2024 second-round pick and money to the Grizzlies in exchange for the draft rights to Chinese center Wang Zhelin, the 57th pick in the 2016 draft and a former domestic MVP in the Chinese Basketball Association.
However briefly, Gasol returns to the team he spent the first 10-plus seasons of his NBA career, earning three All-Star nods and helping the Grizzlies make seven straight playoff appearances before he was traded to Toronto midway through the 2018-19 campaign.
Gasol helped the Raptors win the championship that season before signing with the Lakers as a free agent in 2020. He averaged 5.0 points and 4.1 rebounds last season as the Lakers were eliminated in the first round, precipitating a major overhaul that has seen them add, among others, Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan.
Gasol, 36, boasts averages of 14.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists in nearly 900 regular season games.
