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Monday, June 25
After missing Dirk, Celtics really want Gasol
By Peter May
Special to ESPN.com
Admit it: two months ago, you'd never heard of Pau Gasol.
|  | | The Celtics couldn't grab Dirk Nowitzki, and don't want to miss out on Gasol. |
But since then, the 7-foot Catalonian has become ultra hot as the 2001 NBA draft approaches. His decision last week to stay in the draft could mean he'll be the second top 10 foreign pick (after Dirk Nowitzki) but, beyond that, there is much uncertainty. (There's also the chance he could be the second foreigner in the lottery; more on that later.)
Here's the basic quandary: Gasol has a year left on his contract with F.C. Barcelona. However, he is free to opt out (to borrow an NBA phrase) by paying off a $2.5 million buyout clause.
Now, you can legitimately ask, why there is such a stiff buyout figure for a player who probably doesn't even make 10 percent of that figure in annual salary? But it's there and the NBA has very distinct rules about such things. No team, be it Mark Cuban's spendthrift Mavericks or George Shinn's bargain-basement Hornets, can pay more than $350,000 towards a buyout clause such as this one. That would leave $2.15 mil on the table.
Gasol could have avoided all this by simply removing his name from the draft and staying in Spain next season. He then could have come back next year, without a buyout clause hanging like some Damoclean sword, and been a top five pick. The decision not to do that indicates that he is intent on playing in the NBA next season. In fact, there are those in Europe who note he comes from a wealthy family, so the buyout might not necessarily be as onerous as one might think.
But how does he affect Wednesday's draft? At one point, he was presumed to be a top five pick. That does not appear to be the case right now, although this draft is proving to be as hard to read as any in recent memory. Given his uncertain status, he might be more attractive to a team with multiple picks. It's no coincidence that the two teams hot on the Gasol trail have been the Celtics, who pick 10th, 11th and 21st, and the Rockets, who pick 13th, 18th and 23rd.
More than a few mock drafts have placed Gasol at No. 10 with Boston and that makes sense. The Celtics went so far as to send coach Jim O'Brien over to Barcelona, where he saw one of Gasol's practices, one of Gasol's games, and then had to a face-to-face meeting with the kid. O'Brien came away impressed, and not only with Gasol's physical abilities.
"He understands the game from a standpoint of what a player's role should be on a team," O'Brien said. "He understands the concept of team basketball at a level which is not typical for your average 20-year-old. He's a very intelligent kid. He knows what he wants to do and that is to play in the NBA."
The Celtics also are, for the first time since 1997, drafting without the impulsive Rick Pitino calling the shots. Last year, there was an intramural squabble over the 11th pick, with some of the personnel people favoring Courtney Alexander. Pitino overruled them and picked Jerome Moiso, who, to be charitable, needs time. Lots of it.
|
“ |
He
understands the game from a standpoint of what a
player's role should be on a team. He understands
the concept of team basketball at a level which is
not typical for your average 20-year-old. He's a
very intelligent kid. He knows what he wants to
do and that is to play in the
NBA. ” |
|
|
— Celtics coach Jim O'Brien on Gasol |
There's also some residual bitterness over Boston's failed covert attempt in 1998 to draft Dirk Nowitzki. Boston tried to play that one close to the vest, with Pitino flying over to Italy to watch the kid work out. But Dallas beat them to Nowitzki, although the Celtics got a nifty, if unexpected consolation prize in Paul Pierce at No. 10.
As much as the Celtics like Gasol, however, they say they will not package the 10th and 11th picks to move up to, say, No. 5 to make sure they get him. And as the draft approaches, it now seems like Gasol could well be there at 10 anyway.
Unless Houston moves ahead of the Celtics via trade, there aren't a lot of realistic options for Gasol at the top of the draft. One possibility is Golden State at No. 5, only because the Warriors also have the 14th pick. Jerry Krause, the Bulls' general manager, loves foreign players, but few feel he'd take Gasol at No. 4 with some talented high school big men on the board and the Bulls in desperate need of size.
Vancouver? It might be hard to sell a pick to a new audience that might not even be in uniform. Besides, they already have an accomplished small forward. The Nets need size, the Cavs need everything, and the Pistons apparently have now became enamored with Yugoslavian Vladimir Radmanovic, who some feel is the next Predrag Stojakovic. In addition, Radmanovic's buyout is only $300,000. He could go ahead of Gasol.
And how many of the lottery teams -- all of whom need immediate help -- can take the chance that Gasol will opt to play in Spain next season? That team would still hold his rights, but it would have to wait a year in a league which is more and more obsessed with instant gratification.
| |  | |
| Stojakovic |
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| Kukoc |
Waiting for foreigners is not uncommon. The Bulls drafted Toni Kukoc in 1990 and he did not show up until 1993. Stojakovic was picked in 1996 and didn't arrive in Sacramento until 1999. This would only be a one-year wait at most.
The Celtics are building for the future (or, as it's now known around the NBA, for The Day That Shaq Retires) and Gasol would be a critical component. Whether they could get him in uniform next season would be almost incidental to the realization that they had his rights in perpetuity. They would have no trouble selling that concept to a public that, basically, has lost interest in the team anyway.
Red Auerbach could be summoned to make the case. In 1978, he had the sixth and eighth picks in the draft. With the sixth pick, he picked what was then known as a junior eligible, a guy named Larry Bird. He knew Bird would not be available for a year, but he didn't care. And, in those days, you had until the next draft to sign the player or he would go back into the draft.
There's no such pressure on the team this time around. They keep his rights. The salary is pre-assigned by the rookie wage scale. The only pressure would be to decide whether to sit it out -- or dance. And as Lee Ann Womack advises, 'I hope you dance.'
Someone's going to. Gasol isn't going to go home Wednesday night without a new partner. The Celtics are keeping their collective fingers crossed that they get to take that dance.
Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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