The Portland Trail Blazers reached an agreement with veteran Spanish center Pau Gasol to sign a one-season contract as an unrestricted free agent, according to various sources cited by local media.
Although the team has not yet officially announced the signing of the oldest of the Gasol brothers, everything would be closed and next season everything indicates that he will play with the Trail Blazers.
The first outlet that made the transfer of Gasol known to the Trail Blazers was the ESPN television network.
Gasol, 39, is despite his age an accomplished veteran with a history of success in the NBA, holding two league titles with Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers, earned in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
He has also been selected six times All-Star of the NBA and four times selected as an All-NBA.
The Trail Blazers consider him the perfect player to bring the experience the team needs to a roster full of young talent, the latter being center Hassan Whiteside traded by the Miami Heat, joining Zach Collins.
While Gasol will also be of great help to the Bosnian starting center Jusuf Nurkic, who is still recovering from a serious injury suffered last season.
Gasol last played for the San Antonio Spurs and the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2018-19 season, but appeared in just 30 games.
He started the season and played in nine games for the Spurs until a stress fracture in his left foot forced him to miss the next 26 games.
He was eventually released by the Spurs in a purchase agreement, and two days later he signed with the Bucks. In late March, however, Gasol suffered another injury, this time to his left ankle and was forced to miss the rest of the season after playing just three games for Milwaukee.
In those 30 games, Gasol registered averages of 3.9 points; 4.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists in approximately 12 minutes per game.