San Antonio Spurs has made the right decision in this summer by taking Pau Gasol a big veteran man in their team. He replaces team’s most dependable player Tim Duncan, who served San Antonio Spurs for 19 years. The veteran Gasol is 36 years old but his last season with the Chicago Bulls was a memorable individual season. Due to his age, the San Antonio Spurs management was a little bit confused in the beginning whether they will go for this veteran or not, but they have a good experience with another veteran basketball player Tim Duncan in their team. Due to his inclusion in the team NBA odds from US sportsbooks like Mybookie increased their sporting bet.
Due to his averaged 16.5 points with 2 blocks and 11 rebounds per game in the last season, the selection would be easier in the San Antonio Spurs team. The veteran was officially an NBA free agent and the Spurs was trying to sign him in their team for a quite long time as the team management believes that by signing him in the Spurs they can easily hunt for another title in the next season. Not only the San Antonio Spurs team management was looking for the replace of veteran player Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol was also looking for some change after his successful two years with the Chicago Bulls. He was eagerly waiting for the chance to win the NBA championship one more time.
This is definitely a challenging transformation in his late career to join a new team as a different role and he can easily fit himself with the new environment. After playing 17 games for his recent team his average was 11.1 points with 7.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.2 blocks, which was considered as a slow and ordinary start for him. But in the last nine games, his performance improved a lot as with each victory the Spurs have scored 112.2 points and conceded only 103 points per 100 possessions under his presence in the court which reflects his conventional box score statistics. Despite his statistics and individual skills he always believed in the team performance and also believe about his contribution towards his team to win the NBA championship.
He will be the most happy man if his team wins next year’s NBA championship. He told that he signed the new contract just to help his team win the championship as he knows very well why he joined this team in the end of his career.
Even his Spurs coach Gregg Popovich believed that the foreign–born Gasol is the perfect choice for the team as he had been in the league for a long time and he had a huge experience of playing basketball all over the world. Surprisingly as Gregg Popovich also coached Gasol during his prime time, so he knows Gasol very well.
Skillful, smart Gasol played for four teams during his entire career before signing Spurs and here he has to play quite intelligently as they have already two go-to scorers, Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge as forwards. So the best challenging part for him is to fit himself in the team and contribute your everything when the coaching staff wants from you. It is his temperament which will definitely benefit his team in the long run and he knows it very well because patience and understanding actually matters.
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