Gasol making immediate impact with Raptors

Josh Lewenberg

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – As any of the 34 NBA players that switched teams ahead of last Thursday’s deadline would tell you, being traded mid-season is not easy.

Almost immediately after hearing the news and while you’re still processing it, you’ve got to throw some clothes in a carry-on, hop on a plane and move to a different city. Completely uprooting your family? Yeah, that will come too, but for now you don’t even have time for it. You have to join your new team and get to work.

You say goodbye to old teammates and meet new ones. You try to get acclimated to your surroundings as quickly as possible, learning the plays, the system and the terminology. You want to come in and make an impact, make your presence felt, but not too forcefully. You understand that you’re the new guy on a team with players that have been together for months or, in many cases, years. You have to fit into what they’re doing, and not the other way around.

This is all especially difficult for players that have never been through it before, or at least it should be.

Marc Gasol, the newest member of the Toronto Raptors, is making it look easy.

After spending the first 10 and a half years of his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, the veteran centre was traded to the Raptors in exchange for Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright, C.J. Miles and a second-round pick an hour before the deadline.

It’s been a hectic week. Gasol landed in Toronto on Thursday evening, mere hours after learning he had been dealt. He took his physical Friday morning and met his new team in New York, where he made his Raptors debut against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. After a day to get settled – as settled as possible, given the circumstance – he played his first game in front of the home fans in Toronto on Monday.

“I try not to think about it too much,” Gasol said, ahead of Monday’s exciting 127-125 win over the Brooklyn Nets. “I go one day at a time and try to improve, take it step by step. I don’t think about it like it’s new to me, like, oh my God. This is great and I’m having a great time with it. That’s how I’m approaching it. I’m approaching it with a lot of confidence, a lot of energy and learning approach.”

Throughout most of the night, you could find – and hear – Gasol talking. He was talking to the coaches and to the support staff on the bench. He was talking to his teammates on the court. Whether he was in the game or on the sidelines, during play or in a timeout, he was talking.

This isn’t that unusual for a new player looking to learn on the fly, but Gasol wasn’t just playing catch-up. Even in his second game with his second NBA team, the 34-year-old was already directing traffic on defence, serving as a hub on offence and sharing his wealth of basketball knowledge.

“I was communicating what the other team is trying to do,” the big Spaniard said. “Communicating to the bench what the other team is trying to run, tendencies, things I’ve picked up over the years. Just trying to help everyone.”

“I communicate a lot with everyone and I believe that’s important and an important part of winning. Communicating what you see, and obviously asking questions and sometimes giving answers, as well. It’s a two-way street.”

There are plenty of reasons why the Raptors jumped at the chance to land Gasol, many of which we’ve already seen glimpses of in his first two games with the team – his passing, his defence, his low-post savvy and ability to step out and hit the jump shot. But, as much as anything else, they acquired his mind.

Gasol is a walking basketball encyclopedia. It’s a big part of how he plays, but it also comes across in the way he speaks. He has a unique feel for the game and always has, according to those that know him best, but his experience hasn’t just made him older, it’s clearly made him wiser.

He’s a three-time NBA all-star and former Defensive Player of the Year winner. He’s appeared in 59 career playoff games over six years in Memphis, including three deep postseason runs, losing to Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 Western Conference Finals. He was a champion and MVP in the Spanish League, prior to coming to the NBA, and won two Olympic silver medals playing alongside his brother Pau with the national team.

Gasol says that being an older, more accomplished player has helped make the transition easier than it would have been had he been traded earlier in his career.

“It’s not as emotional probably,” he said. “You’re older. You’re more mature. You put things into perspective. You understand the chance you have coming from a team that didn’t make the playoffs last year and likely won’t this year as well, having a chance to be back there, you know how much it means. You look at the team and the way the franchise is set up and everybody around it, you understand what they’re going for. It’s all great things.”

When most people talk about the trade that brought Gasol to Toronto, which has gotten mixed reviews around the league, they’re quick to bring up the centre’s age as a detriment. And while it’s true, at 34 Gasol isn’t what was a few years ago, the Raptors don’t see an old and broken-down player, and neither should you.

Gasol was never a high-flyer. He never wowed anybody with his athleticism or his quickness. What made him elite is the same thing that still makes him an impact player – the moment you underestimate him, he’ll out-think you. Consider him a 7-foot version of his former Grizzlies teammate turned new Raptors teammate Kyle Lowry in that way.

In Gasol, the Raptors add another vocal leader to their locker room, another vet and – perhaps most importantly – a grown man, who seems genuinely excited for the opportunity and knows what it takes to win in this league.

You could see it play out on the floor on Monday, particularly in the fourth quarter as Gasol started to get his footing. The newest Raptor scored 11 of his 16 points in the frame, hitting all five of his shots in just over seven minutes to help his team pull away down the stretch.

He drained a couple of sky hooks – a move that’s rarely used in today’s game, but one that’s part of his arsenal – he knocked down a three-pointer and threaded a number of nifty passes to his teammates, who are quickly coming to appreciate the benefits of playing with such an unselfish big man. If they cut and if they’re open, he’ll find them.

Despite having just one active point guard (Lowry) on Monday – with the injured Fred VanVleet out for at least three weeks and Jeremy Lin set to make his debut after he clears waivers and signs on Wednesday – the Raptors recorded 32 assists. Only two came from Gasol, officially.

Many have his passes led to the ‘hockey assist’, or to free throws, or one of his teammates simply missed the open shot he created for them – something that’s happened quite a lot in both games Gasol’s played so far. If anything, they’ve got to get accustomed to the way he passes the ball. Outside of Nikola Jokic in Denver, there isn’t a big man that does it better. Raptors head coach Nick Nurse called his passing contagious, and it certainly looked like it on Monday.

“I’m an unselfish player, by nature,” Gasol said. “When I see a pass and somebody open, regardless of who it is, I’m going to throw it to them and keep encouraging guys to keep moving. And move without the ball, because if they get behind their defender or their defender makes a mistake we're going to make them pay for it.”

“The thing is we haven’t really practiced yet as a team, so all the little chemistry things and ins and outs and cheat things we can do are still really early. And we just lost Fred so the thing we had going on from the first game was a little different today, so everything is going to be an adjustment.”

It’ll come. The Raptors cancelled their scheduled practice Tuesday morning as a result of the snowstorm in Toronto. They’ll hold a morning shootaround ahead of Wednesday’s game against Washington before going their separate ways for all-star weekend.

Gasol plans to spend the break in Memphis, where he’ll train, do some homework watching old Raptors tape, and finish packing. His wife doesn’t finish work until March so she’ll join him with their two kids (ages four and two) in Toronto next month.

Even though it hasn’t showed on or off the court, this past week has been a whirlwind for Gasol. Having a few days to regroup, recharge and get ready for the stretch run could go a long way. You can expect to see more of Gasol after the break.

Nurse has made a conscious effort to ease his new centre in over these first two games, bringing him off the bench for the first time since his rookie year over a decade ago and keeping him under 22 minutes. It makes sense, as he gets acclimated, but at some point in the very near future the Raptors would be wise to fully unleash Gasol.

What that means exactly remains to be seen. Pascal Siakam has made himself comfortable as the team’s starting power forward, a role that has allowed him to blossom into a borderline all-star this season. Serge Ibaka is also having a career year as the starting centre. Nurse has a decision to make, and whatever it ends up being it won’t be universally popular.

One of those three players – all of them very good NBA starters – has to come off the bench. More importantly, one of them won’t be on the floor to close the game on any given night, unless Nurse shifts Siakam to small forward and Leonard to shooting guard, which is something he’s said he could try in certain matchups.

Whether Gasol bumps Ibaka from the starting lineup, or Nurse platoons the two centres like he did with Ibaka and Valanciunas early this season, you can expect the Raptors to lean on Gasol more and more as the season goes on. That’s why they brought him here.​