NBA Trade Grades: Spurs Send Boris Diaw To Jazz

San Antonio Spurs

Last season for the Chicago Bulls, Gasol averaged 16.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.0 blocks per game on 46.9 percent shooting from the field and 34.9 percent shooting from three-point range. He’s clearly still a valuable player, even as he turns 36 years old today.

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There’s also the small issue of Tim Duncan’s NBA future. After 19 seasons and five championships in this league, he could hardly be blamed for wanting to call it a career at age 40.

The Warriors are looking fairly dynastic at the moment, and last year, Duncan averaged only 8.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game before being rendered ineffective against OKC’s back line of Steven Adams and Enes Kanter in the playoffs. Clearing the space to sign a potential replacement like Gasol makes sense.

That being said, this necessary evil comes at the expense of San Antonio’s most important bench player, the original Draymond Green who brought positional versatility and inventive passing to any lineup he joined off the bench.

Last season, Diaw only averaged 6.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 18.7 minutes per game. But the Spurs also breezed through the regular season thanks to their incredible bench depth that feasted on opponents, blew games out into the open and allowed Gregg Popovich to rest his older players, including the 34-year-old Diaw.

Diaw, a fan favorite over the last four and a half years with the Spurs, is a key loss to a bench that will now have to rely on Patty Mills, Kyle Anderson, the aging Ginobili, Jonathon Simmons and rookie Dejounte Murray to carry the load.

Let’s not forget, San Antonio’s highly vaunted bench depth completely fell apart in the playoffs, when the lights were at their brightest and the reserves’ combination of inexperience and old age was stampeded by OKC’s more athletic lineups.

Gasol gives the Spurs a viable replacement for Duncan at the center spot, preventing LaMarcus Aldridge from having to play out of position in the event Timmy retires, which, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, could very well be the case.

But trading such a useful and versatile piece of the team’s bench hurts, especially in a salary dump that only netted the Spurs the rights to 2015 second round pick Olivier Hanlan.

Hanlan, a 6’4″ combo guard from Boston College, spent the last year playing for Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania. He has yet to play an NBA game, and even in a salary dump move, the Spurs didn’t come close to getting full value for Diaw.

If Duncan decides to retire, then this move becomes more defendable. Clearing the room to acquire Gasol keeps things at the status quo in San Antonio, and having a capable passer and perimeter shooter like Pau will empower Pop to unleash some truly potent scoring lineups featuring fantastic ball movement.

But even if the Spurs loom as the biggest obstacle to Golden State’s reign in the West — especially with Durant leaving Oklahoma City — they’re still a distant second, and this move comes at the expense of one of their biggest strengths: bench depth.

Grade: B-

Next: Utah Jazz