Memphis' GM on suitors chasing after Marc Gasol: 'Teams are going to have to find another player'

So, the Memphis Grizzlies have the NBA’s best record. The team’s best player, Marc Gasol, spent his teenage years in Memphis, and the Grizzlies were the first team to give him an NBA chance. That franchise can also pay him more money than any other squad in the NBA when Marc becomes a free agent this upcoming July.

So, Marc Gasol seems like the perfect fit to want to flee from the Memphis Grizzlies this summer, right?

So, Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace wants you to step off. From an interview with Larry H. Russell at CLNS Radio:

Yeah, man. Dude’s staying. MARC IS STAYING.

(He’s staying, right?)

The Grizzlies? You can’t kill them. Gasol has always been brilliant, but the newest and bluest healthy and in-shape version of Marc Gasol is destroying teams on both ends, as Marc has cashed in on his significant gifts to average just under 20 points and over eight rebounds and three assists per contest. The Grizzlies, by extension, have shot up to work as a top ten offensive club so far this season while retaining their top five abilities on the defensive end. They look every bit the championship contender, even though the team is laughed out of every discussion as to whether or not to put them on national TV on Christmas Day.

Things can change, though. The Grizzlies could play to the absolute peak of their abilities this season and ride this caravan to the third round or more. That won’t take away from the fact that Gasol is the team’s centerpiece, and that his teammates are mostly aging. Yes, you have the still-solid Mike Conley and resurgent Courtney Lee on your side in Memphis, but by and large the team’s rotation is doing a solid job at approximating what they once were.

“What they once were” may not be around next season, though. Much less the next few seasons after that, should Gasol stick around.

Rumored destinations like San Antonio and New York make sense, to a certain extent, for Gasol. San Antonio’s organization is obviously the class of the NBA, and they would have significant cap space should Tim Duncan decide to retire this summer. The Knicks employ the triple post offense, which seems expertly suited for Gasol’s talents – as was the case in Los Angeles when Kobe Bryant deigned to let Gasol’s brother run the offense from the pinch post.

Those two teams aren’t ready-made champions, though, and the Grizzlies will have options of their own.

Marc’s cap hold this summer is significant, the Grizzlies have to sign him straightaway in order to suss out what free agent options they have in order to surround Gasol and Zach Randolph (who was hit up with a two-year, $20 million extension last summer) with needed talent. The Grizzlies are playing greater than the sum of its parts right now, and personnel consistency helps, but Gasol is also on the verge of making his Last Great Basketball Decision. GM Chris Wallace can try to shoo off all the suitors he wants, but he’s probably also mindful of what Marc’s brother Pau did a few months back – declining overtures for more money and more superstar certainty in order to sign with a Chicago Bulls team that he found interesting above all else.

Marc Gasol is his own man, and the Grizzlies’ hot start and his own relationship with one of America’s great cities will factor in as much as the financial concerns will play a role. The return is not a given, though, in spite of every arrow pointing back to Memphis.

In the interim, let’s enjoy this. Marc Gasol in his prime is a wonderful thing, and Memphis deserves what they’ve been treated to thus far.

- - - - - - -

Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops