Marc Gasol

[...] Take Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid, the league’s two best young bigs, both taking more than three three-pointers per game. Take wily old man Pau Gasol, shooting 54.7% from three point range and becoming what Mike D’Antoni had always encouraged him to be. Or take Pau’s brother Marc, with 97 made three pointers of his own coming on a 38.0% shooting efficiency. This is the new way, and while saying this in this space is not news, those above numbers are worthy of reflection.

Last season, the Grizzlies were highly fortunate with injuries. All four of Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Tony Allen all played at least 78 games, as did Jerryd Bayless. Rudy Gay was also healthy for his half season of play before being dealt. So were his replacements, Ed Davis and Tayshaun Prince, and so was Marreese Speights prior to his midseason departure. But this year, their luck ran out. Gasol has been injured, and it has cratered the team.

Counting the game in which he played only 9 minutes and got hurt as one in which he didn't play (which seems fair), the Grizzlies are 7-5 with Gasol in the lineup and 5-11 without him. Considering that Gasol is both the reigning defensive player of the year and a nightly triple-double threat, this is no surprise. No one can replace a player that good, even if they do have one of the league's best backups at that position (and in Kosta Koufos, the Grizzlies do). Ewing Theory anomalies notwithstanding, a team can't offset the loss of a star, and the Grizzlies are feeling his irreplaceable loss in all facets of their game. That much is unavoidable.

Pick 28: Memphis has the Lakers' pick here, as a part of the Pau Gasol trade. You know of the Pau Gasol draft, right? It was the trade that looked far worse than it was when it first happened, then began to show its true value once Marc Gasol came over and starred, but then looked really bad again when Pau made noticable improvement after the age of 28.