Alex Caruso has been many things to Los Angeles Lakers fans throughout the years. He's been a cult figure, a GOAT contender, and the regular guy just like us who's somehow playing in the NBA.
But apparently, he's also the reason Marc Gasol is staying with the Lakers. For now, at least. ESPN's Ramona Shelburne recently appeared on Zach Lowe's Lowe Post podcast and dished on the trade that nearly led to Gasol's untimely exit from the Purple & Gold.
Via Corey Hansford of Lakers Nation:
[Caruso] had a couple of deals, somewhere around the mid-level. One was a team that didn’t have to do a sign-and-trade, and that was the Bulls, and that was the one he preferred anyway. But I heard the Timberwolves were in on this. It would have been a sign-and-trade, and they actually would have taken back Marc Gasol.
Like that could have been salary cap relief for the Lakers, not just a trade exception. So we’ll see if they end up needing those exceptions, we’ll see if they end up needing those extra tools to build this roster out, but I think that’s really where we’re going to decide ‘was the Westbrook trade a success?’”
Many have Marc Gasol penciled in as the Lakers starting center as of now. But his fate in Los Angeles was actually in Caruso's hands all along.
Had the Bald Mamba decided to move to the Timberwolves, he would have needed to drag the Spanish center with him. But as he's always been, Alex Caruso has been a savior for his fellow man. Lakers fans salute you, AC.
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