This Chicago Bulls season has not gone the way anyone had hoped or dreamed, and that hasn’t cleared up the question of whether Pau Gasol will be returning to the Bulls next season, and now he’s acknowledged it.
Gasol is expected to use the opt-out in his contract when this season ends, since he said at the trade deadline that the team’s performance down the stretch would influence his decision. After the 106-98 loss to Miami, the Bulls would need to win out and the Pacers would have to lose out in order for the Bulls to make the playoffs.
“Nothing is set right now,” Gasol said after the game. “Definitely, I will evaluate what I need to when the time comes. But the way the team has responded to adversity and the way we finished up the season has not been so far great, and it’s been disappointing. So at the end of the day, when the time comes, I will evaluate things. It’s hard to finish the season like this. It’s not finished, but we’re in a very, as we know, extremely difficult position, so everything will be thought of and considered.”
He also stressed how important playing as a team was to success, something the Bulls have failed to do at times this season.
“No matter how talented you are, you don’t win based on talent,” Gasol said. “You win based on desire, togetherness, effort, determination, things that are important.”
The Bulls have not been able to put together consistent 48 minute efforts all season, a fact not lost on Gasol.
“We haven’t given it enough importance on a gamely basis,” he said of the Bulls’ defensive intensity. “We haven’t been able to put enough games where we play together with intensity and effort required on the defensive end. In this league, you’re going to have better or worse nights offensively, but defense is what’s going to give you a chance every single night. And we’ve relied too much on our offense. We just haven’t had the defensive mindset, nor emphasis on it, so we paid the price a lot of times. We’ve been too casual many times, and that’s why we are where we are.”
Has Gasol thought about the possibility that these upcoming games would be his last in Chicago?
“Not really,” he said. “I want to play every game — I always try to play every game like it’s my last. I try to give it my all. I’m at a point in my career where I’ve played a lot of basketball and try to give it my best every single night. I think I’m doing overall pretty good, but I’m not thinking that it could be my last game [with the Bulls]. I mean, it could. It could be your last game any night, any given night, so from that standpoint, I don’t think too much ahead about it.”
The Bulls are about to miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2007-08 season, the year when they won the Draft Lottery and took Derrick Rose first overall. Last year, Chicago went 50-32, claiming the third seed in the East and falling to the second-seeded Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
[ESPN]
