Gasol won't accept bench role

[Pacers4ever]

with Pau out we saw how much little he is needed with Dwight/kobe/nash....opens up the floor

he constantly b!tches about touches in the post instead of working defense and getting rebounds

time to trade Mr Pau gasol

so you trade gasol sand howard leaves next year what exactly will that horrible front court look like

[Levity]

so you trade gasol sand howard leaves next year what exactly will that horrible front court look like

meta, clark, and hill!!!

be scared!

[longtime lurker]

Thanks. I wasn't sure if it was Detroit or Memphis.







Just saw this. Had already posted the first part of this response.


He never did anything in Detroit. His first season, he started almost all the games and didn't play that well. Gasol has been one of the best players in the league, on a team that went to 3 straight finals and won 2, as well as a team that won 57 games and would have won 50, if not for the lockout. They're not comparable situations.

Pau Gasol hasn't done anything in the past 3 years. And he's been absolutely miserable in the playoffs under Phil and under Mike Brown so you can't blame it all on coaching. He's getting slower athletically and more effective at the center spot than PF. Iverson in his last year in Detroit still gave you 17 and 5 averages and he played under a horrible coach. Right now Gasol gives you 12 points on 42% shooting. My point was not necessarily a direct comparison but how laughable the perception of players are on this site. They're both essentially putting themselves before the team but one player gets praised for it while another gets grilled.

[AussieG]

Trust me when he is traded - at this point there is no doubt that they will try to trade him - you will see that he still has a lot to offer teams. If him and dwight are both down low than it is easy for teams to doubleteam and gangbang them both but if it is one or the other, I would always roll with pau for offense

This is the question and I think if he does get traded.. you could be right.

[Whoah10115]

Pau Gasol hasn't done anything in the past 3 years. And he's been absolutely miserable in the playoffs under Phil and under Mike Brown so you can't blame it all on coaching. He's getting slower athletically and more effective at the center spot than PF. Iverson in his last year in Detroit still gave you 17 and 5 averages and he played under a horrible coach. Right now Gasol gives you 12 points on 42% shooting. My point was not necessarily a direct comparison but how laughable the perception of players are on this site. They're both essentially putting themselves before the team but one player gets praised for it while another gets grilled.

Gasol is playing poorly now. He wasn't himself last year but he was still a very good player last year. The Lakers don't drop Gasol for just anybody and keep that win total. He was still a great player. The year before Gasol might have had his best season. He didn't play well in the playoffs tho. But he still had a great season. So your description isn't accurate.


Iverson was nobody to Detroit and he was playing a ball-hogging style on a team that was nothing like that. He put up OK numbers but needed the ball all the time to do it, and he made the team worse. So it's not an accurate reflection. They're two different situations.

[Scoooter]

The twin towers concept is dead. It's all about speed on the perimeter and athleticism. Funny you brought up Gasol and Bynum but when the Lakers made their 3 runs they were actually running small ball with Odom. Gasol and Bynum never worked. I think the last team to make the finals with two big men were the Celtics and KG is easily the most versatile big out there. If the Lakers need to adapt to if they stand a chance.

I think this is more accurate. So the "Twin Towers" concept is actually four guys in the last 30 years, two of whom didn't win any championships together. And didn't we see Dwight and Pau on the court together last night? I did. Now we're ripping the Lakers for not doing stuff they actually are doing?

I also seem to remember Pau leaving short layups that he should have dunked and letting anybody with a pulse slash to the hoop for an easy two. He's skilled, but bitching about not starting at this point in his career, when he could really help the team by coming off the bench, is just absurd. I say ship him out.

[longtime lurker]

Gasol is playing poorly now. He wasn't himself last year but he was still a very good player last year. The Lakers don't drop Gasol for just anybody and keep that win total. He was still a great player. The year before Gasol might have had his best season. He didn't play well in the playoffs tho. But he still had a great season. So your description isn't accurate.


Iverson was nobody to Detroit and he was playing a ball-hogging style on a team that was nothing like that. He put up OK numbers but needed the ball all the time to do it, and he made the team worse. So it's not an accurate reflection. They're two different situations.

So you make all the excuses in the world for Gasol but fail to recognize that Iverson was in a poor situation as well? Even if their situations aren't the same what happened to putting the team ahead of yourself? I used Iverson as an example, but if this was any other player they'd be getting trashed right now but somehow Gasol is still living off his rep from 3 years ago.

[Real Men Wear Green]

The twin towers concept is dead. It's all about speed on the perimeter and athleticism.

Since when are rebounding, interior d and the ability to score in the paint unimportant? That's just not how basketball works.

Funny you brought up Gasol and Bynum but when the Lakers made their 3 runs they were actually running small ball with Odom. Gasol and Bynum never worked.

Gasol and Bynum were the starters so your statement makes no sense. Odom was a valuable player but he was the sixth man. The year they lost in the Finals they didn't have Bynum.

I think the last team to make the finals with two big men were the Celtics and KG is easily the most versatile big out there. If the Lakers need to adapt to if they stand a chance.

The Celtics having two guys protecting the basket is what made the defense great. As versatile as Garnett is the only thing he does/did for the Cs that you wouldn't expect from a center is his 20-ft jumper. The real reason twin towers are uncommon is that it's so hard to acquire 2 good seven-footers. Everyone wants a great big and most teams don't even have 1. The fact that D'Antoni has two and can't seem to use either just shows how stubborn he's being. Do you really think that all of these teams have two bigs that can stand up to the Lakers' seven footers? They should be killing mismatches in the paint every game.

[lakerspng]

unfortunate stance by Gasol. He should take it on as a challenge to be the anchor and leader of the second unit, enabling him to play where he's best in the low post as the center, and help facilitate the team's overall execution which is lacking pretty badly without Kobe or Nash.

Which brings me to my second point... There should never be a single second of the game, where both kobe and Nash are on the bench at the same time. Our offense simply collapses without at least one of them on the court.

Managing the rotations correctly would make the Lakers a much better team, despite their age and injuries... but MDA seems to be fairly oblivious even to completely obvious trends. Sad.

[Mr. Jabbar]

Managing the rotations correctly would make the Lakers a much better team, despite their age and injuries... but MDA seems to be fairly oblivious even to completely obvious trends. Sad.

This This This and This.

[DavisWarriorsFan]

If All-Stars or border line All-Stars like James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, Lamar Odom and Manu Ginobili can accept the bench role. Then so can he. No matter how many times you've NBA Champion. Pau is no superstar. So he can't complain. Especially when all the injuries he has this year that is also a factor to their problems.

[HorryIsMyMVP]

He said he wouldn't enjoy it he didn't say he still wouldn't get on his knees and suck that dick.

[lakerspng]

why couldn't Jim Buss just swallow his damn pride and hire Phil. Everyone knew he was the right coach for this team.

[FKAri]

Duncan and Robinson. Sampson and Olajuwon. Gasol and Bynum. The Twin Towers concept has a history of success. It's not that complex, you take your two star bigs, dominate the paint on both ends of the court and win. There is n greater indictment on D'Antoni than the inability to find a way to use Gasol and Howard together. This laughable. I don't think he's stupid, just stubborn. D'Antoni would rather lose his way than adjusting so he can win. But go ahead and get rid of one of the key pieces to your last repeat. By all means, I hope they get rid of him.

Of course, I'm a Celtics fan.

They played in a different era with different rules. Why is this so hard for people to understand? Two bigs can still work but it's not as dominant at it once was. Tired of hearing "big men these days just forgot how to play in the post" and bs. Yes. Players all around the world just stopped learning post moves and coaches and everyone who would teach these things have all forgotten em.

[longtime lurker]

Since when are rebounding, interior d and the ability to score in the paint unimportant? That's just not how basketball works.

A healthy Dwight Howard by himself provides rebounding, interior d and the ability to score in the paint, but all of that is diminished when perimeter players are given free lanes to walk into the paint.

Gasol and Bynum were the starters so your statement makes no sense. Odom was a valuable player but he was the sixth man. The year they lost in the Finals they didn't have Bynum.

Bynum was not playing until the finals during the Lakers championship runs. The only finals he was effective in was 2010, otherwise the team was playing small ball in the playoffs without him.

The Celtics having two guys protecting the basket is what made the defense great. As versatile as Garnett is the only thing he does/did for the Cs that you wouldn't expect from a center is his 20-ft jumper. The real reason twin towers are uncommon is that it's so hard to acquire 2 good seven-footers. Everyone wants a great big and most teams don't even have 1. The fact that D'Antoni has two and can't seem to use either just shows how stubborn he's being. Do you really think that all of these teams have two bigs that can stand up to the Lakers' seven footers? They should be killing mismatches in the paint every game.

Yes D'antoni is an idiot, but the twin towers hasn't been effective for the past 3 years under 3 different coaches. There's just not enough speed to cover up for the new breed of NBA player. Everyone focuses on offense when offense isn't the problem. The Lakers get killed in transition points every single game because they don't have enough athleticism to run back. The coach is still the biggest problem IMO but there are personnel changes that need to be made to self correct the defense.