Is Pau Gasol the true MVP of the Lakers right now?

[Lakers Fan]

Kobe Bryant 24/5/4 on 46% shooting

Pau Gasol 18/9/3 on 57% shooting!

Pau stats would probably be much higher if they fed him more when he was hot and made more set plays for him. More importantly he has taken very few games off while Kobe has completely lost his shot lately and has been torched defensively. Pau has been like a rock for the Lakers and Bynum too for that matter after about the first 10 adjustment games coming off the injury. Kobe has been superstar brilliant in a lot, if not most games but he has lost the consistency you would expect from a 30 year old veteran. Am I wrong in thinking that right now Pau is playing like the Laker's MVP and he needs to get more touches, unless it's one of the games that Kobe has displayed that he has found his shot for that game?

[Mdog1]

Pau should have been MVP last season. He saved the Lakers year.

[Jinxed]

He was awesome last night. It's close. And too think that Pau's touches are severely limited due to Bynum's presence. Which also keeps Pau having to play farther away from the basket. He is much better low down on the block, even though he can hit the mid range jumper.

[YAWN]

Pau should have been MVP last season. He saved the Lakers year.

and to the OP: no.

[Smokee]

I think so. Its amazing to me all i see here are kobe this and kobe that, and very few of you give Gasol respect. Even Bynum gets more hype here than Gasol, when Gasol is so high% and consistent for you guys game to game. I swear if you all lost Gasol you'd be way less of a threat, than just losing Bynum, and i'd even go as far to say Kobe to a degree.

Even non Laker fans here hate on Gasol for some reason. But every time i watch them Gasol is just such a low post threat with his longness defensively, offensively by just standing there, and is always shooting high% with limited shots. Meanwhile Kobe will go like 5 - 14 or something and be the talk of the board

Gasol could do more offensively at a higher % if focused on than Kobe imo. He gets way better shots in general, and everything he misses tends to bounce around the top of the rim and fall off, but those short little hooks right in front of the basket i'd take most of the time over anyone's jumpers including Kobe, unless he's feeling it. Not saying he's better than Kobe but i swear he's not that far behind, and gets little to no respect because people ride Kobe and Bynum's nuts so hard here

[KenneBell]

Pau should have been MVP last season. He saved the Lakers year.

[Lakers Fan]

He was awesome last night. It's close. And too think that Pau's touches are severely limited due to Bynum's presence. Which also keeps Pau having to play farther away from the basket. He is much better low down on the block, even though he can hit the mid range jumper.

That is true but when Bynum is out, he still doesn't get the touches he should. Pau should have been milked for he was worth in the first 3 quarters, and then he could have sat out in the 4th because it would have been a blowout. It would have been a lot more effective than the other Lakers trying to play Phoenix's game and looking to take quick, low % jumpers and forgetting about defense.

[Knoe Itawl]

and to the OP: no.

Pulleese. To act like it's ridiculous to even suggest it is why I can't stand the whole Kobe Aura thing. If it's fair to question who the MVP on the Celtics is, why isn't it fair to do so with the Lakers, given how well Gasol is playing?

It's like there's the assumption that no matter how Bryant plays (or how anyone else plays) he just always gets to be "the best". I guess "just because"

[Mdog1]

and to the OP: no.

um they were right around .500 without him. They traded for him they went 25-3 or something like that. He saved their year. They would have not gotten to the finals, and would have been an 6-8 seed.

[Lakers Fan]

I think so. Its amazing to me all i see here are kobe this and kobe that, and very few of you give Gasol respect. Even Bynum gets more hype here than Gasol, when Gasol is so high% and consistent for you guys game to game. I swear if you all lost Gasol you'd be way less of a threat, than just losing Bynum, and i'd even go as far to say Kobe to a degree.

Even non Laker fans here hate on Gasol for some reason. But every time i watch them Gasol is just such a low post threat with his longness defensively, offensively by just standing there, and is always shooting high% with limited shots. Meanwhile Kobe will go like 5 - 14 or something and be the talk of the board

Gasol could do more offensively at a higher % if focused on than Kobe imo. He gets way better shots in general, and everything he misses tends to bounce around the top of the rim and fall off, but those short little hooks right in front of the basket i'd take most of the time over anyone's jumpers including Kobe, unless he's feeling it. Not saying he's better than Kobe but i swear he's not that far behind, and gets little to no respect because people ride Kobe and Bynum's nuts so hard here

Bynum has been playing very good lately too just like Pau and playing better defense than most of the Lakers too. Have you been watching all the Laker's games? Bynum suffers from the same problem Pau does, in the Lakers not looking to get him enough touches. Bynum is shooting 56% and Pau 57%(they both should be fed more!) but have little doubt that Bynum's shooting percentage will be over 60% by end of season because he struggled in the first 10 games or so.

[YAWN]

Pulleese. To act like it's ridiculous to even suggest it is why I can't stand the whole Kobe Aura thing. If it's fair to question who the MVP on the Celtics is, why isn't it fair to do so with the Lakers, given how well Gasol is playing?

It's like there's the assumption that no matter how Bryant plays (or how anyone else plays) he just always gets to be "the best". I guess "just because"

its called watching the games and assessing them from an unbiased point of view. mdogs reply was obviously trolling as noted by his hundreds of replies in laker threads.

you take pippen off the 96 bulls and they may not win 60 games. Does that make pippen the mvp? obviously no..

[Lakers Fan]

um they were right around .500 without him. They traded for him they went 25-3 or something like that. He saved their year. They would have not gotten to the finals, and would have been an 6-8 seed.

Correction! The Lakers struggled without Pau AND Bynum. The Lakers were number one in the west with just Bynum and no Pau before he went down.

[Younggrease]

I think so. Its amazing to me all i see here are kobe this and kobe that, and very few of you give Gasol respect. Even Bynum gets more hype here than Gasol, when Gasol is so high% and consistent for you guys game to game. I swear if you all lost Gasol you'd be way less of a threat, than just losing Bynum, and i'd even go as far to say Kobe to a degree.

Even non Laker fans here hate on Gasol for some reason. But every time i watch them Gasol is just such a low post threat with his longness defensively, offensively by just standing there, and is always shooting high% with limited shots. Meanwhile Kobe will go like 5 - 14 or something and be the talk of the board

Gasol could do more offensively at a higher % if focused on than Kobe imo. He gets way better shots in general, and everything he misses tends to bounce around the top of the rim and fall off, but those short little hooks right in front of the basket i'd take most of the time over anyone's jumpers including Kobe, unless he's feeling it. Not saying he's better than Kobe but i swear he's not that far behind, and gets little to no respect because people ride Kobe and Bynum's nuts so hard here

Have you ever seen someone help on Gasol in the post...even once?wonder why..you ever wonder why he gets like 5-6 open 8 footers a game...its because no one is worried about him

But right now Pau is playing better then Kobe(there are a lot of people playing better then Kobe now). Kobe is having a bad start to the year...he is entitled to that as long as he gets his act together. All I know is that I have zero faith in Pau in any situation that has any bit of pressure involved. He also runs from shots at times

[Mdog1]

Correction! The Lakers struggled without Pau AND Bynum. The Lakers were number one in the west with just Bynum and no Pau before he went down.

Yes and then Bynum went down. They started sucking. They got Pau and got the one seed by one win. See my point without Pau they don't get the one seed, finish around 6-8.

[Scott Pippen]

Kobe Bryant 24/5/4 on 46% shooting

Pau Gasol 18/9/3 on 57% shooting!

Pau stats would probably be much higher if they fed him more when he was hot and made more set plays for him. More importantly he has taken very few games off while Kobe has completely lost his shot lately and has been torched defensively. Pau has been like a rock for the Lakers and Bynum too for that matter after about the first 10 adjustment games coming off the injury. Kobe has been superstar brilliant in a lot, if not most games but he has lost the consistency you would expect from a 30 year old veteran. Am I wrong in thinking that right now Pau is playing like the Laker's MVP and he needs to get more touches, unless it's one of the games that Kobe has displayed that he has found his shot for that game?

http://insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2437910