Anyone surprised that Pau Gasol is playing better at 34 than Duncan was?

[Artillery]

Zach Lowe has actually called out Gasol for being overrated this season. The impact stats back it up. 2015 RAPM for Pau:

+0.2 - Off
-1.4 - Def
-1.2 - Total

[Artillery]

His 2011 Playoffs was a low point. Just terrible.

Injuries had a lot to do with that. Duncan sprained both his ankles only a week before playoffs. He had no mobility in that series. Ever since then he's owned Memphis.

Manu breaking his arm in the last game of the regular season made things even worse too.

With the Spurs two best players injured, you'd expect Tony Parker to step up and carry the load but TP has a long history of choking in the post-season. Regular season games are a piece of cake for him but the dude shits his pants come playoff time.

[HOoopCityJones]

Gasol looks so great because he's actually surrounded with talent again, something the Lakers should've worried about instead of having him on the trading block every year. D'antoni broke Gasol in LA, now Thibs lets him play his big man game and he puts the effort in on defense.


Thanks Jim Buss.

[rmt]

I agree. I personally think it was Manu in 2011 (like he was in 05 [tied with Tim] and 2012 [when healthy]). Other than that though, it's basically always been Tim since his sophomore season and right now.

He did look bad in that Memphis series though. Z-Bo ate him alive, and Pop's love-child Bonner didn't help.

Pop went with the Turd Towers (Bonner and Blair) while Splitter sat on the bench until game 4 of that series.

[Artillery]

Pop went with the Turd Towers (Bonner and Blair) while Splitter sat on the bench until game 4 of that series.

Pop doesn't like playing rookies for some reason. I can't recall him ever starting any rookies besides Parker and Leonard. And he only started those two because the Spurs had no other options at PG back in '02 and no other credible option at SF in '12.

[rmt]

Pop doesn't like playing rookies for some reason. I can't recall him ever starting any rookies besides Parker and Leonard. And he only started those two because the Spurs had no other options at PG back in '02 and no other credible option at SF in '12.

Splitter was not the same "rookie" as 19 year old Parker in 02 or Leonard in '12. He had played professionally for many years in Europe - no excuse for playing Bonner and Blair over Splitter.