23 replies to this topic

[Piston Honda]

Celtics fans are so high on Gasol.
Why not send him there via 3-way trade.

That window might have closed with Rondo's season ending injury.

With the way things are going the last 2 games, I'd like to see the Lakers play it out until the trade deadline. His bench role might be something worth keeping despite his $19 million salary.

[wydellmd]

I acutally encouraged this before it happend.....It just makes good basketball sense, and it has proved to be working out.....Gasol is still getting good minutes, and is a lot more effective, as I said he would be.....It worked for Mchale...And it appears to be working with Gasol....

Edited by wydellmd, January 28, 2013 - 12:16 AM.

[True Lakers Fan]

I like this role too, less Pau means lesser chance he'll cost us the game

[gque24]

Like the old saying goes "don't knock it till you try it" Pau Gasol was initially unwilling to come off the bench and spoke of how he never did it in his career while not sharing D'antoni's vision of him playing center and punishing other teams from there as well as pairing him with Dwight mostly when Nash and Kobe are resting thus making him main facilitator.

Well fast forward three games and Gasol is putting up his best numbers this year.

14.3 points and 9.0 rebounds on 53.1 percent from the floor in 27.3 minutes.

14 and 9 for a bench center at 53 percent shooting is a vast improvement for Gasol as well as netting him 10 percent better than his season field goal percentage.

The evidence is obvious, Gasol is better as a center than he is as a power forward and putting him against the bench's 5 is almost unfair IF he plays in the post. Thus if the coach of the other team has to keep his starters in at the 4 and 5 to deal with Gasol while Howard is resting then Dwight is gonna get minutes against him.

Thus having Pau Gasol backing up Dwight Howard as the center of the Lakers gives their team the best starter to backup combo at that position in the league and SHOULD be the way the Lakers use having both big men as an advantage.

Hopefully Pau embraces this role. Playing sparing minutes for one or two high and low plays with Dwight and having Dwight and Gasol out there while Kobe and Nash rest seems to be the way to go.

The offense flows better this way and the team gets easier shots. Case in point if Pau Gasol is making shots from the bench 5 we don't have to worry about him having to chase down someone running the break.

This is an overlooked element. When Gasol plays far away from the basket as he had been and the Lakers have to take a hard shot, the outlet guy is already going out because knowing that only Gasol is in position to catch him is nothing to worry about now. But when Gasol is attacking in the post that advantage goes away and Gasol saves his legs.

Should be something we stick with entirely, today will be a telling point but a good one as well. We must stick with the Nash off-ball strategy but above all the minutes and matchups we used with Dwight and Pau and hope that Gasol stays in the post. 15 and 9 on 53 percent shooting as a bench shooter doesn't lie and reverting back to anything else only hurts the team.

The ball is in the Spaniard's court now, time to swallow pride and do what's best for the team.

We shall see.

If Pau could average 24+ then I would say its "unfair" vs bench 5 like you said. But plz 14 is nothing.