Pau and D'Antoni

[savvy1803]

Pau can play in this offense , he is one of the best passing bigs currently playing if not the best ... the question is for how long ? I believe Pau will be given every chance to excell , that being said it may come down to footspeed and athleticism and if things go sour under this format you may see Pau being moved .
To me this move has Jim Buss's greasy little fingerprints all over it to bring in MD instead of Phil and if that's the case it does'nt inspire a great deal of confidence however at this time i don't know if he is soley the reason .

We know the Lakers will score under MD but can they defend enough when it comes to the playoffs , this move will help Nash and Dwight for sure and Kobe will always get his but they may have to look for some more shooters if Meeks and a few others don't find their scoring touch soon .

It's an interesting dynamic how they have chosen an upbeat tempo over a more take care of the ball low post approach that the triangle offers , not saying it won't work .... just know up to now it has'nt had great success when it comes to winning chips in the playoffs . I guess for now i'll take a wait and see approach but to be honest i would have rather had Phil .

[GailGoodrich]

Fact is, Gasol won't fit in a D'Antoni offense. If we don't make some trades to get some shooters or athletic Forwards who can RUN, this whole process of basically hiring D'Antoni and firing Brown, would be pointless. This is a Mike D'Antoni league. The NBA likes to RUN and is very quick and fast paced. If we had hired Phil or maybe Jerry Sloan it would have been a different story, because they both are basically the God's on half-court offense. We need to trade Gasol. Nothing stupid about that.

The fact is, you don't establish a "fact" simply by saying, "fact is" and then offering your opinion.

The Lakers have a height/size advantage against two teams that have committed to small ball: OKC and Miami. One of those teams -- OKC -- just helped LA out by letting their third-best player go and replacing him with pieces and parts. The other team, Miami, is one Wade, Bosh or LeBron injury away from complete collapse.

We've got a full season to see how it all works. If D'Antoni indeed brings someone in to coach defense, and we see that result on the floor, I like our chances. And having Pau + D12 in the post on defense is to our advantage.

[Teeboy1487]

Pau will fit in this offense. Pau is as skilled as they come. He can get up and down the court offensively. The problem is, we have no shooters around Pau or Dwight for that matter. How are we suppose to run a D'Antoni offense with no shooters to spread the floor? Pau should be the least of our worries.

[Braylen22]

Josh smith is leaving atl next year. Josh smith and howard are best friends. I say move gasol for smith. Smith can spread the floor for the pic and roll, MUCH better defender, young, athletic and will keep howard in LA long after this season. He has never made the all star game b4. In dantoni"s system with nash, he"d b a lock in the west. And with howard and josh smith guarding the paint, i mean how much defense do u have to coach?

Nash/morris/blake
Kobe/meeks/
MWP/ebanks
Smith/hill
Howard/sacre

[savvy1803]

Josh smith is leaving atl next year. Josh smith and howard are best friends. I say move gasol for smith. Smith can spread the floor for the pic and roll, MUCH better defender, young, athletic and will keep howard in LA long after this season. He has never made the all star game b4. In dantoni"s system with nash, he"d b a lock in the west. And with howard and josh smith guarding the paint, i mean how much defense do u have to coach?

Nash/morris/blake
Kobe/meeks/
MWP/ebanks
Smith/hill
Howard/sacre

I know Josh Smith is one of the first names that comes up when it comes to trading Pau but that move has it's own peril's as well , don't underestimate Pau you may be surprised . I think Pau deserves a good long look before we even think of trading him , he still brings alot to the table ... i would wait and see how Gasol shakes out with this new offense .

[Braylen22]

^^ dats like how shaq crowded the paint with he got to phx for amare. U need to spread the floor for thr pic and roll. I no pau is a good player, thats why u take advantage of it and use his trade value. And no matter how good he is, it doesnt change the age difference btw the two. Pull the trigger!!!

[Braylen22]

If pau had a deadly mid range shoot like a bosh, garnett, bass, etc then ok. But his shot is so touch and go. Hes a post player. A great one but very limited with range. And wen durant or lebron moves to pf pau has no place on the floor. Imagine the line up with smith. Match up problems all over the court. And if we decide to go big with

Nash
Kobe
Smith
Hill
Howard

Are u serious? Thats a problem.

[GailGoodrich]

Josh smith is leaving atl next year. Josh smith and howard are best friends. I say move gasol for smith. Smith can spread the floor for the pic and roll, MUCH better defender, young, athletic and will keep howard in LA long after this season. He has never made the all star game b4. In dantoni"s system with nash, he"d b a lock in the west. And with howard and josh smith guarding the paint, i mean how much defense do u have to coach?

Nash/morris/blake
Kobe/meeks/
MWP/ebanks
Smith/hill
Howard/sacre

Josh Smith career:

FG%: .464.
3P%: .267
FT%: .667
RPG: 7.9
APG: 3.1

NBA championships = 0

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...smithjo03.html

Pau Gasol career:

FG%: .519
3P%: .233
FT%: .753
RPG: 9.2
APG: 3.2

NBA championships = 2

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...gasolpa01.html

(Funny how experience and titles means everything with Phil Jackson and nothing with Pau.)

[Pluvious]

Fact is, Gasol won't fit in a D'Antoni offense. If we don't make some trades to get some shooters or athletic Forwards who can RUN, this whole process of basically hiring D'Antoni and firing Brown, would be pointless. This is a Mike D'Antoni league. The NBA likes to RUN and is very quick and fast paced. If we had hired Phil or maybe Jerry Sloan it would have been a different story, because they both are basically the God's on half-court offense. We need to trade Gasol. Nothing stupid about that.

AGain...Diaw dominated in Phoenix. Same type of player as Gasol. Please explain why Gasol does not fit? Both have good mid range game, post up players who pass well and don't move a lot. ??

[LakerPride]

i cant figure how people here say Pau wouldnt fit in D'antoni's sytem

IMO, he will fit in nicely. but if you asking about MWP instead, maybe i'll believe you

BUT NOT PAU! he will be great in a moreup tempo game and in pnr's

[alleyooptocoop]

the other side of this is we might need shooters, and we might need to give up Pau to acquire said shooters

your sig is hilarious

[Findor]

I think Pau can fit any system... So said, there are systems that are better to some type of players than others.

My main problem with Brown was he seemed to fully ignore what players he had, bad rotations, bad use of players...

I hope D'Antoni to be smarter and play each one at his best, that's what good coaches do. Good coaches do not fit players into their system, good coaches fit systems into his players.

[Hellcrooner]

Gail.

Pau is not 28 anymore.

HE HAS PROBLEMS RUNNING DOWN THE COURT.

We need a more athletic big that HAS A MID RANGE SHOT and some IQ ( wich leaves out stupid J Smith).

We are better off Trading Pau and Blake for Zach Randolp and Bayless, or Stou and Novak.

[Vinylman]

Gail.

Pau is not 28 anymore.

HE HAS PROBLEMS RUNNING DOWN THE COURT.

We need a more athletic big that HAS A MID RANGE SHOT and some IQ ( wich leaves out stupid J Smith).

We are better off Trading Pau and Blake for Zach Randolp and Bayless, or Stou and Novak.

I don't know about those guys you proposed crooner but it is pretty obvious Pau will be gone at some point because he can get us multiple pieces.

As for what Pau did in the Olympics it is pretty irrelevant when it comes to the lakers because he will be playing very little of the 5 and the laker shooters are laughable compared to Spain.

In the end Pau has a below average mid range game because he can't take anyone off the dribble. Midrange is less about shooting when you are one dimensional like Pau

Pau is still an elite offensive NBA player... Just not at the 4

If they can get multiple pieces then I would be shocked if he wasn't gone by the deadline

Let's just hope they aren't stupid enough to take STAT

[GailGoodrich]

I see the Trade Pau! elves are out in force today....

So: before D'Antoni can even arrive and prove all the Pau haters right that Pau needs to be traded for perfect players who can do everything at all times and never make a single mistake, we now have an example of Pau needing to be traded because D'Antoni wasn't on the bench and able to draw up the right play for the end of last night's game.

Oh, and our starting PG was out. And our back-up PG was out. And today we learn that Metta was the one who had the brain cramp and dropped the ball off to Pau too early. And even at that Pau almost hit the three to win it -- a shot that if Kobe had taken it would have caused all the Pau haters to cheer wildly even if it was a long-range hero-ball fadeaway that missed as well....

I get it: if you hate Pau you're never going to notice the perpetual hypocrisy of your antipathy. The same people who are pissed Phil didn't get hired because Phil = Championship are perfectly willing to get rid of a guy who has helped LA win two rings, including one year where Kobe melted down in the deciding game. Who's now trying to learn how to play with the second big-time, lane-clogging center in the three years.

The same people who want Pau traded for a bucketful of new young guns who will wow us on every play are the last people who seem to know anything about play-off ball and what's critical in close games: execution. We didn't have execution last night because the ball went to Pau, we had failed execution because we had no head coach, and Metta () was making the most important decision on the final possession.

There's a part of me that wants to see Pau traded so we can get in a bunch of players who have no familiarity with the team or with D12 and Kobe, and who will probably fade when the heat's on, but I love my Laker team too much. So I'm waiting for D'Antoni to arrive, and for Nash to get back, at which point none of the Trade Pau! arguments will make sense any more -- at least until Pau touches the ball again. Unless he doesn't touch it enough, at which point someone will say he should call for the ball more.