Gasol overcame a hurdle. Took his game to another level. He's about 85% as good as Duncan was in his prime and that's saying a lot.
As much as I hate Kobe, he's the closest I've ever seen to Jordan for this effect. He elevates the game of others around him, not just by being on the court himself, but through his attitude towards the game. Consdier Pau Kobe's Pippen. We saw what Pippen was without Jordan. We know what Pau was without Kobe. It's the off the court, at practice stuff, it's the mental non-stop desire to win, etc. Pau is playing like an MVP candidate for sure, but one could never give him the MVP - he's not the best or most important player on his team, much less for the league. Without Kobe, Pau is what he was in Memphis. Without Pau, Kobe is still ridiculous - the Lakers might not be champions, but Kobe still dominates. I agree with the early voting going to CP3.
2nd in mvp voting? yeah i remember when the lakers traded for him, how everyone said what a lopsided trade it was for memphis and how lucky they were to finally be able to get rid of pau. but lo and behold, kobe gets ahold of pau and turns him into a 20/10/2 big man with good passing abilities and the rest is history.
Gasol won't keep this up and he won't get MVP. He's taking the slack for Bynum's absence. Once Bynum returns, he'll get a few less minutes, shot a few less times, his PPG will lower to around 20 as usual. I expect his assists to go up this year as Lakers now have better 3pt shooters.
No, third in MVP voting. Gasol is a great NBA big. Pippen was voted into the top 50 all time players. You've got to be pretty good to do that. They're both way above average players. Pippen's a HOF'er. Gasol maybe/likely is as well. But there is a CLEAR difference between MJ & Kobe, and Pippen and Gasol. If that's not obvious, than you're not waching. Of course, Pippen also was a complete baby in the playoffs, with his refusal to re-enter the game when Phil drew up the last second shot for Kukoc. And then there's Pippen true post-MJ career in Houston and Portland. Not a crash and burn - still had some very effective years, but clearly nowhere near the same player. I assume this is sarcasm / hyperbole? because, yeah, everyone was saying "OMG, the Lakers just picked up a serious MVP candidate"....right? No, not right. It was such a great trade for the Lakers because they traded the ? of little brother Marc and a bag of potato chips for a perennial all-star caliber big. Which I'm not arguing Gasol isn't. He is a perennial all-star big, and is a very very good big man. But arguing Gasol would be an MVP candidate today, or playing as good as he is today, absent Kobe's influence and the Lakers system, is stupid. Whereas it's not far-fetched at all to say Kobe would still be an annual MVP candidate, one of the game's most dominating (if not the most dominating) players, and likely a championship winner (if not multiple) had he played out his career with the Hornets, instead of the Lakers.
That's actually quite far-fetched. Without a great supporting cast, how is Kobe different from Dominique Wilkins, Clyde Drexler, George Gervin, or the many other great scorers in NBA history?
Just to clear up some confusion about the triangle offense.. The Triangle is not what makes great players stars, It simply enables truly great players to make their team mates even better. It's not the type of offense thats designed to make a single player a star. If a player can't be a star on another team, he for sure can't be a star in the triangle offense, because it takes that star's talent and distributes it amongst the team. Basically what I'm saying is Kobe or Gasol could have even better numbers with a different team, but because they are playing in the triangle offense, it elevates both of their games to be better then they could ever be individually. If Gasol didn't have Kobe and vice versa, the triangle offense wouldn't be nearly as successful. See Miami right now. That is a team that could run the triangle offense even better then the lakers, if all of them instantly knew how to run it. Unfortunately it takes a lot of practice to learn that system, we're talking YEARS of running it over and over and over again.
He goes from 0-12 in the playoffs when with Memphis to being called the "best big man in the league" during the Finals last year to MVP?! I think that's a wee bit extreme. He's never been better than Nowitzki. And try telling JVG you'd pick Gasol over Howard in a draft right now.
Pippen took the Bulls to the ECF in 94, no? As for Gasol and Kobe.. Gasol took a crappy Grizzlies team to the playoffs. He played well without Kobe. Kobe didn't have much more success than Gasol did. They both need eachother. I'm not saying Gasol had a better career..but at this point in time Gasol has an edge over Kobe.
So, Easy, do you agree with this? Since when have people completely forgotten about Dirk Nowitzki? He's freaking shooting 58% so far while being the main focus of opposing defenses. How about this statement? this is becoming cleverly disguised Kobe bashing. so, yeah, Gasol is one of the leagues most overrated players right now, just like Pippen was.
Pippen took the Bulls to the ECF without Jordan. Pau Gasol was 0-12 in the Playoffs without Kobe. It's not even close.
You reinvent history much? That memphis team was considered the up and coming deepest team in the NBA featuring back to back ROYs: Gasol (ROY), Mike Miller (ROY), Jason Williams (2nd to Vince Carter in ROY), Bonzi Wells, Shane Battier, Posey. all solid players then, lot of depth. And Gasol never won a single playoff game with that team. He got SWEPTED 3 years in a row. 0-12! Name me one other HOF/MVP candidate big who got swept 3 years in a row.
Didn't know Dirk played Center. Dirk doesn't count in the "big men" race. It's really unfair to count him in that sense. He's not a traditional big man that posts up and works around the paint. I'm talking about guys like Duncan, Howard, Yao, Jefferson, Boozer, etc.
