I don't agree with you on this one. This Rox team initiates the offense from Yao. So fronting makes sense for some teams. With T-mac in, and a good shooting PG like AB, fronting will make them to pay. Unfortunately, Rox rarely starts Yao, T-mac and AB when T-mac is healthy. By the way, I don't understand why OP choose Gasol instead of Boozer?
every big man gets fronted from time to time. we do it with pau gasol occasionally when scola is on him. it's just to mix up the defenses. you don't guard a great player the same way all the time. you gotta give them different looks. i also watch the spurs play quite a bit b/c i also have LP. what they do is they go to another play immediately; they don't look to repost or look for timmy when he is fronted. they have confidence in tony/manu to do their own thing and create a score. WE SHOULD BE DOING THAT. instead, we still try to look for yao and waste time. yes there is weakside help. but JVG pointed this out in the portland series on national TV. after game 3, the blazers fronted him primarily with one man with VERY little weakside help. with great players, you always have weakside help. again, yao can solve this problem easier than our coaches or guards. just develop a midrange game/high post game. great players should know his limitations and improve on them rather than depending on others to do so. we still struggle to score under adelman, esp. in the playoffs. we average only 93 points per game in the playoffs. that's 2nd worst of all playoff teams. the reason we're winning is b/c of our defense, hustle, passion, and heart, which is the calling card every year. we still need to improve offensively.
I would sooooo rep you if I could. This is ownage to cabbage guy. By the way what's your take on this thread anyways? Heck no? and is Yao Ming the best center in the NBA to you?
There are positives and negatives playing with Yao. Being fronted may help Kobe but what about having a 7'6 player clogging the lane? We have seen how much better Aaron Brooks is able to penetrate without someone like Yao in the lane. Pau is great at catching the ball and scoring every time Kobe passes it to him inside but I'm not sure if Yao has the hands to do it. I wouldn't put anything pass Kobe. He seems like the type that will do anything to win. I'm sure this isn't the first time he has hit or disrespected a teammate. Same guy that thew all his teammates under the bus and demanded a trade to Chicago.
If you were going to say Dwight Howard with some addons maybe. But not for Paul Gasol. Let's just wait til next season and let it all play out. I really want to keep this team intact as much as possible with Tmac as well. When Tmac comes back this team will have so many options to play with.
No, I wouldn't trade Yao for Pau straightup-- maybe Pau + a draft pick. Yes, I just responded to see what my new sig looked like!
No. Pau is a good player,but he isn't much of a defender and isn't a great rebounder. He is benefiting from the presence of not only Kobe, but also Bynum and Odom. If we had a younger Deke,then I would consider it.
I would mostly based off the durability issue Other than that they are basically a wash between each other and he can run the system more effective than Yao I'd cosign that deal
Yep, I agree. Gasol doesn't even get doubled at all down there in LA. In Memphis, he was an all-star leveled player but ever since he's been in LA the media actually knows who he is. That's what happens when you play in LA. Yao is better than Pau Gasol when healthy, no question about that part. Putting durability as a factor, I'm sure the Rockets would think through this, but I doubt the Lakers would even offer this trade since Gasol is perfect in the triangle. Yao plays like a #1 option on both ends, while Gasol plays like a #2 option on both ends. Yao just needs a versatile scoring wing whether the guy is a #1 or #2 option, to dominate. Gasol needs a #1 option to dominate.
His numbers are right on par with what he was doing in Memphis. He can do the same things Yao can do, maybe more imo He has to defer to a lot more guys than the Rockets do or he'd have higher numbers
I wouldn't make the trade. Paul Gasol has all those talented options on the floor that give him the space to be the best and yet he's allowed Chuck Hayes to single cover him. It's not like he's one dimensional on offense like Yao who is inconsistent with his jump-shot. The guy has the face up game but our guys have shown to be tougher than him. He's having the same problems in this series that he had in the finals and in Memphis. I rather have Yao who plays hard and who takes pride on the defensive end. I think being the best center in the league isn't saying much when there is only two to pick from. I'm happy with having Yao.
aren't you the one who claims that you love this rockets team to death? yet you are talking like yao has not been an important rocket. your hugging your tv and making a separate thread for it on garm was quite comic, btw.
I can't believe how many responses to such a silly question. The OP needs to have Kobe come in and give him some "encouragement". If you don't know what I mean, ask Pau.
Maybe. Gasol is a mid-block, face-up type player. Really redundant to Scolandry. But if there were a way to move Gasol to PF and turn Battier and change into a young, very defensive C while moving Artest to SF in an uptempo team, I'd consider it. But my real hope is that the Rockets keep Yao while improving their level of transition O.
Pau is a much better defensive player than he's given credit for on this board. He may not get alot of blocks but he's actually very good at being in the right position and atleast shows some effort on that end of the court. I'd says he's definitely a notch above the Amare Stoudemire's and Dirk Nowitzki's of the league, in that regard. He's one of the few guys that can hold his own against athletic 4's and big 5's. Still, I would take Yao if there was no injury history. That's saying alot, there aren't alot of big men i would pick over Gasol.
Dirk and Amare are sub-par defenders. In my opinion, similar to Kobe when Gasol WANTS to play defense. He can, and he can be an above average defender like Yao is. Yao Ming's still better than Gasol by a good margin. Gasol is more versatile offensively, but Yao is much more dominant offensively. I'll take Yao anyday, unless he's injured.
