Right now I would trade Yao for Gasol just because Gasol is not injured, but if Yao was not injured. NO WAY!!!
And then have another one the next year. Then another one the next year. Then another one the next year. Then a season ender/missed next full season right before they turn 30 and their contract year. Wow I can't believe anybody would be reticient to put $16mm/season on that and just let it ride....
This is true, but if he comes back healthy, even right after major surgery, absurd or not, there will be quite a few teams that will be willing to pay Yao that.
ya when pau was on the grizzlies, they didnt have much, pau was the reason they got in the playoffs, need more than one player to win in the playoffs DURRRRR yao is definintly better on defense, can only beat the fronting defense w/ above average passers (tmac, rafer, not brooks/lowry) . if he does have a good passer on his team, he's better than pau no doubt, BUT, he always gets injured, no one konws if he'll be the same next year, or if he'll play a full playoffs. everyone knows pau doesnt get hurt, can play in the playoffs, much better passer, 2nd tier on defense. id trade pau for yao at this time, before this year i wouldnt
A big problem that GMs and Owners make is to get "married" to their players.. emotional attachment.. Gasol is clearly more versatile and useful based on current refereeing as well as durability. Seems to be just as effective of a defender.
yao's a cashcow. nothing more teams will pay him to make more money off of him, not because of his basketball skills
fronting defense destorys yao and the rockets its not his teammate's fault either not even steve nash will want to throw a perfect pass to a fronted yao only to result in a turnover because of yao's slow reaction/bad hands/weak core strength etc gasol definitely is an upgrade
Yes it destroyed the rockets who beat Portland..................................Expose the fronting defense = win. To folks who keep saying Gasol has better defense.....You need to look up some real statistical sites. Gasol never averaged 10 rebounds, Gasol on the Lakers when off court, their defense gives up less points by almost 5 points, while with Yao its the opposite. Let alone since year 1 with Yao, the Rockets have been top 5 on FG% allowed. Gasol injury free- True Gasol faster - True Gasol can pass better - True Gasol better post player - False Gasol Better defender - False Gasol 2nd fiddle to Kobe - True I can understand the hate on Yao because he is injury prone, but its disgusting when folks still think Gasol is a better defender when it has never shown in games nor stats. This whole fronting crap is pointless, we won 1st round with portland fronting 100% of the time and you know why because they are too busy sending help with the sandwich so our boy Scola burned them for mid-range jumpers. If Fronting was such an issue, Rockets wouldn't have won so many 50+ games when Yao is a Rocket. It slows Yao down but it doesn't slow our wins. It may not be pretty but we still win. However if teams fronted Yao and we had no role players who could score, than yes its a problem.
Daywalker, yao said he wanted the ultimate cheeseburger combo with curly fries and a strawberry shake and to park the Range Rover next to the benz. He also said you can get the change out of the ashtray
Are you joking, you do realize the last season Pau played in Memphis, the team was 22-60......Sure he was out 10 games They made the playoffs 3 times with 0 playoff wins. Yes ZERO 00000000000. His Roster included Pau Shane Battier Mike miller James Posey the unfat Bonzi Wells White Chocolate Jason Willams Eddie jones Damon Stoudamire Those are 5 good players who can help Pau reach the playoffs, they aren't scrubs Do you know who Yao had during that timeframe????? SF Cat Old ass jim Jackson Mark Jackson Adrian Griffen Moochie Norris Charles Oakley (40 years old) Scott Padgett Maurice Taylor Weatherspoon Yea at least they managed make the series competitive. Look at Gasol teamates now vs Rockets. Its a joke. Kobe alone > 4 of our rocket players.
Gasol has always had better talent around him than Yao Ming, yet he couldn't even win one playoff game when he was with Memphis. Yao Ming has been way more effective in the playoffs (maybe except this year). Some of you fail to see what Yao has done in the playoffs, in the 04 Playoffs, he held a still-somewhat dominant Shaq to 16.2 ppg on 50% FG. (Gasol at his best could never do that to Shaq, he can't even defend an almost 40, Shaq). That same Shaq averaged over 26 ppg in the Finals against the Pistons, 20.6 against the Timberwolves, and 22.5 ppg against the Spurs. He played so well in the beginning of the Mav series that it had Mark Cuban [sort of like Phil Jackson and Nate McMillian after Game 1 against us] go complain (and cry) to the NBA about how refs were officiating him and let him get away with aggressive plays (which started his current problems with fouls). [You won't ever see a teams do that with Gasol, because not that kind of player]. He shot over 65% in that series in 7 games. That is outstanding. The Utah series might have been one of his worse series, but he still averaged 25 ppg and 10.3 rebounds. Still, I don't blame T-Mac and Yao for losing that series, they played well enough to win. I credit that to everyone else on the team. Who couldn't score, hit open shots, or simply get outplayed by the Jazz secondary players. Even in the injury seasons where he didn't play into long stretch of playoffs against the Jazz and Lakers, those series automatically become winnable, if he is partially healthy. The only answer the Lakers had for Yao was the referees and them being allowed to play with aggressive with no calls on fouls, as Yao couldn't even breath on defenders. Also to the notion that some posters think Gasol is some kind of iron-man, this is what his games' played schedule looks like over the last 5 seasons. 08-09: 81 07-08: 66 06-07: 59 05-06: 80 06-07: 56 He's had 3 seasons in the last 5 years, where he has missed more than 15 games. Two of which, he missed over 20 games. Some posters making him out to be some Karl Malone built player, which he is not.
I doubt that. But I'd like to hope that somebody is willing to take a 30-year old, injury prone, declining player, who is incapable of being a franchise player off our hands at $16mm/annum over 3 or 4 years; I'd be very happy.
i swear we were very lucky to win against Blazers and fronting defense does happen only in the playoffs in the regular season Yao was mainly guarded from behind, no way to compare
Again, fronting does work against Yao, but does it slow the offense down, truly. Sometimes, it does and other times, it doesn't. Sort of like a zone type defense in football. It works sometimes against certain QBs, but it may not slow the running game down or even a great QB who can read defenses and different types of coverages, while being able to stick passes into well covered places, like Peyton or Favre. Fronting is the same way, you want to commit to it, but you start to use it too much it's going to leave a big hole in your defense. For one, if the other team has decent to good jump shooters on the front line, you can hope they miss some of them, but given that they are wide open or barely contested in shooting. Next, you stand a big chance of giving away the basket to other players and leaving the post wide open. If the ball starts to move around fast enough, that's going to be an easy 2 points, if you have perimeter players who can get to basket with no problems (I'm not even including dump off passes). Yes, fronting does work, when your players aren't as talented around a given center, like Yao, but when the talent starts to improve...the strategy will become less effective, like it has over the last few season. Portland, try that, and our supporting cast annihilated them for it, since they were so determine not to be beaten by Yao Ming. Even though, it didn't matter in the end and he got his points ,anyway.
