No it is no accident. Of course Pau was a big part of that Laker team. But the misconception here is that Pau can make any team a great team. He played well off Kobe and with Kobe. What I am saying he doesn't belong to the players who is hard nosed when it comes down to crunch time. He disappears. At least Yao was like : 'You can't f.... stop me!' later in his years. He led the Chinese national team very emotionally. He did that partly with the Rockets in recent years. And Tmac already handed over the reins to Yao. I firmly believe this will be his final surgery otherwise he'll retire or go to another team. Your problems will be solved automatically.
I said it times and times again. Pau would be way more efficient WITH Yao. He would be a way better version and bigger version of Juwan. And the theory stands Lowry/Brooks, Ariza, Johnson/McGrady - runners Gasol- 1st trailer Yao- 2nd trailer behind
NO THANKS....scola owned gasol with his quickness and smarts and footwork...and gasol had 3 inch on scola and long arms. 3) defensively, he is very bad at guarding his man when he goes far from the paint, we've seen this many times <---true but yao is 7ft6..and he is guarding centers that are 6ft9 to 7ft...big difference...image a 7ft center trying to guard someone 6ft4 to 6ft6 out in the perimeter
Daywalker, yao has disappeared against the jazz for stretches. If u don't believe it, how do u avg 6rbs and 5tos in the final 2 games? Foolish,ur names fits when u said scola owned gasol. Scola had 1 good game and shot 43% for the series. Try watching the games.
That year T-mac replacement was Luther Head. Deke/Hayes is 5X the player of Luther Head. Gasol last year in Memphis lead the team to a 22-60 record. As for the Lakers, its a huge upgrade to have somebody over Kwame Brown..........It doesn't take magic to realize when you replace a scrub with a star player, they will do much better. It also helped that Bynum was having a much much better season than his rookie year without Gasol. Gasol had an impact, but i think if they got anybody else = Gasol level, they would be at the same spot because ultimately if you surround Kobe with a good cast, it will be Kobe leading the team. Prior years, it was just Kobe and Odom, the rest of the team was full of scrubs, Brian Cook, smuch, turiaf, Mckie, Maurice Evans and no real PG. The year Gasol arrived to the team the lakers also got a real PG who knew how to run the Triangle. To me that was the most important acquisition. Derek Fisher
I can't agree more. I always laugh at the arguments of one player being more valuable than the other by simply subtracting and adding. Two years ago, Yao's backup was Mutombo while TMAc's backup was Luther. You see the talents difference? Do you still remember Mutombo played out of his mind during that stretch? That's also the exactly same reason Yao-led rockets did fairly well without Tmac last year because they had a quality player in Ron. Now people credited TMac for being the MIP in Rockets because He led a Yao-less rockets team to playoffs while belittled yao's contribution to pass the second round last. Can I say hypocrite? Also some people (I am looking at you, Leebeze) always use yao's "bad" performance against Jazz during 07's playoff as the example. Maybe they deliberately forgot Yao just came back from a major injury. Actually if you look at his number, you can't say spectacular, but not shabby either. How about TMac. Being defended by Fisher majority of the time, he disappeared for several games and his efficiency was just horrible.
If TM were as good as Kobe, Rox can win with Yao, or Gasol, and it makes no difference. As TM isn't even remotely as good as Kobe, Rox cannot win with either. Yao may be injury-prone, but he's not the problem.
'You can't f... stop me!'.... yeah right. All you have to do is stand in front of Yao and you stop him. This may cause some disruption in the defense, but largely I think the tactic of fronting Yao stops the Rockets from being affective merely because we still try to dump it to him instead of abusing the overstretched defense. Pau is a much more versatile player who would fit with the Rockets very well. Would I trade Yao for Gasol? Probably not straight up, but Yao + Landry for Gasol + Odom would work well.
That is another thing dude!! we are not comparing T-Mac to Kobe, this would cause a war here Yao for Gasol that's all Kobe is the best player without any doubt
In case the Lakers Management start fire sales and emulate the Knicks or Memphis that could happen. Why not start selling off their 2nd and 3rd option for an injured player and bench fodder. So creative of you! IT takes two for the trade!
The way he stated it 'The year Gasol arrived....' For most of the year Gasol was in Memphis....so Fisher was there before 07-08 MEM 39 Games Played He played more games for Memphis
So what. anyone with half a brain and without any agendas would tell you gasol acqusition>>>>Fisher acqusition.
Because you don't account the no stats. Fisher is more valuable than most people would give him credit for just because he's the main handler and he sets big men like Gasol in position.
