You do know Pau Gasol never won a single playoff game until he got to play with Kobe. And he had much better talent at MEM than Kobe had at LA 0-12 Gasol was a whining loser in Memphis, and his playoff record proved it.
Pau is certainly strong (metaphorically) in the game, but all I can think of watching that video was when we just played them. Every single foul call that Pau got should have been a no call. Reminds me a lot of our game against them. Very solid game though.
It helped that Odom and pre-max Bynum were around.... They were more than a stacked team to give credit only to Pau or Kobe. If you see Pau and Kobe reunite, they're always buddy buddy. This is despite clips of Kobe shouting and slapping him around when they were playing. I'd say it took Kobe to get the most out of Pau and for Pau to play tougher and stronger than he ever did in Memphis or Europe.
Fair enough, but lets examine Kobes record between Shaq and Gasol. 2004-05 34-48 Didn't make the playoffs 2005-06 45-37 Lost first round to Suns in 7 games 2006-07 42-40 Lost first round to Suns in 5 games They had Bynum, Odom and Phil Jackson in all but 04-05 season. Don't tell me that Memphis had better talent. The second best player on the Memphis team was Shane Battier and they went 22-60 the season Gasol went down.
man, that's not true. they were a notoriously deep team. and Gasol played 59 games in that 22-60 season. Lakers jumped to a 3-1 lead vs an MVP Nash PHO team when Bynum was a 7mpg non-factor at age 18 yrs old and only on the team for two of the seasons you mentioned. Smush Parker and Luke Walton and Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm and Brian Cook were starters, and they had zero bench. Kobe willed them to the playoffs. your use of facts is odd.
I don't think you are checking the facts. The 05-06 team that made it to the playoffs consisted of the following players and their averages. Pau 20.5 pts Mike Miller 13.7 Battier 10.1 pts Eddie Jones 11.8 Damon Stoudamire 11.7 Bobby Jackson 11.4 That team had a bunch role players and Pau. The following season when Gasol played 59 games and went 22-60, their highest scorer was Mike Miller. You are not going to win much when Mike Miller is your goto scorer.
To add, the second best player on the 03-04 Memphis team that won 50 games was James Posey and we all know first hand how good Posey was.
Dude, that was a young Miller. He was a rookie of the year and 6th man of the year in that year you mention above. MEM was a notoriously deep and young team with complementary veterans like Bobby Jackson. You even prove it with those stats. They actually had 7 players in double digits. And if you can mention an 18yr old Bynum, we should also mention Gasol played with Rudy Gay, Conley and Lowry. you just don't remember those teams.
He was 2nd leading scorer, not 2nd best player. Regardless, that doesn't explain away the other years of being swept in the playoffs. MEM had legit NBA starters, a lot of them. Mihm, Kwame, Smush, Luke Walton, Brian Cook arguably weren't even NBA players much less starters. Gasol never had as crappy a team as Kobe did when he took Nash/PHO to seven games, and Gasol never even won a playoff game.
The Cavs would have been better off signing him instead of trading for love. Hell, the spurs would have 4 or 5 more wins if they were able to land him as a free agent.
Can anybody tell me why did Gasol get awarded an assist at 4:00 minute mark? He dumps the ball to Gibson who goes to work in the low post and scores. As I understand, an assist is directly responsible for the basket that follows it, but not in this case (Gibson did all the work by himself).
rudan, Did they have enough capspace to sign both James and Gasol outright? IF they could sign both, then you have a point, as they would have kept Wiggins, then. But if they needed a SnT to get Gasol, Lakers would have wanted a good piece. Probably won't get Wiggins for a 34 yr old, but someone, like Waiters. I don't think we can compare Love trade to outright Gasol signing.
I don't think he'd be happy playing for the 2011 Rockets. He'd be great with the current Rockets though. And I agree that he's not the kind of guy who would tough it out no matter what. He needs a good situation to be motivated.
