Pau Gasol, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge. How do you rank these power forwards, not counting in "AGE." Basically how do you rank them in their prime? Stats for reference Bosh - http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3707/career;_ylt=AnfZZeQ53oSbb9qHi8G4oGPMPKB4 Aldridge - http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4130/career;_ylt=AnfZZeQ53oSbb9qHi8G4oGNUPaB4 Gasol - http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3513/career;_ylt=AnfZZeQ53oSbb9qHi8G4oGOOPKB4 Their stats are strikingly similar which is why I wanted to bring up the comparison. EDIT: I am not sure why that "u" got into the title of the thread. lol
Yeah, I'm pretty sure same order as the title. If Tim Duncan is the MJ of the PFs, then Gasol is pretty much the Kobe, he's flawed but really good in his own right. There's a reason Morey wanted him desperate at like 33 yrs old, the guy is just the complete offensive player and isn't a liability on D. He also managed to get the Grizz to the playoffs 4 years straight with only Shane Battier as the decent guy on the team (other players were like washed up Damon Stoudemire and Slowmile Swift). They got swept every time, but honeslty it took Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay, Conley JR. and Z-Bo working together to reach that same goal. Add to that his 2 world medals and he's pretty much a lock for the HOF. Bosh is better than LMA, Bosh is an excellent defender while LMA doesn't defend as well as he should.
This is all wrong. It goes Chris bosh, lma then pau. Chris bosh is pretty underrated he's had some big plays in his career and comes up with clutch defense and offensive plays. Your talking about a guy with two rings gold medal and pretty much kept Miami alive with his 3s against bulls the first championship. Not to mention his huge rebound n heads up pass to ray Allen this year followed up with the block on Danny green for a possible game winner. Not to mention last year he had the d on Durant. Pau is a good passer for a big man but bosh and lma eat his lunch all day
For last season only, advanced stats paint Bosh as by far the most efficient on offense and the most effective on defense. Gasol, obviously, was injured, poorly utilized and unhappy and it's hard to project his current standing on his 2013 stats. At any rate, when you're talking about counting stats Aldridge looks great but Bosh shot a fantastic 53% even while draining an occasional three, the other two both shot below 49%. When talking high usage big men it's a pretty big difference. Bosh also comes out with the highest steal rate and the highest block rate, though he's the worst rebounder of the three. http://bkref.com/tiny/4vTfh However I still have a lot of faith in a properly utilized Gasol so I'm going to go 1) Pau 2) Bosh 3) Aldridge For reference, 2012 Gasol vs 2013 Aldridge and Bosh, which has Gasol as the best rebounder and passer, though Bosh is still the best defender and shooter: http://bkref.com/tiny/yMqjI 2012 comparison of all three, reminding us that Aldridge actually fell off almost as much as Gasol in 2013: http://bkref.com/tiny/9yTo1 I don't mean to say Aldridge is bad by ranking him below Bosh. I think on the right team he could be an elite 2nd option and I think the comparison is very close.
Pau. Bosh. Aldridge. Aldridge hasn't even been the best player on a playoff team yet. Probably never will. Bosh is probably still better, just in a terrible system and often mismatched on defense.
1. -Gasol- Few NBA bigs in the history of the game have had the all-around skill-set that Gasol has had over the course of his career. If you factor in international play, I would say that Gasol is almost certainly a hall-of-fame player. Since Phil Jackson left the Lakers one of the biggest basketball sins has been the mis-use of Pau. 2. -Bosh- is similar to Pau in the fact that he took a slightly less roll on a contending team for the better of the team. However, he doesn't have the unique skillset that Pau has. He has shown though that if given a large role, can be a major factor to getting a team to the playoffs on his back. Which is something that LMA has not shown. Bosh can put up major stats offensively, but has shown from time to time that he can do much more things to impact the game with his underrated defense and rebounding ability. I dont think Bosh is a hall-of-fame player just yet, but his accomplishments cannot be denied. 3. -LMA- is a great talent, but hasn't had the cast around him in the last few years to really get the national recognition he really should get. That being said, he doesn't have that small incremental difference that separates a great NBA big man from just a really good all-star level big man. He can't put a team on his back and get them into the playoffs alone. Doesn't mean he's a bad player by any stretch. I think LMA has the potential to leapfrog Bosh here in time if he gets into a better championship contending situation where he can be a focal point offensively, but right now he just doesn't have the resume in the post-season to support a higher grade than Bosh. *I dont think you can go wrong with either Bosh or LMA as your 2nd or 3rd best player on a contending team. Both guys can fit in well to any basketball situation. Gasol on the other hand needs to be put in certain basketball situations to really be that difference making player. However, if he's in the right basketball situation, he has the ability & skills to be far more dangerous.
It's both easy to say Pau, and hard to. I agree with best skill set of the three (not counting age), but the dude never won a single playoff game at Memphis as the best player. We aren't talking a playoff series. We are talking being swept every year (or missing the playoffs)....never winning a single game. 0-12 record in three consecutive years, followed by three more years of completely missing the playoffs after the Battier / Gay trade. That's like the worst playoff record for a big in the history of the game.
Against vastly superior opponents. It's not really a big deal to me. Gasol accomplished a lot more as a second banana than Aldridge did, and he was more important to the Lakers than Bosh has been for the Heat's two championship teams. Aldridge has never won a playoff series, and I doubt the 06-08 Raptors would have done any better than Memphis against the Spurs, Suns, or Mavs from 03-06.
I purposely did not put Kevin Love on the list. The reason for the topic in general was I was thinking about LaMarcus Aldridge as it relates to the Rockets and then got thinking about Bosh and Gasol. Bosh gets ripped a lot but clearly he appears better than he seems on the surface.
Of course, Raptors would not have done any better, they NEVER made the playoffs in the East that whole time. How can you compare them to a 50 and 49-win West team like Memphis. Memphis was better than you are leading us to believe. Good enough to win one playoff game out of 12.
Prime? Gasol Aldridge Bosh Now? Aldridge Gasol Bosh I've never been big on Chris Bosh, even back to college. I may be discounting defense too much, which I think Bosh is superior to Aldridge.
