Really... how many knee surgeries has he had? When did he start having those secret knee injuries that you are alluding to? The only significant injuries he's had in his career was when he broke a bone in his foot a few summers ago, and only missed the first few weeks of the regular season. Other than that injury, and the most recent foot injury which is not structural(bone related), your going to have to update me on that insider information on his injury history that has been kept secret. Other than a few foot injuries which have not been chronic, he's never missed significant minutes in his career with chronic injuries. Sorry, the injury prone excuse is BS IMO. There is no logical reason why anyone should think he's done by any stretch. KG has 4 years on Pau, and he has had major knee surgeries. Duncan is also 4 years older, and the expectations for Pau with the Rockets would be much, much less important to their success as those players are to their respective teams. Now, I do agree that because of his age he wouldn't be a great option to trade for and extend beyond next year at the max for long term, but under the circumstances Im referring to, I just dont see a justifiable reason for the Rockets not at least inquiring if Option A. & B. are off the table for the start of next season.
The blatant hate in this thread for Pau makes me wonder if the same people posting the hate for Pau understand the CBA and the impact of the contract side of things. I'm in agreement I'd hate the idea of Pau as a part of the core of this team or in its long term plans. But his contract + limited ability to help now makes him worth a look. Especially if you can get him cheap or on amnesty bid.
I don't think this will work out for the Rockets. You cannot have Gasol & Asik on the court at the same time, that would kill the Rockets' fast tempo offense. On the half court sets, Asik would clog the lane worse than DHoward, gives no room for Gasol to operate. If you trade Asik for a starting 4, then you basically says that Gasol is in your long tern plan. Given his age, I don't think the Rockets will do it.
Even if he is amnestied, I honestly don't think Gasol would accept a new contract that is that much less than market value. Even on a down year, I'd still put his value at around Duncan's $10 mil/yr level. Personally, I'd rather give Robinson, Motiejunas, & Jones the minutes at the 4 and see how/if they develop before we waste cap space on a starting PF. I mean, let's be honest, realistically we will probably not be contenders for at least another season or two. I don't know if it's worth paying Gasol 10-12 mil or Smith the max just to move up a couple of seeds in the playoffs. I mean, worst comes to worst, we can go all in on Love or Lebron or any of the other legitimate max free agents that come up between now and 2015. & As much as I think J-Smoove would thrive with this team, he is not worth the max.
there's a bidding process for amnestied players FYI, also, he still gets paid, whatever the bidder pays him would be subtracted from his Lakers contract
Although I think Gasol would be a nice pickup, especially if he's amnestied and the Rockets win a bid for him, but I still have to see if the Rockets would be the only team that would bid for Gasol. For $19 million, he's not worth it via trade, but for around the MLE I'd take it. If Asik can play with this team, so can Pau. The only thing is I don't think that the Rockets would be the only team that tries to bid for him. There's going to be several teams that will be under the cap in the off-season that I could see trying to go after Pau, if he's amnestied.
the full paper available is also available somewhere on the internets. basically, the idea is that blocked shots and other traditional stats suck. Ibaka blocks a ton of shots but people still go at him and score well enough. He basically makes an argument that it's better to measure how much the player "scares" opponents from the basket and makes them shoot mid range jumpers and what % they actually shoot (Dwight and Hibbert are at the top based on these stats).
In this hypothetical situation, the Rockets would probably tweak the lineups to see what works. We wouldn't necessarily see a Gasol and Asik lineup trying to run-n-gun at all times.The coaching staff might just implement more half-court sets. Then there's the possibility that one of them could end up coming off the bench.
Id love to get pau here. we need a good strong 4. I think Asik is good enough where hes at. He's doing good for a center. A strong PF. I would also see if we get any good offers for Lin. I think he'll do better on another team where he can control the offense all the time and be the go to guy. maybe he can let his true linsanity out there. And we can get a PG that flows more with our offense.
Most of you don't seem to understand that Pau is a center. Pau's game is in a 15 foot radius around the basket. The whole idea of Pau on this roster would be to play him at the 5 alternating with Asik, no different than what the Spurs do with Duncan. Guys, as good as Asik has been for us (he's been great and I like him) Pau is better and is on an entirely different level. Some of you are talking about the playoffs being half court games and wondering how our high paced offense is going to look when the other team walks it up on us, gets us in a defensive scramble for 18 seconds and then gets a layup. Well, the answer is you have to be able to run it right back down and when those playoff teams have balanced the flour and shut down your break, you gotta be able to run effective half court sets right back at them. And that is Pau's forte. He's one of the most elite low post bigs on planet earth...on both ends of the court. Guys, look at the Spurs. They're got one low post player surrounded by speed. We are essentially playing that way now with Asik. The difference is Asik cannot operate offensively in the post. He MIGHT eventually develop some low post skills and become an adequate offensive player. But he most likely will never be an elite offensive player. So you say, "Well DMo is going to be that low post guy." DMo may indeed become a great offensive player with more range and speed than Pau but DMo will never become defensively what Pau is in the paint. Pau is still a great player. He simply needs to find the right situation. Houston could be it.
Maybe it's just me but what is the point of acquiring him for 1 or 2 years in the primes of Lebron, Durant, TParker and CPaul It's wasted effort IMO because I don't think he alone will make us favorites in the West, maybe with another allstar joining him, that is another story....but again you never know how productive he will be
If you can't get Dwight I'd be all for getting Pau on the amnesty block. I have 0 interest in Josh Smith personally. Having Pau and Asik on the team would be good. Not playing them together obviously, but alternating them with the option to big if need be would be nice. You'd also save a lot of cap space to sign other players potentially to fill out the roster.
I sure never did read that article about him being possibly amnestied Where did you guys come across that?
Pau would be great, old or not. Although he's not a true 4, and is much better at the 5, he could alternate between 4&5. About Lin, yes, he's limited in Houston but he'd be limited pretty much wherever he goes. As for the Rockets, I don't buy that Lin hasn't been good on this team. Yes he's not playing star-like basketball but he definitely runs the run n gun offense well, the style is nearly perfectly suited to his game, imo, and he creates penetration more than most pgs. With improvement in his defense which I already think is good, a better shot, he'll make the Rockets better in the long run more than any other substitute I can think of. I know you're not high on him, but your comments sound just like what people said in NY. The point is let's not give up on our potentially great backcourt just yet.
i think he's referring to fans speculating about a Pau amnesty. I doubt he's actually going to be amnestied. But i could see a cheap sale.
Pau is a great player. I think he could fit here cuz what hurt Pau at the 4 in LA was the lack of touches in the post due to Bynum/Dwight. With Asik being a limited offensive center at this moment, Pau would shine. Plus we could get the 2 7 footers dream front court McHale would kill for. Dwightvin the other hand can not play the 4, and we'd have to move Asik or limit his minutes thereby his effectiveness. I'd take a Lin/Harden/Parsons/Pau/Asik line up and go to war with them. Plus, there's not a knucklehead on that squad. It would be a team id be so proud to cheer for. Dwight on the other hand, not so much. We need a star 4 not a 5, imo, that brings it down to Cousins, Love, Pau. If we got Dwight, I still say we need a 4 to contend.
IF we can do it on an amnesty type deal then it is most likely the best course of action this off season, given that if this happens it means Howard reupped with LA and I find it doubtful that we're getting Chris Paul sooooo... if the choices are between 1 year of Gasol on a reasonable deal vs 3-4 years of Josh Smith or Andrew Bynum on a max. Sign me up for the former. You basically play Gasol in a way so that he rarely share the floor with Asik, he becomes the primary backup C and occasional PF . He's not going to be the same defensive beast as Asik but lets face it, as long as he can still limp on the floor Asik will have nothing on him in terms of post up game.
