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[thegoldenchild]

Breaking down Pau Gasol's miserable night against the Los Angeles Clippers
Pau didn't get many opportunities to play around the elbow area last night, but the previous five or six games since his return he was and made the most of it.

yeah but if he settles for 3s and jumpshots way out of his range, who is there to blame but himself? it is not hard to take on or two dribbles to get yourself into position. you should see how much ground kobe makes when he backs up an opponent.. i've seen him bump people from the threepoint line (sideline three) all the way to one step out of the paint.. just to get close enough to get a shot off.pau should be more aggressive and not settle for jumpshots.

he either gets it, and adjusts or he's gonna be traded.. cause dantoni is not gonna let him play. he got 67 sec. in the 4th?

 

[thegoldenchild]

Pau needs to be traded, I've changed my mind.
Not because he lost it, not because he's soft but because D'Antoni has no clue how to utilize him or his talent. No clue. Pau has plenty of game left but its just not working with Dwight taking up all that space and D'Antoni running the offense. It's painful to see where Pau is placed and used on the court, utter disrespect.

so how come it worked out with bynum and not with dwight? both play with their back to the basket. it's the system and his lack of aggression that are gonna end his playing days is LA

 

[essential1]

Pau needs to be traded, I've changed my mind.

Not because he lost it, not because he's soft but because D'Antoni has no clue how to utilize him or his talent. No clue. Pau has plenty of game left but its just not working with Dwight taking up all that space and D'Antoni running the offense. It's painful to see where Pau is placed and used on the court, utter disrespect.

I can get behind most of what you're saying.

But where I am of the mind about it is... There just is no space for it on the court like you said. But We could move him to the bench and have him play 6th man, to open up his opportunity. But all we'll get is crying from him.

Pau's not a 3 point guy. He shouldn't be out there that is correct. So teams are smart to collapse on the paint and not only take Pau out of the play, but Dwight as well. Hell it takes everyone out of the play, and it becomes a cluster. Maybe if Pau is around the 3 point line when Nash starts to cut to the basket instead of leaving his feet planted where he is wide open, he should be moving close to the hoop so he can catch it and shoot a 15 footer.

But the problem is less so his offense, but his defense. We can laugh all we want about MDA and defense. Which is true, but Pau will never be a solid defender again. So any points he does score whether it be 15 or 16. He will just give right back on defense.

That's my problem, more than his offense.

And his placement on the court isn't ideal. But it's where he has to be unless he wants to swallow his pride, and become a 6th man and see his minutes cut.

There really is no win to this situation with him making $19 mil. He's not what he used to be, he will never be what he used to be.

We could just dump it into him every play in the post. Then what. Just wait? He has moves, but cannot beat the ZBOs, Ibakas, BG32 on the dribble. Maybe he can burn centers, but what's that leave for Dwight? Standing 20 feet away

All this talk about chemistry and pieces going on. Nash is Nash, Kobe is Kobe, Dwight is not 100% but I'm not worried about him. It's Pau who is odd man out.

With those 3 guys, I just don't see Pau fitting in. It'd be possible if Dwight wasn't on the team. But Pau IS NEVER going to give you a better shot at winning than Dwight.

 

[thegoldenchild]

I don't even care if Pau plays terrible on offense. That's not my problem. We'll still score 100 nightly whether Pau gets 20, or 2. But his defense is what does it.
Howard's defense isn't phenomenal this year by any stretch. But it is still very good. If Dwight is guarding somebody or they get within 5 feet of the basket he alters the shot.
Pau just gets beat off the dribble. He doesn't box out. He is terrible at rebounding despite getting 8 or 9 a game. If he was solid at it, he'd be at 12 rebounds a night. But instead he tries to finese rebound which ends up giving the team a few extra possessions.
His defense kills us. And makes his offense worse. If Pau was playing solid defense, we'd be much better at what we are trying to do on both sides of the ball. Instead of being down consistently.
Injuries or not, this is year 3 of it. It's kind of hard to listen to someone whine about not getting the ball in the paint or the post when he avoids it like the plague. And Pau can score 15 a night, is that going to change anything on defense? Absolutely not.
We can say all we want about turnovers or lack of moves besides a left handed jump hook, but Dwight consistently will shoot 55% or better average. Gasol is 42%. We might as well just get Howard the ball more in the post and a Nash P&R. Even if Howard in the post is to kick it back out, and swing it, it still gives him more of a role on offense. Because Pau sure as hell won't do it, even if he cries that that is what he wants.
At this point all the worry about Pau's feelings definitely makes Dwight worse (who was 20-15 when we went to him slightly more, and played solid defense). Kobe plays better when he only has one guy he needs to try and force feed instead of 2. Nash will be Nash either way.
I was always on the we can't trade Pau unless we get a Superstar in return. Just because that is smart business. But it's not anymore. I'd take 1-2 role players and a borderline starter that are all solid defensively and younger.
__________
-MWP played lazy last night. Game costing lazy. And his shot has become unbearable in the past month. But more often than not I'd rather ride with him because I know he's at least going to hustle.
-Meeks has hit a shooting slump. And his drives are comical at this point. But he goes all out regardless of how he plays. He doesn't complain, he doesn't cry. He just goes out a plays his heart out whether he is shooting 100% or 0% for the night
-Hill is my guy. I could see the Lakers keeping him way past his contract. Dude is going out in 15 mpg and giving you 6 & 6 consistently. Dude has heart and he fights.
It all comes down to this: Can we win with this Pau Gasol? The answer is no. Can Pau play to his level a few year ago? I think he could, but it won't happen for this team. Way too many variables.

even though his defense wont improve, i do feel that adding 15ppg will give him more room for error.. not much more, but a little.. you have kobe scoring 30, pau 15, dwight 19, nash 10, metta 10 (maybe), and then the bench adds maybe 10 or 20 (meeks, hill, jamison should be able to combine for more than that right?), then you're already over 100 ppg.. it allows you more room for error, then when your team barely reaches 90 points.

they say offense wins games and defense wins championships. and right now we need to win games, so offense is important.. you might not be able to outscore okc or miami, but other than that, the majority of the league is what you can dominate more, and at least reach the playoffs

by the way, even though kobe played a good game, he gambles too much on defense, he had 5 or 6 steals, that's great, but he also gives up points by gambling.

 

[pmatic]

Breaking down Pau Gasol's miserable night against the Los Angeles Clippers
Pau didn't get many opportunities to play around the elbow area last night, but the previous five or six games since his return he was and made the most of it.

yeah but if he settles for 3s and jumpshots way out of his range, who is there to blame but himself? it is not hard to take on or two dribbles to get yourself into position. you should see how much ground kobe makes when he backs up an opponent.. i've seen him bump people from the threepoint line (sideline three) all the way to one step out of the paint.. just to get close enough to get a shot off.pau should be more aggressive and not settle for jumpshots.

he either gets it, and adjusts or he's gonna be traded.. cause dantoni is not gonna let him play. he got 67 sec. in the 4th?

He has to take those shots though because that's what the defense is giving up. He's obviously not a knockdown shooter from three and would prefer the elbow area to shoot a jump shot, but that's not going to be given to him by D'Antoni or opposing defenses.

Pau needs to be traded, I've changed my mind.
Not because he lost it, not because he's soft but because D'Antoni has no clue how to utilize him or his talent. No clue. Pau has plenty of game left but its just not working with Dwight taking up all that space and D'Antoni running the offense. It's painful to see where Pau is placed and used on the court, utter disrespect.

so how come it worked out with bynum and not with dwight? both play with their back to the basket. it's the system and his lack of aggression that are gonna end his playing days is LA

Don't get me wrong, Bynum and Pau played well with each other last season but it wasn't really optimal because again Pau was planted 18 feet from the basket more times than not by Brown. Thankfully, Pau was/is skilled and smart enough to work through it.

 

[mr marcus]

This thread depressing

 

[daddyrabbit251]

Breaking down Pau Gasol's miserable night against the Los Angeles Clippers
Pau didn't get many opportunities to play around the elbow area last night, but the previous five or six games since his return he was and made the most of it.

He has to get to his own spots, he let Blake and other bigs for the clippers bully him to the 3pt line.

I hate the excuses that are made for dude man, it's the NBA damn right the clippers watched film and said "Pau likes the elbow and the post, force him out of there" AND THEY DID! It's called scouting, does it mean Pau should camp behind the 3pt line tho? No get your big tall a** in the paint. Hill got in the paint on the boards, in the post, and off of Nash's dribble drive. Dwight was eating in the paint on the boards and off Nash's dribble drive. Pau had 2 pts b/c he think he's a spot up shooter and I know the coaching staff isn't telling him to do that.

Either bring him off of the bench as a 5 or trade him. I like the Seraphin trade but the wizards would be cray to trade one their few bright spots with Wall still sidelined.

Maybe we take Boozer this time, he's looked decent the other night on the boards and scoring and at least his EFFORT is there if he is struggling.

Maybe we take Beasley this time, and get ol boy from UNC... Give them Pau, Blake and Jamison since we don't use him anyway.

 

[essential1]

they say offense wins games and defense wins championships. and right now we need to win games, so offense is important.. you might not be able to outscore okc or miami, but other than that, the majority of the league is what you can dominate more, and at least reach the playoffs

by the way, even though kobe played a good game, he gambles too much on defense, he had 5 or 6 steals, that's great, but he also gives up points by gambling.

We could probably start Hill and play him 30 minutes and get those points. He gets hustle points. And he fights for rebounds on both sides of the ball (By the way Hill doesn't play enough minutes to qualify, but is top 10 most efficient rebounder in the league). Pau unfortunately, you have to change an entire system to get him going.

As for Kobe's defense. I agree he gambles too much, and tries to play the "Centerfield" role too much. But when he's locked onto his guy, he's still very good. Maybe not so much last night on CP3. But Kobe's 34, guarding one position down, and the best player at the PG at that. If he stays on his man whether it be any SG, or up to, but not including elite SFs he would cause them problems.

But we'd still have Pau's issues where he can't get a rebound. All the lockdown D to create a miss is nice, but doesn't mean **** when a 7 footer is out there playing soccer trying to get a finesse rebound.

 

[essential1]

Maybe we take Boozer this time, he's looked decent the other night on the boards and scoring and at least his EFFORT is there if he is struggling.

Maybe we take Beasley this time, and get ol boy from UNC... Give them Pau, Blake and Jamison since we don't use him anyway.

Boozer fits much better offensively. His defense is shaky at best. There's pieces the Bulls have that they'd be willing to part with to get Pau that would help us a lot. But the fact that Boozer has 3 years on his contract, instead of 2 like Pau, kills any trade talks.

Beasley and Marshall is an absolutely horrendous deal. We might as well pack it up and call it a season if we did that. Both of them would be good to add to the current roster. Not take Pau out of the equation. Marshall great distributor, but makes Steve Blake look like Joe Dumars defensively. Beasley is a guy you play off the bench

 

[daddyrabbit251]

^ I thought Kobe's defense was solid on CP last night. Kept him out of the paint alot and forced him to shoot jumpers, which he made b/c he's CP

But when Kobe guards a guy that he knows he better than, that's when he gets burned. The Corey Brewers of the league always have career nights b/c Kobe doesn't respect them offensively. Matt Barnes for instance hit like 2 or 3 uncontested 3s b/c Kobe was standing straight up on defense with his hands in his pockets

 

[daddyrabbit251]

Boozer fits much better offensively. His defense is shaky at best. There's pieces the Bulls have that they'd be willing to part with to get Pau that would help us a lot. But the fact that Boozer has 3 years on his contract, instead of 2 like Pau, kills any trade talks.
Beasley and Marshall is an absolutely horrendous deal. We might as well pack it up and call it a season if we did that. Both of them would be good to add to the current roster. Not take Pau out of the equation. Marshall great distributor, but makes Steve Blake look like Joe Dumars defensively. Beasley is a guy you play off the bench

Damn Booz got 3 yrs left... Yikes.

 

[badboyf0life420]

With all the the missed wide open shots Meeks and pau are missing,

I wish we had Ryan Anderson or Steve Novak on this team.

Why can't the lakers ever get a three point specialist.. Even in the Phil Jackson days.

We never had that 3pt threat.

 

[essential1]

With all the the missed wide open shots Meeks and pau are missing,

I wish we had Ryan Anderson or Steve Novak on this team.

Why can't the lakers ever get a three point specialist.. Even in the Phil Jackson days.

We never had that 3pt threat.

Meeks only needs to slightly improve his 3s to match where Novak and Anderson are at.

 

[pmatic]

4 and 8% are big differences between volume three point shooters. Meeks would have to improve a lot.

 

[bossdonvah]

Dudes in here writing walls of text with whole bunch of nothing in it .. Pau can't get it done point blank I stated this at the beginning of last season son doesn't wanna be here its written all over his face

 

[iheartboost]

Yall being to harsh on Pau, chill.

My dude is playing injured, on top of that his main role has been diminished by a coach who looks like a Pringles cover model. When Pau is playing at his best (healthy) he is the most skilled big man in the game, a pure threat. So what about last night, EVERYBODY has bad games, and you will have even more bad games playing injured. Some players can play though it, others can't, doesn't mean 'that' player is sorry all the sudden.

You got to think about it like this, with Pau new role in this offense, he's loosing his confidence on the offense end, and when that falters so does you defense, it is what it is, BUT in a different system he shines like no other, lets not forget how much of a threat he was in Phil Jackson triangle. I understand you have to adjust, but Pau is the only player who has to adjust the MOST, basically being non-existant for D'antoni system. Is that his fault? No. On top of that, 20 games in and D'antoni system AINT working, so Pau has even more trouble than he would of thought. Watching John Ireland's post interview with Pau last night clearly shows that he doesn't know what his role is in the offense. 32 games in, and your telling me you haven't given a defined role to a 7'0 big man?

Don't write off Pau, any other coach would utilize a guy like that, coach D just doesn't. D'antoni is a scumbag, wrong coach, wrong offense, wrong *** *****.

Told y'all.
This L will be the beginning of the end of this season.
30 days ago they said this team would figure it out.
Whats gonna happen in the next 30?
They have a tough schedule and I really dont see them having a winning January.

Vs Nuggets L
@Rockets L
@Spurs L
Vs Thunder L
Vs Cavaliers W if Irving doesnt go off on em
Vs Bucks L
Vs Heat for sure L
@Raptors W in a close one by 1-3 pts
@Bulls L
@Grizzlies L
Vs Jazz W (only cuz law of averages should give em a W by now)
Vs Thunder L (too bad gotta lose in front of the home crowd to the same team within a month)
Vs Hornets W
Vs Suns W

19-26 by February 1st and playoff picture pretty much closed.
No doom and gloom here. Just straight up analization.
Quote me.

They'll beat Rockets, Buck, Bulls and maybe Spurs or Grizz so I have them 23-26 :\

 

[knightngale]

Gasol is a skilled big man but he does not take care of his flabby *** body. It does not matter how skilled he is if he does not even jump to shoot.
Dude has been missing a lot of easy shots from up close even when it is from a pass from someone else. What makes anyone think that he would be doing
damage if the offense was ran through him?

Essential mentioned that Gasol's biggest flaw is his defense and he is right. Gasol needs to stop worrying about his offensive role and play some defense. He does not even try out there. The Lakers have a much better chance of winning when he is on the bench simply because it is EASY to score on him and his team defense is non existent. He sucks at securing rebounds as well.

What makes it worse is that he plays with hunger when he plays for Spain. He gives zero effort with the Lakers.

 

[duba169]

im telling yall, the lakers ARE NOT a bad team, theyre just not what we expected

they fought back in this game (2 or 3 times) just like they did in the philly game

theyre just a bench player or two away.... also they gotta fix this pau/mwp/meeks shooting drought

Huge comebacks to just wind up losing in dissapointing fashion was a staple of dantoni in NYC.

 

[daddyrabbit251]

Saw this posted on bleacher

 

[Maximus Meridius]

Man, Gasol is DONE. He was great during the repeat but this is not the same dude. When Phil was still the coach he was starting to disappear. It's not the coach, it's not the system, it's him. We keep waiting and waiting for him to turn it on and it's not gonna happen. The Pau Gasol that we used to know is done.

 

[pmatic]

Edit:

@Mike_Bresnahan Dwight Howard says he might not play tomorrow vs. DEN because of sprained right shoulder sustained vs. Clippers. #Lakers

:x

 

[skyline]

LMAO people on this forum saying that it isnt about Dantoni's Offensive scheme and the Lakers just need to play with more energy...
Dont you think they are spending to much energy offensively, running the ball fast after every make and taking quick shots? They are resting on Defense. If the lakers get a bunch of young new talent their defensive will still look terrible. I sat up and watch dantoni make the Knicks suck, know its the Lakers turn. Phil jackson was a firm beliver of offensive flow and getting the team to play together as a unit, and got pissed when kobe jacked up fade away 25 footers because it messed up the offensive flow off the game. The scheme the lakers are playing is great for Kobe and Nash but bad for Pau and Howard. The Lakers would be better off running Stan Van Gundys offense from orlando.
If you think what I type is B.S revisit this post on Feb 1st and let me know if your opinion changed

Stan Van Gundy's offense = four shooters to hoist up the shots, Dwight gets boards.

And for the MD'A haters, we have to take into account that he didn't get a full preseason to work with, so the team will find the rhythm a little later than most of the teams in the NBA. After the All-Star break, we'll be on top of our game and making a push for a higher seed in the playoffs.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't think the game vs. the Clippers was that big of a deal since we were down double-digits and made it close towards the end. The L.A. Lakers only need to make it to the playoffs, and in a best of seven series, we're ALWAYS a feared matchup. 

 

[skyline]

I'm not a big fan of trading Pau either, since I doubt we could get great value from him. We missed that window of opportunity with the beginning of the regular season. If only MD'A could adjust his offensive scheme to fit the Lakers roster, since it's one of the most dominant paper lineups.

 

[CHAOSE57]

Edit:
:x

Wow

 

[laker4lifeman]

Doesn't want to get embarrassed by Faried again.