Pau and Farmar

[kop5789]

Like I've kept saying, you can always see something new after each game, in this case, I'm seeing a problem with these two. Let's start with Pau. IMO, Pau is still too intimidated by contact. He's not doing whatever it takes to "will" those shots in. He's not thinking, as long as I'm not being extremely tightly contested, then every shot is makeable. Instead, he gets startled on every bump and "challenge," that's not going to cut it. You can see Fish, Sasha and Kobe learning to dig deep, you don't see Pau doing that.

Sometimes, all it takes is for you to make just one or two shots, even against extremely tough defense, for your team to stay in the game. And the more you push like that, the more pressure you'll put on the other team, and I doubt that a team like the Jazz, or any team for that matter, could withstand that kind of pressure.

As far as Farmar, if we made the Finals, then I think Phil should seriously considered shortening the guard rotation to Sasha, Fisher and Kobe. Possessions are way too important for Farmar to be wasting them like that.

On the other hand, Phil might think that he can get Farmar's confidence back. However, that can be very tricky. Since he's not playing well, and being a young player, anything you say might not register in his "subsconscious." In other words, he might think it, but it doesn't matter if he doesn't really believe it. Right now, he looks like he's in that mode of, if you tell him to do something, he'll do it literally, without naturally reacting to it, i.e allow for exceptions. For example, say you tell him, you need to be more selective with your shots, well, what's going to happen is that he might hesitate on even the wide open ones.

When a guy is not playing well, he has this cloud over his head that can muddle, i.e make him second-guess, his thinking. So what I'd do is try to get him to clear his mind first. What I'd tell him is that, hey, we're up 2-0, everything starts anew now. In this case, we are, so there's no false confidence. He just needs to forget everything that's happened(in fact, he needs to learn this concept of never letting a previous possession affect the current one), and dig down, like everyone is doing.

[Kobe's Empire]

might be true...

but in the end he finishes with 20 points....

that is far greater than anything...whatever PAU lacks..he makes up with scoring.

this whole team makes up with scoring....sure the 2nd unit is fast and uptempo..but without those Sasha daggers, the 2nd unit would not look as strong.

the strength of this team is scoring....and if a defense takes that away, we are screwed.....

it has proved to be very hard because we have too many weapons as of now.

If you single or double Kobe, he owns you

no way you can leave Pau alone or wonder, he will destroy ou

you can't leave sasha, vlad, or fish

Jordan can score with enough room to penetrate

LO will eat you up if not accounted for.
_________________
"IMPROVING THIS TEAM AND LAKER SQUAD DOESN'T MEAN TRADING THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD" - VTB

[fromwaydowntown]

It might be true, to some extent, what you say about Pau but, at the end, he scores around 20 points and, more importantly, he puts many fouls on people guarding him. He, many times, has quiet but effective games. Hey, the dude had 5 blocks on game 2. Give him a little credit for that.

[Champ]

Though I don't have nothing bad to say about Farmar's game, I will say that he is lacking that extra effort and fire he had in the begining of the year! Of course it was all because of the fact that the Lakers drafted Critt. With Critt gone now, I guess he feels that "comfortness". I remember in the first half of the year Farmar was one of the biggest surprises, now Sasha has taking over that spot (For now).

OT, Ronny also. Started off great and has since lost some edge. But I guess the acq. of Gasol has a lot to do with that.

[iberian_oso]

Garnett averages 21.9 pts, 8.8 rbs, 3.8 assists and 1.2 blocks in the playoffs, while Pau averages 21.2 pts, 8.5 rbs, 5 assists and 3 blocks.

Yepp, Boston and LA have a serious problem with these guys.

Well, some trivia questions:

1) there will be a prize for the clever guy who tells me why Odom has increased his rebounding since Pau´s trade.

2) Another prize for the clever guy who tells me what usually happens to the player who plays more minutes (last game Pau played only 43:40 btw, that´s to say, he rested the incredible ammount of 4 minutes, and he´s averaging 40.2 minutes, the first Laker in played minutes)

I expect most people will notice these little details.

[Kenrae]

Number 1 is easy, Pau always boxes out opposition so that a teammate grabs the rebound, and tips many rebounds to a teammate too. The problem is that when the ball goes his way he gets easily overpowered.
In Memphis, Mike Miller was averaging 6 rebounds per game before the trade, his average dropped to 4 after the trade.

[Coville]

We're winning, stop complaining.
_________________

[Ramballa]

[Coville]

[Kou]

I saw him bang against Okur the other night, even made a nice post move into a dunk.

[fanboyslim]

Pau isn't intimidated by contact, he's smart enough to know he can't possibly outmuscle most centers. The trick is, as someone said above, he can nonetheless load the opposition with fouls while being a huge offensive threat. Face it, he isn't and he will not be a banger, and if he tries to, he will fail because he doesn't have the body to be one. I'm more concerned about stuff he can improve, like his 15ft jumper and his FT percentage.

He used to shoot and hit his jumpers consistently during the regular season, and he is shooting less and with less accuracy. I can't say if it's because Phil has him doing other things and can't do it or what. Hopefully it's just a bad stretch or the effect of playoff defenses, but I think it detracts from his offensive game and make him easier to defend. If he's not shooting from a distance his defender can simply stay close to the basket, clog the lanes and grab more rebounds. If he shoots well he takes one or even two defenders away from the basket, making it a cutfest for Kobe and LO.

As for the FTs, I'm concerned as well. He's gone from an over 80% average in regular season to a 71% in playoffs, and only 62% against Utah. That's one steep drop. I'm stumped, because he usually misses FTs at the beginning of the game and the he picks up, so I can't say for sure it's the playoffs pressure. Hopefully he'll get better, because there'll be close games where one or two missed FTs may be all the difference between a W and a L.

[Kwame's Cake]

That "quiet" 21/8/5 @ 58% FG is a huge upgrade over Kwame Brown... imagine if we still have Butterfingers instead of Pau...
_________________
http://www.kwamebrownsucks.com/
http://www.tradekwame.com/
Proud Member of Team Farmar

[netlordr23]

[leftymo]

Pau himself was disappointed in his play in game 1, and in game 2 he wasn't as effective as we all know he can.

His rebounding is obviously low and partially responsible for why Utah is killing us on the boards.

That's not such a big deal since he's not exactly a physical box out type rebounder.


The big deal in this series is how Utah has completely eliminated Pau's offensive game. Yes he's scoring but a lot of his points are coming off open shots, dunks, cherry picking or kobe drawing his defender to him.

In the low block Pau hasn't finished, he's not taking his jumpers, he's missing free throws.

Its a point i referred to in the gameday thread, and most ignored it. But it was brought up in the laker post game and some wise fans have noticed it here.

I think it just might be a series specific factor, but ultimately the Lakers will have to rely on primary offense from Pau in the low block, where he can score on his defender 1-on-1...

Most definitely in the next series. LA can overcome it in this series.

[LakerzDQ]

[SignPippenNow]

You people ripping Gasol, have you ever watched basketball before? What is LA's record with him?

[KareemTheGreat33]

When the opposition complains about the inability to stop you I think you're doing a good job...

Ask Korver and Williams what they think about Pau..
_________________
fortuna favet fortibus

[karacha]

Gasol is playing great. Except that he should fix his FT %. I know he does not have a lot of playoff experience, but still... this is a relatively easy problem to fix.

Farmar, on the other hand, can't really run an offense. He's out of control, just like we used to say for Critt. But Farmar is out of control for different reasons. I'd like Mitch to find another PG in the offseason if possible.
_________________

www.myspace.com/karacha

[Radner]

I don't really have a problem with Pau since I know what his limitations are as a center. He's lanky for what position he plays, so you have to cut him some slack when going up against stronger centers.
_________________

"Thus while an incessant alteration in social equilibrium
is inevitable, a revolution is a problem in dynamics,
on the correct solution of which the fortunes of a
declining class depend." - Brooks Adams

[karacha]

[Radner]

^^^ Amare, Brand, Bosh, and Dirk can all play center as well. We're referring to offense which all those guys can provide. As far as on the defensive end, then no, they're not good at being centers neither is Pau. But that's not the purpose of this thread.

As far as the rest of your post, I never said that Pau is bad at playing center. I stated that he has certain limitations when playing the position. Those limitations are strength and an aggressive post game, all which are common among most starting centers in the league.

That said, he's able to make up for those limitations with speed, quickness, and finesse.
_________________

"Thus while an incessant alteration in social equilibrium
is inevitable, a revolution is a problem in dynamics,
on the correct solution of which the fortunes of a
declining class depend." - Brooks Adams

[TheGoat]

I've been saying that Pau is struggling in the playoffs for awhile now.His 1 on 1 game has vanished. He seems to turn the ball over a lot when he goes 1 on 1. The thing that is so amazing with Pau is that he is struggling but still putting up impressive stats.It takes a lot of talent to do that. He can play a whole lot better than he is and I think he knows this. I see the frustration on his face when he misses easy jump hooks. When/If his 1 on 1 game gets on track he will be unstoppable. But in the meantime, the ball movement and easy looks have hidden his inability to create his own shot.
_________________
"After slamming in an alley-oop as the Suns center(Amare Stoudemire) clung helplessly to his arm, Bynum hopped around like he was on a pogo stick, grinning and nodding in a 'Who’s the man-child now?' sort of way" -Chris Broussard of espn.

[scissors]

for pau i think its his hair. when he had longer hair he was playing better.

no but seriously, you brought up a good point. pau seems to be playing too soft lately. some of the shots can be a dunk but he decides to lay it up sometimes missing. was kinda disappointed with the way pau was playing game 2.

i really don't have any problem with jardan except for his weak layups. he keeps getting blocked.

[matrixv]

I can't make any complains about Paul.. but as far as Farmar goes it it seems every time he gets in the game the ball movement is not as smooth & he forces bad shots or just holds the ball too much... he needs to really step it up.

[Mailman32]

Pau is scrawny, no getting around that... dude's arms look soft. Add that to the fact that he's playing one of the most physical teams in the league and you've got a less effective Pau in the post.
_________________
"Now, lot of you ladies out there think cut out the carbs, and that big butt shrink right up. My whole thing is this, Karl Malone work out, hard." - Karl Malone (aka Jimmy Kimmel)

[kray28]

Pau's shot is off, and he's missing freethrows. That is cause for concern....but not so much.

It might be ankle related..either the ankle is directly affecting his shot, or he's been limiting himself in practice to rest it.

Also I think Pau understands that he doesn't need to dominate 1-on-1 to be successful, so he's passing up higher degree of difficulty shots in favor of easier looks, or passes to cutting teammates for higher percentage looks.
_________________
Basketball isn't part of life, it is life.

- Kobe Bryant

[sleepin4matty]

[lakerfan2]

hmm...3 letters followed by 4 numbers...seen a couple of those usernames before...

nmn...
_________________
Andrew Bynum - Rebirth of a Beast (Making of a Beast Remix)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H33YmOrIJ1U

[spitty]

Pau's 1 on 1 game hasn't been great at all this Playoffs. He hasn't been draining wide open umpers either. I don't know hwats wrong with him but whatever at least he plays like a 7 footer under the basket.

Farmar on the other hand is horrible. He dominates the ball too much. Its bound to be a failure in the triangle when a guy who has nothing to offer from hogging the ball, no double teams, no great passes. He has gone from starter material in the 1st half of the season to career back up pg wanna be TJ ford or carbon copy of chucky atkins.

[kop5789]