Pau Thread: Surgery a success; now rehab & rest for 12 weeks

Good. Bring him off the bench permanently if you aren't going to trade him.

That's very good news.

Good. For THIS team, Clark MUST start because the drop-off in defense from Pau to Clark is pretty drastic.

borri wrote:Good. For THIS team, Clark MUST start because the drop-off in defense from Pau to Clark is pretty drastic.

True and the necessity for defense when we start games is HUGE. We need the defense going early so that we don't give up a giant lead early and have to try to battle back late. Our best chance at that is Clark.

Pau coming off the bench means a lot less defense, but hopefully some more offense down low.

Fewer minutes would hopefully mean a more active post presence when D12 is out of the game.

I think the extended absence is either setting up for a trade or else it is about getting him really healthy in his knee and plantar fasciitis issues.

therealdeal wrote:

borri wrote:Good. For THIS team, Clark MUST start because the drop-off in defense from Pau to Clark is pretty drastic.

True and the necessity for defense when we start games is HUGE. We need the defense going early so that we don't give up a giant lead early and have to try to battle back late. Our best chance at that is Clark.

Pau coming off the bench means a lot less defense, but hopefully some more offense down low.

I absolutely agree with you guys. As I mentioned in the Clark thread, I'm sold on this guy. I know it's a small sampling size, but he's playing the RIGHT way. The way a starting PF ought to play. He's changing the game with his defense and with his boxing out and his rebounding. And his passing and setting guys up is a great added bonus.

Most importantly, it's working. Go with what works until proven otherwise. Pau starting was hit and miss - hugely inconsistent. He needs to come off the bench now and maybe for the rest of the year. The bench could use his scoring punch as you mentioned, realdeal, and a capable center. Clark and Jamison can handle the 4 spot.

The starters are FINALLY looking like they have chemistry. But it's not with Pau. It's with Clark. As I said too in the Clark thread, maybe part of it is his familiarity with Howard's game as his teammate on the Magic. I don't know - but they play very well together. Clark is helping the helper in the team defense and that's huge. He's bringing athleticism, youth, energy, and some skill as well. I like his passing and his ability to set up his teammates. He's just unselfish enough without being too unselfish to fit right in to that first unit. Loving his play.

If Pau is going to stay on the team for the remainder of the year he should come off the bench. Get him back in the post to see if he still has any of that left. He's just not proving effective enough in the starting lineup.

I think putting Clark back on the bench any time soon would be a big mistake. He's earned the spot, his teammates play better when he's in there. I think he's wasted on the bench.

Lakerjones wrote: I like his passing and his ability to set up his teammates. He's just unselfish enough without being too unselfish to fit right in to that first unit. Loving his play.

This is a great, great point. He takes some shots that I think "eh... maybe not the best look" but those are IMPORTANT because it makes the defense respect you. If you hesitate, or if you don't look confident, the defense will cheat off of you and you won't make them pay.

The other thing he does GREAT is move off the ball. He has something like 2-3 putbacks a game just because he's ALWAYS mobile and that's something we just don't have in the starting unit. Kobe doesn't do that, Artest doesn't do that, and Dwight usually has 2-3 guys boxing him out, so he has a tough time doing it.

I'd be comfortable at this point moving forward with him starting as long as we use Pau to get some functional depth. Our depth of Ebanks/Duhon is really just dead weight. Maybe Morris too, but I think he's good for the locker room stuff as a young rah-rah kind of kid.

^^ Thanks realdeal. And yeah, I agree with you, his movement off ball is excellent - and something that now when you see it makes you go, "oh, yeah!" Part of the whole eye-opening experience for me with this kid.

And I'm with you, if Pau is going to be here for the remainder we need to get some use out of him off the bench. That's the best place for his game right now and for the team. Pau coming off the bench could provide some stable offense which we've really been lacking. Get Meeks back in there, Jamison, Pau, and Duhon or Blake whatever. Well, we could still use a backup 3 something awful, but . . . there's the injured player exception for that potentially.

You know it comes down to this for me. When I've been watching Clark with the starters I finally get that feeling: "This is a team." I've been waiting all year long to feel that way. I haven't until now. And I don't want that to get messed up right now when we are winning again and finally have some chemistry going forward.

hollywood swinger wrote:do the trade now!!!!!
http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/225614/Josh_Smith_Kicked_Out_Of_Practice_Suspended_One_Game

now seeing Clark next to Howard, I guess the notion of a stretch 4 to help balance the floor for Howard isn't necessary and i think Smith would be great but why would Atl be interested at all? Getting Pau for the next year doesn't do much for them nor this year, they'll just be middle of the pack team just like they've always been.

I'll say one thing, I've been hard on Pau, but I'd definitely rather have him coming off the bench and backing up D12 than Sacre.

But if that mother effer gets in with the 2nd unit and looks passive as hell when he should be shooting/being aggressive and taking a majority of the shots, I'm going to be livid.

He wants touches and shots, well coming off the bench with the 2nd unit for 10-12 minutes, while Kobe/D12 are resting should be easy in theory.

Benching him is a good idea like most of you said, but after that dantony needs to figure out a way to control his minutes with the bench and try and get him a lot of playing time with the starters as well. As a general rule of thumb for gasols minutes, get his as much PT as possible with nash and as little as possible with dwight.

^^^ It shouldn't be about catering to Pau anymore. There should be no scenario where he takes away what the starting unit has going on right now.

Playing with the second unit he has everything he wants. The post, the shots, the touches, him being the focal point of the offense, it's what he's been whining about ever since he lost his mojo, he should be jumping for joy at that opportunity.

Doc Brown wrote:^^^ It shouldn't be about catering to Pau anymore. There should be no scenario where he takes away what the starting unit has going on right now.

Playing with the second unit he has everything he wants. The post, the shots, the touches, him being the focal point of the offense, it's what he's been whining about ever since he lost his mojo, he should be jumping for joy at that opportunity.

^^ I agree. I've defended Pau to some extent because I felt like the criticism of him was getting to such a fever pitch that it was turning ugly - and wasn't commensurate to his level of play.

But seeing how well we are playing with Clark in the mix, to the extent that we actually look like a TEAM, even with Clark starting, it's time for Pau to take a backseat for a while.

Winning is too important right now to fool around. We can't be searching for Pau's role with the starters and suffering from poor defensive rotations with Pau instead of Clark. Clark should be exactly where he is right now - starting PF.

Pau should be fine off the bench. If he isn't then he should get less minutes (or traded).

therealdeal wrote:

borri wrote:Good. For THIS team, Clark MUST start because the drop-off in defense from Pau to Clark is pretty drastic.

True and the necessity for defense when we start games is HUGE. We need the defense going early so that we don't give up a giant lead early and have to try to battle back late. Our best chance at that is Clark.

Pau coming off the bench means a lot less defense, but hopefully some more offense down low.

Allowing early leads is bad in two ways. The first one is obvious, don't want to trail early. The second one is even more important....You DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, want teams to get into an offensive rhythm early on as it usually spells disaster later in the game.

So many hate on Pau. Looks like we can go deep in playoffs without him LOL.

Hate???

12.0pts, 10.0rebs, 2.8ast, 1.6 blk, 44.4fg%

12.9pts, 9.1rebs, 4.3ast, 2.4blk, 42.7fg% (we doubled Harrington and Faried)

12.5pts, 9.3rebs, 4.0ast, 0.8blk, 43.2fg%, (punch from Phil, allowed Dirk over 60% 1v1, threw away game 1 too wi that idiotic foul not knowing score or game which left Phil to reply co comment for what could be going thru his head)

13.5pts, 6.8rebs, 3.7asts, 2.3blk, 41.8fg% (and we had to double Landry to protect him)

That isn't the mark of a great player, damn sure aint the mark of a franchise player as Pau makes max money, and he's a two way liability, its just bleeding into his season play now. The signs were there in the last title run as well when Pau didn't show up on the road vs PHX (worst close out game ever, and Amare plunked him in Phoenix equally as bad), Boston (Fish and Kobe were the only Lakers with better road than home averages), or OKC (he plays the first 47 minutes and that tip isn't necessary)

It's been coming on slowly.

In 2010, he underperformed on the road in 3/4 playoff series. His game didnt travel from staples to anywhere but Utah which was trash.

In 2011 the playoffs saw him get dismantled by Landry and we began to double every time to save him, the Hornets just missed threes. Dirk killed him, shot over 60% when they were matched up, so we doubled. Dallas hit what NO missed and we got burned trying to save him from getting raped. In fact we wouldn't have even been swept, and had game 1 won until he decided to run up and intentionally foul with no fouls to give 30 plus feet from the basket. Phil, Lamar, Kobe, Ron, Derek, and Andrew all did a collective wtf when the cameras panned to them.mthe announcers did the same

In 2012 he underperformed for a long stretch of the season until Kobe called out the management to the media to protect him. Then he proceeded to go into the playoffs and be destroyed by the fifth ninja turtle in Harrington and his sidekick Faried. He shot terribly, defended poorly, and was roasted by la media for no showing game 6 while a sick Kobe battled.mthen there was the next round where he didnt show up versus OKC, and in game 4 was so scared late in crunch time that he literally passed it to a Thunder player. Did I mention his unit with the second unit when Kobe sat was a net negative both runs and lost every beginning quarter they played when he was supposed to be asserting himself as the lone post guy with Bynum sitting?

This isn't new. Is been a long time coming, Pau is broken, to be blunt as a PF he's a mufackin joke and isn't even top 10 at his position. He's a liability on offense as he isn't even converting at a 25% clip on his open mid range shots, and his post up score conversion is pathetic for a big. We ain't even got to mention he's our worst defender in the starting 5. It's time to move to the bench or move to another team where he can be C either way period

So with all due respect I'm calling you or anyone defending him full of **** when you say you never saw this coming, or it hasn't been happening before this year

odom1year wrote:So many hate on Pau. Looks like we can go deep in playoffs without him LOL.

12/8/4 @ 42% shooting... If he is making the MLE that's great, but if you cost 19 mil that's a problem... Not to mention the things you don't see on the stat sheet, like his constant complaining and laughable defense...

Doc Brown wrote:

Mark Medina ‏@MedinaLakersNBA
Pau Gasol said he & coaching staff has talked about him coming off the bench to phase him back in the lineup
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Doc Brown @FluxMyCapacitor
Pau Gasol said he and the coaching staff have talked about him coming off the bench to phase him back into playing shape for his eventual trade.

Hopefully the coaching staff can sell Pau on the idea that the bench needs him with Hill out for the rest of the season.

Hopefully he doesnt go further into shell

watch him come back against the heat and play like crap once again

maybe this will finally be the game that gets them scurrying to ship pau out of LA

With recent turn of events in Atlanta, where Josh Smith's agent just had a meeting with management...
and it's well known that Toronto is open to trading Bargnani and Calderon...

I present to you..........
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=a3kwejh



Was it not Toronto that offered Bargnani and Calderon for Gasol earlier this season, but the Lakers turned that down because they wanted to see how Gasol played with Nash?

What if Josh Smith forced Atlanta's hand, pulling a Carmelo/Dwight Howard-type ultimatum with, "you might as well trade me for something because I am not re-signing with you this offseason?" Would Atlanta settle for Bargnani as a consolation prize rather than lose Smith for nothing?


Crazier things have happened lol.

i laugh at those who think bargnani would be an upgrade over pau

he's even softer than pau is, and that is saying alot considering how soft pau is. calderon would be an amazing addition but i still think minny provides the best return value

pau+ebanks+duhon for williams+barea+ak47
OR a trade with sacramento
pau+ebanks+duhon for evans+brooks+robinson/garcia/jimmer

Gasol defending James will be doo doo.

I don't know what the trade will be, but I'm going to put myself out there:

Gasol will be traded after the Heat game. Probably within a day or two, maybe three. The team already has a trade in place, they're just waiting for after the game so that a) he doesn't get hurt and b) the team isn't distracted from a huge game by some "bad" news about a friend and teammate.