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

I have been frustrated with Gasol as of late. But this guy can still play and adds another dimension to our team. Its like having another Nash on the floor. Get it to him at the elbow, Nash and Kobe can move without the ball. Keeps Dwight 1 on 1 on the block. Really helps the flow of the offense, and it will only impove. IMO

therealdeal wrote:I think the strength around the rim will be the last thing to return. He's got great hands, but his timidness bled so much into his being that he began questioning every ball thrown his way. Every rebound, every posession, he's played it too soft for too long.

He's going to have to really toughen up around the rim again, but that'll take time. In fact for most of his career he hasn't been able to handle phsycality very well. I think the one year that changed was 2010. The one thing that we need to be able to count on is that when teams go small, he can punish them in the post.

I mean, HE DOES have Dwight to go up against in practice, hell even players like Metta to play physical.

Pau needs to utilize his length and IQ around these bruisers. I think with being relegated as a "third/fourth option", it changed his mindset to be a facilitator, and it changed his aggressiveness. The past two games, it actually has worked, but there are times where he needs to be aggressive and take it himself. He needs to make that decision whether he has an advantage, whether the pass he makes is the right one, he's a smart player. I think he just needs to get used to the reduced offensive role going specially through him in the post. He will have his moments, he needs to remember he can do that.

^ Well his length is the issue here. If he's going to go up over the top of these shorter guys, he's GOT to be able to get his own rebound if and when he misses.

He's just not a physical guy and I'm guessing that since his role has been reduced he's gotten more and more timid because he doesn't want to mess up and hurt his chances of staying or hurt his chances of playing the amount of minutes he wants.

He just needs his confidence back. I admit at times (fairly recently ) I've given up on him. I wasn't sure that he had that fire left anymore. But he's shown me the last couple of days or so that he's still a gifted player and he's still an intelligent player. He CAN be a Championship level contributor to this team. He just needs to remember that.

Hopefully we'll see an aggressive Pau this game. Then again he's going against Faried.......

So far he's been aggressive and playing well, Faried is a very tough guy to guard though.

nice game...been a big critic of his lately but he showed even more today then yesterday

khmrP wrote:nice game...been a big critic of his lately but he showed even more today then yesterday

This.

Good game offensively, terrible defensive outing. Pretty much the way everyone played.

solid game. like above, he and everyone played bad D so im not gunna talk about that.

he shouldnt be sitting at the 3 point line even if he can make them.

he was aggressive tonight which was good to see, but when dwight was ejected he should have gone to work in the post everytime. no excuse. so thats on him and dantoni to make adjustments. him making the 3's only encourages dantoni to keep playing him outside the post

He did well on offense but he also was a -16. Box score doesn't tell the whole story as usual. Faried ripped him a new one most of the night........

I did like his movement and overall he seems to be moving better. He actually showed more energy (compared to his normal) than most of the guys tonight.

I'm still not liking him floating around the perimeter....

That's like only giving Howard lob post touches... oh.... wait.

Great aggressiveness on offense.

But Faried absolutely DESTROYED him on the boards. If Gasol and Howard clean up the glass, we easily win this game.

I love Pau this game. Faried was banging on everyone. They crash the boards better than anyone and we did not help the helpers (ever) this game.

Yeah, Pau was more aggressive than usual. He looked good offensively. Hopefully, as him & the team can get their act together defensively.

Pau played well.

Yeah Faried even made Jordan Hill look like he was glued to the floor.

Faried is just a freak of nature. Gasol is coming along well now..

BDG wrote:Great aggressiveness on offense.

But Faried absolutely DESTROYED him on the boards. If Gasol and Howard clean up the glass, we easily win this game.

True, but Faried killed everyone on the boards. Liked his aggressiveness though. Good stuff.

Faried is the kind of player you love having on your team ... and want to punch when he's playing for the opponent

nice game from pau but im still waiting for him do 2 consecutive strong/good moves in the post.


i knew he shot 3's in memphis but 2 3's in a row? heh heh, still dont like him out there, regardless

Gasol played aggressive offensively & he can't get a damn call to go his way. Defensively, well...everyone sucked.

Is it me or does anyone notice that Pau is really sloooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww and weak.

He lost rebounds last night to Lawson and Miller. Those little guys just wrestled the ball away from Pau.

pansie

abeer3 wrote:i thought that among a sea of bad defense last night, he was the worst. seriously, being clearly the worst defender on the lakers is a real feat these days. it takes almost willful disinterest, if there is such a thing.

Weak, disinterested, afraid to give a hard foul.... all of the above. I dunno. But it's frustrating.

how can you suck this bad at 7 feet. .

i'm still all for trading him for a blue collar 4 who's willing to get dirty and unafraid of anything.

i understand pau's trade value is nil at the moment and more valuable next season, but i say trade now.

i know our whole team sucks on defense minus howard and metta, IMHO, pau is the main culprit for our woes on either end and he just pisses howard off too damn much on defense.