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

Pau's tring the "Luke Walton trick" :

- "you want to trade me ? Too bad I'm injured !"

Pau's mentality here is that "I already gave you two championships, gonna coast, deal with it" If we trade him, he'll do better with the next team guaranteed. No motivation whatsoever for him.

Bargnani would not be an upgrade to Gasol. Heck, he wouldn't even be a better fit to the team because he isn't an athletic freak compared to today's PFs. For marginally better perimeter shooting, we'd give up more rebounding, interior scoring, passing, and defense.

no to bargnani

How can you guys watch thee second unit and say we dontt need Pau? We need someone who can create for hinmself or for other.

pau just doesn't want to play hard. Get guys who will

We need a 4 that can shoot, and a back up point guard that can pick and roll and shoot. Trade Pau for that and I'm in. If they don't play defense, who cares since this is no longer a defensive minded team.

^ Even if it was a defensive minded team...Pau wouldnt be much help in making that mindset a reality at this point. So you might as well do what you said to improve the team from its current state.

Just hopefully the new players are on short contracts so we maintain a certain level of flexibility.


Mitch doesnt usually fail when it comes to making trades these days, so I'm not worried about this.

I don't see why everyone is so against a package built around Stat. The Knicks have a TON of pieces we would absolutely thrive with. Amare isn't one of them but he could possibly be a better candidate than Pau to put up points off the bench & keep us in games when Kobe/Dwight/Nash rest. Especially when he's only going to get chances to score on jumpers/beating his defender off the dribble in the high post. If they're willing to part with Novak or JR & a couple other decent pieces, we could excel in MDA's system. Felton + JR would be amazing.. It's probably 1 or the other though, with Shump/Novak as the alternatives Something like:

Pau, Blake/Duhon, Clark for Amare, Novak, Felton or Amare, JR, Shump.

Duhon has been playing well lately but Felton would be an upgrade with MDA. It's more likely they give up Prigioni or Shump, I'd prefer Shump but if that's the case, they have to take Blake instead of Duhon. An athletic young defender like Shump & a shooter like Novak/JR that can play SF or in JR's case, split the SF duties with Kobe. This type of firepower & possible defense & athleticism off the bench is what we need to run & gun & still space the floor for Dwight & Kobe.

Why would the Knicks give up Novak , JR , Felton or Shumpert for our inferior players ? especially with the way the Knicks have played and all these role players have contributed so far...

Only a straight Amare -Pau swap makes sense Knicks wise

wcsoldier81 wrote:Why would the Knicks give up Novak , JR , Felton or Shumpert for our inferior players ?

Well.. Before they looked like the best team in the league, it was a rational idea. Who knows maybe they'll struggle some before the trade deadline. Pau certainly isn't inferior to Amare.. Especially next to Melo. On a shorter contract that is actually insured. His post game & great passing would be a huge asset to the Knicks. You're right though if they continue to win at this rate, they're not making any big moves. You know they'd love to unload Amare though.

We just don't have the upper hand with Pau ... we look even more desperate after the 9-11 start ...

Raptors/Wolves offers is in line with what we can realistically get for Pau ... teams would be crazy to offer more ... unless we can magically find a team which is more desperate than us AND willing to take on Pau big contract

Doc Brown wrote:We definitely need a SF back in any trade we get Pau. It's MWP and.......... no one behind him. Once Nash gets back, I think Duhon can handle the backup PG duties. The Jamison/Hill/D12 rotation isn't a detriment to the team either.

I'd look to Phoenix and trade for need rather than the flashy name.

Pau/Ebanks for Dudley/Beasley/Frye

Frye is out because of his heart, but next year he could be the replacement for Jamison if he moves on. We get two shooters in Dudley/Beasley and Dudley plays some pretty solid defense as well.

Nash/Duhon
Kobe/Meeks
MWP/Dudley
Jamison/Beasley
D12/Hill

I think the team is a lot more balanced, it's not a flashy trade, but one that would make us better.

This makes a ton of sense for us with Nash & MDA.. If Frye was going to play.. We're 100% win now, I don't see how Frye makes any sense. If he was healthy it'd be the perfect deal.. Who else could they send? I don't think we need Scola.

I love Pau, and I want him to stay. We haven't even seen him with Steve Nash in the lineup yet, so please just be patient.
However, I would be very happy, if from what I heard on the radio is true- Steve Blake+ Chris Duhon and a 1st rounder for Jose Calderon. Nash and Calderon as our backcourt . Two of the best free throw shooters in NBA history? Yes, please!

duhons doing fine, so what if we get calderon and he goes on a slump? or doesnt perform well?

its not certain he will, but duhons already gelling with the team. not sure if i want to put away a back up PG thats doing more than good and more than what was expected of him

Nash/Duhon should be fine. and its not like we're going to get better defensively with calderon.


and i love calderon dont get me wrong, i would of been all for it before, but duhons doing more than good. i just dont want to mess that up

the glaring difference is that Duhon shoots roughly 57% from the free throw line, while Calderon is about 93%. You put Calderon in for Nash, and its going to be the same result at the free throw line. No drop off in production there. Not to mention, Jose averages 7 assists per game on a garbage squad. I absolutely make this deal if I'm the Lakers!

easyguy wrote:How can you guys watch thee second unit and say we dontt need Pau? We need someone who can create for hinmself or for other.

I have my doubts about him being particularly effective as a 6th man because he's just not that aggressive these days. He'll give you 6-14 points at best on postups but he's simply not explosive enough as a scorer to go off like a Crawford, Terry, or OKC Harden.

During the Finals runs, Pau Gasol benefited a lot (in terms of having more room to operate) from playing with Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. Pau and Odom always used to find each other off dives and cuts. He scored a lot of points from just catching and finishing from those guys and he also used to get a lot of tipins and putbacks. He won't have as much room to operate playing with 4 bench players and nobody who can really create off the dribble.

Maybe it could work if D'Antoni takes Steve Nash out at like the 6 minute mark and puts him back in with the bench (including Pau) or something. This would be less of a problem if they had a slasher/shooter at the backup 3.

LAKEROC wrote:the glaring difference is that Duhon shoots roughly 57% from the free throw line, while Calderon is about 93%. You put Calderon in for Nash, and its going to be the same result at the free throw line. No drop off in production there. Not to mention, Jose averages 7 assists per game on a garbage squad. I absolutely make this deal if I'm the Lakers!

Duhon's played 16 games for us so far and only taken 7 FTs. Calderon barely averages more than 1 a game. Their FT% is hardly relevant. Defensive ability/effort is a much more key variable IMO. I'd love Calderon off the bench of course, just saying.

^Lowry starts for the Raptors

easyguy wrote:How can you guys watch thee second unit and say we dontt need Pau? We need someone who can create for hinmself or for other.

Pau creating for himself. He hasn't done it consistently since......what, the second chip of the back to back. And that was before the knee issues.

Unfortunately, Pau has regressed, obviously. He plays hot potato with the basketball more times then not and doesn't attack when he's on the block. He gives up post position without fighting for it and has been weak defensively.

That said, the only chance I actually see him improving is playing off the bench. I, for one do not think he's a good fit with Howard. Also, he wasn't a good fit with Bynum. Phil Jackson also knew this as he chose to play Odom at the 4 with Pau. If he wants to play, "closer to the basket," then let him play with the 2nd unit where we can use him there and space the floor with shooters...

Like others have said previously, best thing for the Lakers to do re: Pau trades is to wait another year. Now, his value is not as high as the huge expiring contract he has NEXT year.

Just hope for the best now when Nash comes back, because Bargnani/Calderon is probably in all likelihood the best we can get for Pau now.

Doc Brown wrote:We definitely need a SF back in any trade we get Pau. It's MWP and.......... no one behind him. Once Nash gets back, I think Duhon can handle the backup PG duties. The Jamison/Hill/D12 rotation isn't a detriment to the team either.

I'd look to Phoenix and trade for need rather than the flashy name.

Pau/Ebanks for Dudley/Beasley/Frye

Frye is out because of his heart, but next year he could be the replacement for Jamison if he moves on. We get two shooters in Dudley/Beasley and Dudley plays some pretty solid defense as well.

Nash/Duhon
Kobe/Meeks
MWP/Dudley
Jamison/Beasley
D12/Hill

I think the team is a lot more balanced, it's not a flashy trade, but one that would make us better.

I like your idea but there is no way in heck the Suns would trade with the Lakers again. It took Steve Nash making a sympathetic plea about his kids to get Sarver to move. The backlash trading Nash was crazy. Sarver won't do that again especially to a hated rival. Plus, he is not going to take on $19 when he's got a guy that is high energy and far cheaper ... Gortat.

I really think Minny is the most realistic destination for Pau if the Lakers want to trade Pau ... but the Lakers would have to get at a minimum Kirilenko and Williams ... Ridnour would be nice too!

As a long time Raptors fan, please... please keep Bargnani out of LA... The guy is garbage.