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

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Yup, sometimes gasol can't defend smaller quicker pf.

Gasol won’t be benched in 4th quarters anymore: LA Times
1 Comment
By Chris Sheridan
December 21, 2012 at 4:47 AM
LOS ANGELES – Pau Gasol will not be benched anymore at the end of fourth quarters, the Los Angeles Times is reporting today.

The decision was made during a dinner meeting in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday night between Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni and power forward Pau Gasol.

From beat writer Mike Bresnahan: “Gasol said he wanted the ball in the post instead of on the perimeter and also asked to play in crunch time, among the topics discussed with D’Antoni at a Manhattan Beach restaurant. ”It was to make sure we’re in the same boat,” Gasol said in a quiet moment Thursday after the Lakers’ practice. “We’re trying to reach the same goal. Let’s communicate. Hopefully, we can meet halfway on some points.” D’Antoni told Gasol he would no longer be benched in crucial situations, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Gasol has been benched three times in the fourth quarter since D’Antoni was hired, including the last 2 minutes 36 seconds of the Lakers 101-100 victory Tuesday over Charlotte. It was Gasol’s first game after sitting out eight in a row because of tendinitis in his knees. He sat out the entire fourth quarter Nov. 23 against Memphis and the last 6:07 of a Dec. 2 game against Orlando

Instead of asking to stay in, in crunch time, how about you play like you should be in during crunch time?

Doc Brown wrote:

Gasol won’t be benched in 4th quarters anymore: LA Times
1 Comment
By Chris Sheridan
December 21, 2012 at 4:47 AM
LOS ANGELES – Pau Gasol will not be benched anymore at the end of fourth quarters, the Los Angeles Times is reporting today.

The decision was made during a dinner meeting in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday night between Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni and power forward Pau Gasol.

From beat writer Mike Bresnahan: “Gasol said he wanted the ball in the post instead of on the perimeter and also asked to play in crunch time, among the topics discussed with D’Antoni at a Manhattan Beach restaurant. ”It was to make sure we’re in the same boat,” Gasol said in a quiet moment Thursday after the Lakers’ practice. “We’re trying to reach the same goal. Let’s communicate. Hopefully, we can meet halfway on some points.” D’Antoni told Gasol he would no longer be benched in crucial situations, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Gasol has been benched three times in the fourth quarter since D’Antoni was hired, including the last 2 minutes 36 seconds of the Lakers 101-100 victory Tuesday over Charlotte. It was Gasol’s first game after sitting out eight in a row because of tendinitis in his knees. He sat out the entire fourth quarter Nov. 23 against Memphis and the last 6:07 of a Dec. 2 game against Orlando

Instead of asking to stay in, in crunch time, how about you play like you should be in during crunch time?

Pau plays pretty well during crunch time. Mike D just didn't play him. I like Pau sitting down with Coach Mike D instead of doing like many players pouting about playing time. Lets see Pau make it happen now.

D.B. Cooper wrote:^
Yup, sometimes gasol can't defend smaller quicker pf.

adjust to the situation. thats all, MDA sitting pau after he made 2 straight good plays in a row, and than putting dwight in and almost losing the lead was, well idiotic.

puffyusaf#2 wrote:Pau plays pretty well during crunch time. Mike D just didn't play him. I like Pau sitting down with Coach Mike D instead of doing like many players pouting about playing time. Lets see Pau make it happen now.

I've been waiting for Pau to make it happen for a long time now.

Then the question becomes, do you leave both Gasol and Howard in to finish the game? This would absolutely go against D'Antoni's "vision" and would demonstrate to us that if he were to leave both in to finish the game, that he has some capability to be flexible with his plan.

therealdeal wrote:I didn't blame D'Antoni for sitting Pau, but I'll blame him if we lose because Pau is in the game.

Pau needs to prove he's worthy of playing in those tight moments. He hasn't been effective this season late and late towards the end of last season. I'm all for him playing if he's effective, but if not then he needs to sit down regardless of who he is and how much he's getting paid.

Me neither for the most part. But it's time to have our starters fulfill their roles, or at least be given the chance to do so. I'm glad these guys had a sit down because Antoni was starting to really upset me with the things he was saying about Pau and how he planned to use him. It's cool that Pau took the initiative and set up a meet. These two needed to get more on the same page for sure.

I may be in the minority, but I actually desire greatly to see our 4 HOFers playing on the floor at the same time with Ron. The other guys are role players - they simply aren't as good as those 5 guys. That should be obvious, regardless of system. The others are backup guys - Meeks, Duhon, Hill and Jamison.

I don't want Pau relegated to corner three shooting guard, I don't want to see MWP at the backup 4, I don't want to see Meeks starting at the 2, I don't want Hill and Jamison sitting next to Sacre all game unused. I don't want Ebanks to start any more at any position. I don't want a single thing that Antoni has been talking about for the last week. If I see it happen I will have to conclude that he's either the stupidest coach I've seen besides Mike Brown or that he is a passive aggressive dude trying to force the FO into making moves for his own designs. He needs to use what he has in an intelligent way or he needs to get the hell out of here as soon as possible. We've already been through this BS with Brown last year and this season. The stupid rotations aren't acceptable.

Basketball is about fit, not placing as much taalent as possible on the court. There is absolutely nothing wrong with lineup experimenting if things aren't going well.

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:Basketball is about fit, not placing as much taalent as possible on the court. There is absolutely nothing wrong with lineup experimenting if things aren't going well.

^^ But why are we talking about changing the lineup when we haven't even seen these 5 guys on the floor under D' Antoni? Why not let Nash have a chance to work with the best possible players on the court?

If that doesn't work out then of course, try whatever you can to make it work. But why all this roster talk RIGHT when we are finally getting the floor leader back. Just play Nash with the starters and let's see what we have. It's going to take some time I would think to get these guys in sync.

he's gotta step up BIG tonight against Lee. Lee is averaging 24.1 points and 11.8 rebounds over the past 11 games.

I expect him getting beat a lot and dwight trying to help but either he'll get in foul trouble or no one will help the helper and lee with just make a simple pass for an easy layup by barnes. he had a triple double last game so he'll continue to pass well

Ill give him tonights game and the knicks game. if he doesn't do what he should and what you'd expect from a guy earning 19 mil and playing with Nash finally then im fine with trading him. but i do expect him to have good games and it is difficult to adjust to playing with howard but if anyone can help its nash. its up to pau to play strong D and be aggressive...cant do anything else for him if he doesnt do those.

That was a good article and like a few members have said, I think it's great news that they are talking and working it out like professionals

gasol is done not even nash can help his game. time to make the trade.

i don't know if pau is going to be that much better with nash

i think pau has more value in terms of morale than on the court at this point...no bueno.

Gasol at the elbow is full of win. They toss him the ball and run everyone else off screens and the guy just stands there and tosses an oop to the open man.

tonight, i realized how important is to keep pau. not because he had an awesome game, though he had some nice moments, but simply because dwight will be in foul trouble much of the season, we need pau on the block and in the game when dwight is saddled with foul problems

He's just too timid. Nash found him in some great positions off the pick but he doesn't finish or go aggressively off it. A few nice passes though.

Stop passing on wide open shots Nashty creates for you off the PNR