Are you guys glad that you got Gasol over KG ....

[JordansBulls]

I ask this because for much time everyone was saying yearly how the Lakers would trade for KG and he would be the perfect compliment to Kobe. Well looking back and looking now, Gasol seems to have done just as good a job of filling that void. True he isn't the defender KG is, but he plays the triangle well and works well into the offense. So with that in mind and considering actitud and everything,

Are you guys glad that you got Gasol over Garnett, or would you rather have Garnett?

[Profanity]

Garnett & Marc Gasol or Pau Gasol & Bynum? Tough question.

[TommyTheCat]

when i think about the fact that the lakers got gasol and were able to keep bynum and odom.........it's pretty much a no brainer that i'm thrilled with gasol over kg. it's pretty much impossible for me to think about this question without taking the cost of both deals into account. a team of kobe and kg vs a team of kobe, gasol, bynum and odom.

[TonyMontana]

when i think about the fact that the lakers got gasol and were able to keep bynum and odom.........it's pretty much a no brainer that i'm thrilled with gasol over kg. it's pretty much impossible for me to think about this question without taking the cost of both deals into account. a team of kobe and kg vs a team of kobe, gasol, bynum and odom.

[Sedale Threatt]

If all things are equal, Garnett. It's fun to rag on KG for being such a tool lately, but when a guy like that is on your team, you absolutely love him. So that doesn't enter the equation for me.

I'd take Garnett for the fact that he is a significantly better defender. He's the type of long-armed, disruptive anchor who covers up mistakes and makes everybody around him better, and that's what we're missing right now. Andrew simply isn't capable of doing that at this stage of his career (and might never be), and Gasol never was or will be.

Pau is probably a better offensive player at this point, and he's a low-post presence that KG never was. But I also think KG's numbers have dropped in large part because he defers to Pierce and Allen. I still see him putting up close to 18 a night with us, although mainly from the perimeter. Both are highly skilled with great court sense.

That said, it's not really an apples-to-apples comparison. We likely would have had to gut our team to land Garnett -- Odom, Bynum and whoever else -- which might have made his addition moot. Kobe and KG with a bunch of warm bodies might have been enough to win a title, it might not.

In contrast, we didn't lose much for Gasol, just Kwame Brown -- the ultimate case of addition by subtraction -- and a bunch of prospects.

So in the end, if given a choice from the standpoint of pure ability I would take Garnett over Gasol. But in terms of how we they were or would have been attained, I take Gasol in a heartbeat.

[snaquille oatmeal]

i take Gasol because we would have given up too much to get KG and Im not happy with Garnetts douchness lately.

[Gerald3Wallace]

gasol/bynum/and odom

or

garnett/marc/luke?

i pick the first one

[dockingsched]

the price would have probably included marc along with odom/bynum/kwame's expiring/jcritt/1st rounders

[semi-sentient]

As much as I love Gasol, I would go with Garnett. We'd have a comparable front line to what the Celtics have now with Kwame and KG in the middle, while still having the same perimeter threats with Kobe and Fisher. We might not be as efficient on the offensive end, but damn, we'd likely have the best defense in the league which I'd prefer over offense anyway. As for the bench, we wouldn't have Odom, but we would have a nice backup center in Marc Gasol who is looking like he's only going to improve and gives us more production than Odom given the same minutes.

M. Gasol: 29.7 MIN, 11.3 PTS (52%), 7 REB
L. Odom: 26.7 MIN, 8.7 PTS (46%), 6.3 REB

From a financial standpoint, we would have been much better off. Starting next year Bynum will be making quite a bit of money ($12.5) and we still have to worry about resigning Odom (for less), but at the end of the day, Bynum+Gasol+Odom could cost us well over $35 million. Garnet is actually going to make $16.4 million next season, so Garnet+Kwame+M.Gasol would have cost us $24 million. I don't remember which offer we had on the table, but more than likely we would have had to have sent either Walton or Radmanovic to make the deal work (and likely Farmar), so we could have actually saved quite a bit more. With those savings, we would have been more willing (I would assume) to go out and get a player like Posey to help us out while allowing Sasha to play backup point (or maybe sign a backup for cheap).

That, and we would have likely been NBA Champs instead of the runner-up, but that's all speculation.

[dockingsched]

no kwame ss, his salary was needed.

[Mindflayer]

Garnett only if Marc Gasol not involved, otherwise Gasol.

[hermes]

gasol

[semi-sentient]

no kwame ss, his salary was needed.

Yeah, I saw that after re-reading, so I would have thrown in a resigned Farmar which I believe would have been preferable. I still don't know if that makes things work though. Ideally, we would want both KG and Kwame playing, so I might have to think about it more if that weren't the case.

Edit: Actually, Odom, Bynum, and Walton (or Radmanovic) would have worked. I don't know if that's something they would have gone for, but I might have thrown in Turiaf or some picks as well to sweeten the deal.

[dockingsched]

the thing u gotta remember is that reports had the offer at odom/bynum/kwame/other assets and that wasn't enough, so putting in walton for kwame really doesn't make sense for a team on the rebuild. the odom/bynum offer needs to be hypothetically improved to argue kg vs. gasol, not made worse.

[Dexmor]

Garnett. Espially since we would still have Gasol just not Pau.

[doozyj]

Gasol. Hands down. He represents L.A. nicely with a good image. Very polite, speaks well the the media and is dropping great consistent numbers

KG. Well.....the guy is simply a douce-bag. Look at the image he gives Boston.

[TylersLakers]

I would take Pau, just for the fact that we didn't have to gut the team to get him. For KG, we would have had to do that. They wanted Lamar, Bynum, Kwame and one of Farmar/Crittenton. So last year, our rotation at the start of last year would have been..

PG: Derek Fisher/ Jordan Farmar (Crittenton)/
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Sasha Vujacic/ Coby Karl
SF: Luke Walton/ Vladimir Radmanovic/
PF: Kevin Garnett/ Ronny Turiaf/
C: Chris Mihm/

So, I think I would rather go with the lineup we currently have.

[AceFresh]

gasol

[nonplayerzealot]

I ask this because for much time everyone was saying yearly how the Lakers would trade for KG and he would be the perfect compliment to Kobe. Well looking back and looking now, Gasol seems to have done just as good a job of filling that void. True he isn't the defender KG is, but he plays the triangle well and works well into the offense. So with that in mind and considering actitud and everything,

Are you guys glad that you got Gasol over Garnett, or would you rather have Garnett?

Gasol's price tag was much less, but w/o Garnett in Boston, Boston is out of the Finals anyway. Either guy coming to the Lakers would've altered the landscape of the NBA either way. I think we could've won a title w/ KG and we can do it now with Gasol. Come June if LA has managed to defeat Boston, I'll have a different answer for you, that being -- Yes, it was definitely worth getting Gasol to be able to beat the Celtics in the Finals. I'd like to see that one more time before I die.

PS: S-load of us wanted KG in July 07. Bear that in mind. At least 90% of the fronting you'll hear about his tude are from feelings developed over seeing him in puke Celtic green.

[lakersfanatic]

Getting either of them was awesome enough so i guess you can say im happy with Gasol since we didn't lose much for him. If we had gotten KG, we would have lose some of our key guys.

What i like about KG is his defensive and team work mentality. Brings back the turiaf we've been missin.
Gasol gives us another option. Since bynum is back healthy, gasol and kobe can roam around more and do more damage.