Pau Gasol (kind of) wants the ball more.

[TonyMontana]

So this goes back to my Bitching and complaing about last nights game as well as other nights that we give away big leads.
I think Pau has every right to be asking for more touches.
He is the only consistant player we have on the court, he has a very high I.Q for the game, nice outside jumper, he has been working his ass of both on offense and defense, and it goes back to last nights game.
If Pau is on and Kobe is off and your winning by 15 why put Kobe back in and take away Paus success?


http://dimemag.com/2009/03/pau-gasol-ki ... h-trouble/

On the rare occasion that Kobe Bryant has an off night, you’d expect L.A.’s other All-Star, Pau Gasol, to step up and take advantage of the extra opportunities that would naturally come his way.

But that’s only if he’s actually getting extra opportunities. After last night’s loss to the Sixers, where Kobe only had 11 points while Gasol went for 25 on 9-for-12 shooting from the field and 7-for-9 at the line, Gasol made a little noise to the local media that he’d appreciate more chances to score. From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:

“I’m shooting really well right now, but I wish I could just get a couple more looks even if the percentage goes down a little,” Gasol said. “Obviously they come and they try to double, but let them keep coming. That means somebody else is open and somebody gets a wide-open shot.”

[TylersLakers]

Pau's a great person. He'll never go right out on a limb and bitch saying he needs more opportunities. You have to love that unselfishness.

However, he's right in the light way he's doing it here. Personally, I think Kobe should be taking 20-22 shots a game and Pau should be taking 16+ shots a game.

[Sedale Threatt]

If we're going to run him into the ground with all these minutes, we might as well make the most of them. That was the biggest reason we lost last night, I thought. He was absolutely rolling, and the best we could do was get him two post-ups in the fourth. And both times he got to the foul line.

We did the same thing on Sunday; guy goes 10 for 10 in the first half, then gets four shots in the second -- the same number of 3s that Sasha took in the fourth quarter. That's just bad basketball on everybody's part, from Kobe and Phil on down. I'd even blame Pau himself for not being aggressive enough and demanding the ball.

[Slava]

He is one of the best offensive PFs in the league, if not the best in terms of low post scoring and always shoots a very high %. When an all star PF is shooting 75% from the field like last night I;d expect him to get atleast 15 - 20 touches if not more. Those statements are very much justified.

[TonyMontana]

I mean we have to realize that he is our biggest success, aside from other big contributions by other players (Ariza, Powell, Odom).
He was and is the only reason that we made it to the finals last year, and its almost been a year and we have yet to realize that Pau is our second leading scorer and he has stepped up most of the time for us, but when it comes down to the last minutes of the game, we have Ariza taking the last shot or Kobe (off nights) forcing the ball.
Pau has every right to ask for the ball, you know why? Cause he can either draw a foul or get get a much higher % shot than anybody on the court and that includes Kobe.

[lakersfanatic]

He's been doing gr8t for us. I mean being our center, he is always the closes to the basket which means higher percentage shots. I definitely support giving him more touches. Even though he has more finesse.. how else he is going to curve behind the defender and into a lay up? lol Finesse can come with it's benefits TOO hehe

[DEEP3CL]

Personally I don't want to see Pau constantly getting the ball, all things being told it's going to be 50/50. Half the time he'll convert and half the time he'll be falling and sprawling out of control with the rock and not converting because he has no power to finish strong.

I'm done.

[vinnycorleone]

Personally I don't want to see Pau constantly getting the ball, all things being told it's going to be 50/50. Half the time he'll convert and half the time he'll be falling and sprawling out of control with the rock and not converting because he has no power to finish strong.

I'm done.

50/50 sounds good to me. thats a fg % of 50

[Sedale Threatt]

Not to mention the fact that he's an excellent passer. I don't think anybody's saying we should scrap the offense and start running it exclusively through him. The Grizzlies tried that and they got swept three years in a row. But there's absolutely no excuse for a player with his skills, clearly on a roll, matched up with a stiff like Donyell Marshall, to get only two post-ups in the fourth quarter, especially while the Sixers are trapping Kobe all over the court. Everybody dropped the ball on that, Pau included.

[TonyMontana]

Not to mention the fact that he's an excellent passer. I don't think anybody's saying we should scrap the offense and start running it exclusively through him. The Grizzlies tried that and they got swept three years in a row. But there's absolutely no excuse for a player with his skills, clearly on a roll, matched up with a stiff like Donyell Marshall, to get only two post-ups in the fourth quarter, especially while the Sixers are trapping Kobe all over the court. Everybody dropped the ball on that, Pau included.

BINGO..............
For the most part of the season Kobe has done that and it has paid off very well for us, but last night I was so pissed that the ball never got past Kobes hands and he forced shot after shot and he knew he was off.
Yes if it in the first, second or even early third quarter then okay Kobe get the gliches out but mid way thru the fourth, COME ON KOBE.
Also we can add that little jump baby hook and the ability for Pau to use both of his left and right hand to his game too.

[magic1fan]

pau has every right to feel that way. he is playing really good right now. i am kind of confused as to why phil put kobe back in last night. we were up! we should keep the five who got us the lead out there,until they start slipping imo...

[BallAboveAll]

I think he needs more touches when he plays with the second unit. Sometimes our bench guys will come out and take ill advised shots when they could just dump it into Pau.

[hermes]

running the offense through gasol (at least part of the time) would not be a bad thing. he is a very accomplished offensive player and unselfish. he doesn't have to shoot it every time he gets it, throw it out to the open man

[Sedale Threatt]

I think he needs more touches when he plays with the second unit. Sometimes our bench guys will come out and take ill advised shots when they could just dump it into Pau.

Absolutely; this makes me want to pull my hair out, and it happens regularly.

[tayzer]

It depends on the situation. You can't have Gasol post up all the time, he'll be done by the forth quarter if u over use him.

The ball movement is the key, most of his high percentage shots comes from ball movement not posting up. Posting up will wear him down quick style and if it's not working can really hurt the team, like what happen when he was posting up in Portland. Against smaller players, it would be wise to post him up, but against a big front court he'll lose the ball like we seen in the past.

[Dr Aki]

gasol realises that a lot of the triangle offense depends on having a solid low-post threat because it causes defenses to collapse along the same lines having dribble penetration does that

and he also sees that when the bench mob loses focus and loses big leads, that he should really establish himself as the go-to guy in order to stabilise the unit

he needs to get in to the bench mob's head that hes in there with the 2nd unit for a reason, the only guy who consistently wants to get the ball inside is luke, and almost to a fault at times when he throws passes through 4 guys trying to get it to gasol

[milesfides]

We need to establish more of a two-man game between Kobe and Pau.

That is a good compromise at this point, because this team does not have the personnel to effectively run the triangle on a consistent basis.

[freakazoid]

Oh-Oh

Bad news.

Pow thinks he da man.

Go back to Spain, yo.

Luke can take his place.

[85star]

This could be dangerous for the Lakers, as soon as Pau starts getting more touches and scoring more points and more efficently than Kobe they'll self destruct.

[TonyMontana]

Oh-Oh

Bad news.

Pow thinks he da man.

Go back to Spain, yo.

Luke can take his place.

Okay Yo.