Marc Gasol Finalizing Deal With Lakers

[luss54321]

Gasol looked really bad in the playoffs last year. I'm not sure how much he has left in the tank.

He shot 37% FG and 7% 3PT in the conference semifinals.

He shot 35% FG and 25% 3PT in the first round

It was only 11 games, so not a huge sample size, but you obviously sign a player like Gasol because you think he can help you win in the playoffs. A repeat of last year's playoff performance would be disastrous.

[tsirigoj]

Yeah, really not sure what the Lakers were thinking here. The Lakers go from being one of the best defensive teams with the inside presence to one of the weaker ones. Gasol is no Defensive Player of the Year Gasol and even then I didn't think he deserved to win it. Zubac/Harrell was abused by Jokic and one of the bigger reasons the Clippers lost to the Nuggets. I see the same for Gasol/Harrell if they take on them again. Howard was a monster in the Nuggets series and threw Jokic off his game.

Harrell needs to be in pick and rolls to be a good and the Lakers really didn't run too much pick and rolls with McGee and Howard who I thought would have been great. Easy lobs all day to both McGee and Howard or easy lanes to the basket for LBJ and Rondo if they tried to stop the roll.

Gasol isn't a bad pickup, but not if it meant also losing McGee in the process. Especially after botching the Dwight Howard thing by not calling the guy back. Gasol being one of your 2 main Centers would have been really nice with Howard/McGee and then Harrell backup 4 and Kuzma backup 3 but this looks like we became the Clippers of last year. Undersized at the 4 and the 5. AD can't guard Jokic/Embiid/etc. all game and then also score 30 points a game on the other end during a playoff series.

Between Davis and Harrell, they are plenty good on interior defense. Howard and Javale were kind of redundant. It would have been nice to keep Howard, but we already have a lot of tough guys that will crash the boards and clog the middle.

Lakers get better and are clearly early favorites to win it all again.

Obviously you didn't see the Nuggets series against the Clippers. Harrell wasn't able to hang with Jokic one bit. He has energy and heart, but that isn't enough to make up for the lack of size. He's only 6'7. Harrell would be a really good backup 4 at best or maybe starting 4 if you start AD at the 5 but AD truly plays his best basketball when he's at the 4 alongside a true center. I would have went after Ibaka first, especially since he ended up costing the same as Harrell. Much better defensively. If the Lakers sign Cousins or another center then maybe this makes a little more sense, but without Howard or McGee and without their 2nd on-floor coach in Rondo, I see the Lakers struggling in quite a few playoff series. Nuggets, Jazz, Sixers to list a few.

Did Harrell have AD to help on his weak-side in that series? Or Marc Gasol?

[CALILIFESTYLE]

Pelinka is a moron, he outbid himself & then orbit himself in the Davis deal with the amount of draft picks he gave up & since o other team was bidding for Davis hence he outbid himself he could’ve & should’ve replaced Kuzma for Ingram or let NO keep another non playoff team year of Davis & lose him for nothing. No other team was gonna outbid our match that lakers deal. Pelinka even overrated himself in the post championship speech when he mentioned that Kobe told him he would get it done in 3-4yrs.. lol.. Magic was the one who drove to LeBron’s home & signed him as soon as FA could sign. It was Magic’s & LeBron’s idea to then go after Davis then LeBron & his agency essentially made it happen. Then it was Davis & LeBron who told Pelinka which players to sign. Green was an obvious choice as well as Cousins. Magic had signed Rondo already. When cousins went down whosever idea it was to sign Howard & Avery Bradley did a great job.
For some reason I highly doubt it was Rob. Now he lets everyone walk? Bradley’s defense is insane & he eventually got into a shooting rhythm & turned into a good shooter, Rondo was Rondo, Howard was a force especially off the bench & they all would’ve been cheap to bring back according to the contracts they signed. So they’re def gonna miss Bradley’s, Howard’s superb defense as well as Rondos & Greens team defense.

[CALILIFESTYLE]

All Pelinka had to do is match whatever offers their FA got & them sign 1-2 shooters. So simple but I guess too simple/it made too much sense for Pelinka?