penbeast0 wrote:Yes, Euro stuff is irrelevant. I sort of fell into Gasol because no one else was jumping out. Basic thinking is that his stats were good but not great however his value seems higher than his stats. Why? Because the Lakers per-Gasol were not very good despite Kobe, Odom, Fisher et al then suddenly became a multiple year champion (which is a very powerful team . . . once can be a fluke, two in a row is not). Kobe was the same, he wasn't injured before, Odom is inconsistent and always has been, Fisher is declining, and the SF position has never been impressive (I'm not an Artest fan) . . . so, unless the often injured and immature Andrew Bynum is carrying the team with Kobe, the improvement should be at least significantly attributed to Gasol's impact and when I watched the playoffs, he was very impressive -- not Russell/Kareem, but Kevin McHale type impressive.
But not really sold on him so listening to your arguments with care -- before this project, I had him rated lower, people's arguments here moved him up on my list.
The European accolades may be irrelevant in one context but they do serve to demonstrate that Pau is clearly a high impact player in more than one system and not a product of Kobe/LA as DavidStern had alluded.
You make a very good case for Pau anyway with he fact he transformed the Lakers into a 2x Champion.
). But what people often forgot, and what Lakers fans could better explain than me, is that Lakers during 2007/08 season were already very good team before Gasol trade:
