Is Pau Gasol the key to the Lakers success?

[Sedale Threatt]

The Lakers without Kobe aren't even close to a playoff team. Sure they have playoff team-level talent but they'd have zero outside shooting. As it is now, teams are starting to realize we don't have Radman, and Fisher/Farmar/Sasha can't shoot anymore so they're collapsing the D hard on our post players. Even Minnesota was basically daring our shooters to make threes.

Wow never thought I see the day someone wanting Vlad.

Fisher and Farmar can still shoot. Sasha is streaky. We got the best shooter in the game in Kobe, broken finger and all. Shannon Brown is a hell of a shooter. We don't have any Ray Allens on our team but they aren't chop liver either.

We're shooting 33% from 3-point range, tied for 19th in the league. Not atrocious, but obviously a glaring flaw that could really cost us in the long run. The only pure 3-point shooter we have is Fish, and he's at 29.8%. Otherwise, there's not a single guy on our roster than can be considered dependable rather than streaky, not even Kobe.

[Anklebreaker702]

I would call Pau the unsung hero. Kobe's the man here, but Pau compliments him well. If Bynum can finally reach his full potential it'll be like, who do you stop? But it all starts with Kobe.

[iamworthy]

The Lakers can absorb losing Pau Gasol, and still arguably be favorites to win the Title. If they lose Kobe, they're probably a 4 or 5 seed in the west. So I'll respectfully say no...Pau Gasol is not the Key. But he is an important piece that makes the Lakers vastly superior.

They cant win the title without Gasol. Plain and simple.

Yeah because the lakers werent in first place before they got gasol. Bynum was coming along very nice that year.

[LebronsCavs]

How do you think they'd fare without Kobe?

50-55 wins.

[Optms]

By importance to success I hope you mean number of wins.

The hopes for a title begin and START with Bryant if we are talking about success as championship repeaters. This team as it stands constructed, in MY opinion, is a championship contender even without Pau. Have you guys forgotten how good this team played while waiting for Pau's return? However Pau is VERY important to repeating so don't get me wrong. His importance is huge nonetheless and makes this team arguably the favorites to win it all.