K Ding: Gasol's post season performance an aberration

[Slava]

The point for Gasol, 31, and Nowitzki, 33, in laboring through the NBA offseason, though, is to qualify their countries for the 2012 Olympics in London. That’s pretty likely for Gasol now, but not Nowitzki.

Playing with a career-high tan that showed he has been getting some summer vacation in, Nowitzki also had 19 points in the game but shot worse than Gasol – and had no steals or blocks compared to Gasol’s two of each. In one of the key sequences, Gasol had a block at one end and in transition got to the other end for a put-back on which he outhustled both Chris Kaman and Nowitzki despite them having superior inside position.

It was the sort of effort play that Gasol made so often in all three of Gasol’s first playoff runs with the Lakers en route to three championship rounds – but failed to make last season.

With how poorly Gasol finished the season, it’s easy to forget how incredibly effective and efficient he was early in the 2010-11 season. That work got done while Andrew Bynum was again sidelined and Kobe Bryant was slowed after offseason knee surgery. A month into the season, Gasol was having a light-hearted running dialogue with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com about being the top-ranked player in the league in fantasy basketball rankings.

No one was laughing at season’s end: Gasol averaged 13.1 points on 42 percent shooting in the playoffs.

The reality is that Gasol will be back with the Lakers whenever this lockout ends, and he’ll be great again.

He’s going to start hitting 3-pointers regularly, I’m guessing, which will only boost his fantasy basketball profile as he re-establishes himself. Even after his dramatic playoff fizzle, he stands No. 8 in Yahoo! Sports’ fantasy rankings for the coming season – ahead of No. 10 Nowitzki and No. 16 Bryant. (In the ESPN fantasy projections, Gasol is No. 12 to Nowitzki’s No. 15 and Bryant’s No. 17.)

With the softness he shows at times, you don’t think of him as a machine, but take a look at Gasol’s 2010-11 season splits:

Pre-All-Star: 18.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, 52.8 percent field goals, 82.2 percent free throws.

Post-All-Star: 18.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 53.4 percent field goals, 82.7 percent free throws.

He is a gentle giant and a consistent monster. And the playoff failure of 2011 was a flat-out aberration.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/gaso ... eason.html

[dockingsched]

i'm hoping pau's deplorable playoff performance is a thing of the past. who knows what happened, whether it was simply fatigue. i like the lakers chances with the pau playing like he should.

[ALL HAIL]

I'm a little on fence about this one.

On the one hand I feel like his playoff collapse was an aberration, but on the other hand, it, at the very least, shows that he is capable of completely "losing it" , from a mental standpoint.

If my meek, unaggressive, non-violent wife gets so mad at me one night that she kicks me in the groin, I'll probably chalk it up as an aberration (knowing her history), but in the back of my mind I'll always know that within her psychosis she is capable of going there (however far it might be from her norm).

I feel the same about Gasol.

He is a machine, like Ding stated, but he has shown us now that he is moody and emotional, and those qualities can rear there ugly head on the court ... especially when playing alongside a "beasting" Bynum.

[BEazy]

Dwight Howard/Pau Gasol/Kobe Bryant

[Leor_77]

No doubt that it was an aberration, but it doesn't bring back that post-season.

[kblo247]

Him getting killed in the playoffs by Dirk and blaming it on fatigue and personal issues is anything but an aberration. Dirk killed him in Memphis in his last days there and totally destroyed his confidence in himself, the confidence his FO had, and got their fans really calling for his head for not showing up or playing hard.

[MambaTime]

No doubt that it was an aberration, but it doesn't bring back that post-season.

+1. If the Lakers somehow don't manage to rebound, everybody will always bring back this postseason and point the finger at Gasol, despite the fact he was the reason for two championships prior.

[TyCobb]

I'm a little on fence about this one.

On the one hand I feel like his playoff collapse was an aberration, but on the other hand, it, at the very least, shows that he is capable of completely "losing it" , from a mental standpoint.

If my meek, unaggressive, non-violent wife gets so mad at me one night that she kicks me in the groin, I'll probably chalk it up as an aberration (knowing her history), but in the back of my mind I'll always know that within her psychosis she is capable of going there (however far it might be from her norm).

I feel the same about Gasol.

He is a machine, like Ding stated, but he has shown us now that he is moody and emotional, and those qualities can rear there ugly head on the court ... especially when playing alongside a "beasting" Bynum.

That's a great post. I would also add that Gasol gets paid millions and millions of dollars to play basketball the way he is capable of playing, where as your non-violent wife only gets tax breaks for not kicking you in the groin.

[commadoor 64]

One time is an aberration but, this isn't Pau's first collapse, Memphis sends its regards.

[LApwnd]

One time is an aberration but, this isn't Pau's first collapse, Memphis sends its regards.

well in Mem he had some excuse, faced a Prime Duncan and didn't have as much help/talent then as he does now in addition to being younger & less experienced than.

[Sedale Threatt]

Very, very disappointed with how Pau played this spring. He's got some atoning to do. But also disappointed at how quickly some threw him under the bus. I would have thought he'd have earned a little capital with how well he played during the championship runs, but that's not how it goes in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of pro sports.

[chefy]

One time is an aberration but, this isn't Pau's first collapse, Memphis sends its regards.

well in Mem he had some excuse, faced a Prime Duncan and didn't have as much help/talent then as he does now in addition to being younger & less experienced than.

+1 I'll give him a pass in mem because Gasol is not really a 1st option or in the same level as Dirk and Tim to begin with.

[Kilroy]

Very, very disappointed with how Pau played this spring. He's got some atoning to do. But also disappointed at how quickly some threw him under the bus. I would have thought he'd have earned a little capital with how well he played during the championship runs, but that's not how it goes in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of pro sports.

Any team in any sport is only worthy of as much respect as it's last championship run. Key players share in the credit for the success as well as the failure... I actually think that's pretty fair. We can talk about legacies after he retires but for right now, Pau is being judged on his last run. I think that's how it should be for an active NBA player. It's what seperates the great players from the really good ones.

It was a team loss... This team just fell apart as a group... Communication was non-existant, tenacity was gone, the urgancy that had always been there for us in the playoffs, was absent...

We just stumbled our way to the Mavs series and they exploited those issues...

All that said, Pau's dissappearance was maybe the biggest single issue with this team and I think he deserves every bit of the criticism he's recieved. He's our second best player at worst, and he enjoyed a lot of credit for our past success... Well, that goes both ways...

Personally, I think Pau is an incredibly skilled and effective player that has the potential to lead this team to the finals next season... I like him as a player and truely want him to do that for the Lakers, but I have no idea if he'll be there when it counts anymore.

[Slava]

If we are judging people by one meltdown, players like Nowitzki, Lebron James and Karl Malone will have no value in sports. They have all had comparable or worse performances than Pau of last season, except none of them have the excuse of doing it at the tail end of repeat championship seasons.

Pau will come good, if he is not run to the ground in regular season he will be fine.

[Sedale Threatt]

Any team in any sport is only worthy of as much respect as it's last championship run.

That's very, very shortsighted, especially for a guy who has contributed as much as he has.

But I'm not even saying he doesn't deserve criticism. You make what he does, and you play that, you deserve a good roasting.

It was just the level and definitiveness of the vitriol he got that bothers me. Like I said, I would have guessed he'd have earned a little more respect than that, but I guess not.

[Kilroy]

Any team in any sport is only worthy of as much respect as it's last championship run.

That's very, very shortsighted, especially for a guy who has contributed as much as he has.

But I'm not even saying he doesn't deserve criticism. You make what he does, and you play that, you deserve a good roasting.

It was just the level and definitiveness of the vitriol he got that bothers me. Like I said, I would have guessed he'd have earned a little more respect than that, but I guess not.

Sports are short sighted... Always have been...

Look how they treated Jeter...

That's what makes it interesting...

I respect Pau's game. I like him as a player. I want him to do well... But I don't say, "It's all right, Pau was great last year" when he sucks this year... I wan't the Lakers to destroy the compettition each year.

It's not like I want Pau traded, I want him to take the criticism and become a beast this season...


But I do think he deserves every bit of the criticism... Maybe not the "Pau Sucks" criticism... Because he clearly doesn't... But anything related to his meltdown I think is warrented.

[dockingsched]

One time is an aberration but, this isn't Pau's first collapse, Memphis sends its regards.

cool

[commadoor 64]

One time is an aberration but, this isn't Pau's first collapse, Memphis sends its regards.

well in Mem he had some excuse, faced a Prime Duncan and didn't have as much help/talent then as he does now in addition to being younger & less experienced than.

+1 I'll give him a pass in mem because Gasol is not really a 1st option or in the same level as Dirk and Tim to begin with.

While I understand your premise, I disagree with the "excuse" part. We were paying him on the same extended contract that you guys are and, to me, there's no excuse for a pouty collapse like that for anywhere close to that kind of money. While the team didn't have Kobe talent, it wasn't just a crap team as the 3 straight playoff, 45+ win seasons would indicate.

Memphis didn't appreciate the 3 straight sweeps and decided to try and build around Pau again with a younger Rudy gay and Juan Carlos Navarro (Pau's best friend since grade school and national team teammate for his entire professional life). Memphis tried VERY hard to build around him and gave him everything he asked for but, as soon as any criticism came his way, he just collapsed, pouted, and played very poorly asking for a trade until management agreed instead of waiting a few for the rebuild to happen.

I'm not trolling your boards or anything but don't be fooled into thinking it's the 1st time he's done it. That's exactly what he did to get out of Memphis.

[Slava]

While I understand your premise, I disagree with the "excuse" part. We were paying him on the same extended contract that you guys are and, to me, there's no excuse for a pouty collapse like that for anywhere close to that kind of money. While the team didn't have Kobe talent, it wasn't just a crap team as the 3 straight playoff, 45+ win seasons would indicate.

Memphis didn't appreciate the 3 straight sweeps and decided to try and build around Pau again with a younger Rudy gay and Juan Carlos Navarro (Pau's best friend since grade school and national team teammate for his entire professional life). Memphis tried VERY hard to build around him and gave him everything he asked for but, as soon as any criticism came his way, he just collapsed, pouted, and played very poorly asking for a trade until management agreed instead of waiting a few for the rebuild to happen.

I'm not trolling your boards or anything but don't be fooled into thinking it's the 1st time he's done it. That's exactly what he did to get out of Memphis.

Hey buddy here are Pau's playoff stats from those 3 alleged collapses:

2003-04: 18.5/5.0/2.5 on 64% TS vs Duncan and Spurs
2004-05: 21.3/7.5/2.3 on 50% TS vs Amare and Suns
2005-06: 20.6/6.8/3 on 57% TS vs Nowitzki and Mavericks (Western Conference champs)

Doesn't really sound like collapsing to me.

[kblo247]

This rebounding numbers are horrid.

And you left out the fact Duncan, Amare, and Dirk all outplayed him to boot.

The guys own coaches in Hubie and Fratello called him out, the front office and the GM put him on the block publicly, and the press roasted him for the sweeps n getting hurt overseas and costing the Griz a season in the process. Pau's last days saw him fake a back injury in Memphis and the team question if he really was in any pain; the said back injury remarkable healed upon a trade and and almost a day of flying from Memphis to LA to the east coast.

Pau has his faults mentally. He isn't aggressive and will never be a guy who can got out and puts up 20 shots a night. He plays bad on the road in the playoffs. He plays hot potato with the ball and forces Kobe or Fish to bail him out a lot. And he for years has pulled little 4th quarter disappearing acts and misses late free throws.

With that said, he is very skilled. He plays well in Staples which always supported him no matter what, before last postseason where the saw him be the weakest link and give the least effort of all the players on the team for two straight series. He was the least efficient post scorer on the team last season. He by far was the reason LA really got roasted versus Dallas since Dirk was converting at a rate over 60% versus him and everyone doubled down every play, just like they did to save him from Landry after game 2, Dallas just hit their open 3s, and don't even get me started about the game 1 meltdown.

The main thing that made Pau look a guy who wasn't a one time all star and one of the best was Kobe and Lamar and Fish miracles late in big games. Pau doesn't show up for the first 47mins versus OKC in game 6, so Kobe goes on a tear and dominates the third and 4th. Pau doesn't show up versus Phoenix in game 6 and doesn't even get double digits, yet Kobe goes off. Pau doesn't show up at all in the city of Boston during the last Finals so Kobe went on a tear and Fish went all hot tub time machine and willed us a W.

Pau is a great compliment to Kobe, who has made every big he has played with from Shaq to Mihm to Kwame to Odom and to a young Bynum look much more efficient than they are. He draws attention away from them so they get more gimmes than a Duncan or KG or Hakeem ever could, and he is responsible to be the hero or scapegoat late in the eyes of the public. Pau isn't a franchise player. Pau isn't a top 10 player. He never was in his career, and anyone who has seen his NBA career knows that. He is easily the best sidekick there is, not partner, because a partner is relied on to carry equal weight in 4th quarters, on the road, and in the locker room where Pau was never even made a captain of the team in LA or Memphis. Kobe just was in no shape to do it last year and there was no Utah to build his confidence up against.

Pau has his faults. He can be extremely productive regardless of them, but he also his own very worst enemy. He gets in his own head and causes himself to be overly passive and screw up the offense resulting in forced shots and bailouts by his team. He can veer away from contact and even cost himself in the process by fumbling the ball and fearing the hit. He admittedly never once went into the weight room despite Memphis suggesting it, but did after Kobe and Phil rode him into doing it. He can complain about touches and then not do anything with the ball but waste clock and pass it back, thus making guys ignore him. Pau is definitely a conodrum because he can go so deep inside his own dome that no one or nothing else can ever stop him better than he stops himself, which is weird for a guy that smart and skilled.