Gasol and Bynum

[rasta028]

Last time i checked, Gasol, Bynum and Odom together are the most feared front court in the league. Our bigs are the least of our worries. EVERYTHING had to do with our bigs. Our bigs ARE our talent. And i'll keep mentioning Odom in there because you cant really talk about a duo when you talk about Lakers' front court presence. When people talk about talent this and talent that, what they really mean is Odom's versatility, Gasol's fine-tuned fundamentals, and Bynum's ridiculous size etc (we all know what Kobe can do). I mean ask Hubie Brown or JVG how much they mentioned lakers bigs/size last season.

We won it because of our size and versatility down low, and we lost it because teams figured out that they can put Bynum on Barea and shoot lights out from 3pt land where the air is thin for bigs (see Dallas series). Cant really blame Bynum and Gasol for that.

If we get shooters to negate the 3pt/spacing advantage, we are pretty much guaranteed a title.

Come on, are you serious? We lost because our perimeter defense was non existent and we couldn't hit the side of a barn with our outside shooting, Barnes injury played a big part also...

[Jakay]

Drew's gonna have to stay healthy for more than like five games for anyone to answer this question. Pau was gassed when they played together, pure and simple.

Also, Nash has like a billion franchised gym's up here (well, West Coast up here), so he's gonna be alright. With him, it's whether or not loyalty to a middling franchise outweighs his desire for a true taste of victory.

[microfib4thewin]

If Steve Blake can get 4 mil a year Nash is not going to settle for the vet minimum unless he has very specific reasons.

Outside of a few games in 09 I have never seen Bynum and Pau play well together in the same game. It might change next season, but we've been saying that for 2 years now.

[ALL HAIL]

Agreed.

As I've said ad nauseum, the Lakers would do well to trade one of Bynum, Gasol, or Odom for a dynamic playmaker.

If Bynum or Gasol were traded you'd need a decent backup center in return as well.

If Odom were traded you'd need need to sign a decent PF.

[Kilroy]

I don't think past performance is as big a factor now that our coaching staff is completely different.

Brown clearly wants to see if he can get the Pau/Bynum duo working smoothly, so I don't see either one of them being shipped unless Dwight were a factor.

Personally, I don't expect any major trades this season now that it's been shortened. I think they'll wait and see how everything meshes and use this sort of as a try-out season unless something is obviously wrong or something crazy falls into our laps.

[Slava]

I would not trade Odom especially with the possibility of much stricter cap restrictions. He's one of the best value for dollar contracts out there and came off his best year. Also he's not the problem with Pau and Drew not meshing well, he does well with either of them.

[CodyB_]

One of the nastiest plays the Lakers would make last season was to run a pick and roll between Gasol and Bynum 15-20 feet out from the hoop. Odom would run it too and it worked really well.

I think we should trade Kobe for Ray Allen LOL.

[PurpleGold]

I'm not sure you all truly understand the psychology of big men who play in the post.

Across the board you find big men with back to the basket games playing better when they are CLEARLY made the primary bigman option ... this is no different with Gasol and Bynum.

You all are right that Bynum took a back seat on offense this past year, but that will not continue. Bynum isn't a role player. He actually has go-to offensive moves at a long 7'1. You can't expect him to continue to be happy playing defense and grabbing boards while getting two or three looks down low with the rest of points coming off of put backs. Can you expect that?

Could you have expected Kobe to defer to Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel as his game ascended?

I say no to both questions.

The simple fact is that you will NEVER get the BEST out of both Gasol and Bynum with them both on the floor together. One of them has to defer to the other, while also allowing Kobe to get his twenty something shots. That's a bad mix.

I was one of the only dudes to assert that the majority of Gasol's problems in the playoffs were a result of a psychological issue with not feeling as though he is the most important and valuable big man.

I'll continue to make that assertion. I feel very strongly that if Bynum was hurt in the playoffs, Gasol would have played his normal, potent game.

Because of Bynum's dominance over the last third of the season, I believe Gasol began to have an inferiority complex.

Gasol, like all other bigmen with traditional post up games, needs touches and, more importantly, needs to feel as though he is "THE" big man in the post (not big #2 and not big 1B or even 1A, but "THE" biggest, best, and most valuable and important bigman in purple and gold).

If Gasol doesn't feel this way, from a psychlogical standpoint, he'll stink it up, playing shell-shocked like he did in the playoffs.

Just my two cents.

Right on the money ALL HAIL, I've been saying everything you've just said in your post for as long as we've had those two together. Some guys here purely don't understand the intricate dynamic it takes for two 7 footers to play cohesively. One 7 footer has to concede to the other more often than not.

And as far as what I put in bold, believe it or not that's the role that many here want to relegate him to. And the sad part is they actually think he should be happy with it too.

DEEP, aren't you the same guy that said a Dwight/Bynum duo would absolutely work?