The Pau Bandwagon (PG. 26, Meets D'Antoni to clear air)

[tugs]

its pretty lonely defending pau gasol out there.

aren't we on the same page?

[Cashin out]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

lol so lets just ignore Dwight on offense.If we treat Dwight like the 3rd option he is leaving in FA.

[Jetset]

or switch Dwight to 4 and Pau to 5 when they're playing together. Dwight is agile enough to defend the quick 4s and Pau CAN defend 5s.

that's great about the defense but what about offense? how is dwight going to score if pau's being posted up more than him? pau is the one with more range.

roster fit, depth, and chemistry issues will keep us from going far. one of them can be fixed with time, the other two are only going to be fixed by trading one of pau or dwight.

[Doormatt]

making dwight a forward would probably the be the worst thing anyone's done to a great center ever.

[TheHartBreakKid]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

Honestly, If Pau is playing well, that might improve the offense, but it would truly turn Dwight into Chandler, and keeping Dwight happy is more of a priority considering he is 26 on a contract year. Also, we need Dwight to be happy considering he IS our defense at this point.

[minifang]

There's no reason we can't play at a slower pace with the starters and go more uptempo when the bench comes in.

[Kobe System]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

lol so lets just ignore Dwight on offense.If we treat Dwight like the 3rd option he is leaving in FA.

So we are playing to please Dwight? Cool.

[Kobe System]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

Honestly, If Pau is playing well, that might improve the offense, but it would truly turn Dwight into Chandler, and keeping Dwight happy is more of a priority considering he is 26 on a contract year. Also, we need Dwight to be happy considering he IS our defense at this point.

If he wanna win a championship, he better focus on defense more. (And making his FTs) We have a lot of offensive weapon. And Pau is a terrific passer. It's not like the play will start and end with Pau. It should start with him and he should attack when he needs to or pass if he gets doubled.

[Jetset]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

with what you're doing, you aren't doing anything but reversing the roles of questionable fit on the team. you accommodate dwight and pau's fit on the team comes into question. you accommodate pau and dwight's role comes into question, and not only that but then you're minimizing howard's impact and pissing him all at the same time.

i'm not concerned about howard leaving so if something needs to happen for the better good that could foreseeably cause a problem with him then whatever. but i'm just not seeing it, you don't fix a problem by making another problem. it makes a load more sense to trade pau for a player(s) that can efficiently play the role that pau is currently in while getting 100% out of dwight at the same time.

there's a problem of fit between pau and dwight, swapping roles isn't going to do anything.

[tugs]

that's great about the defense but what about offense? how is dwight going to score if pau's being posted up more than him? pau is the one with more range.

roster fit, depth, and chemistry issues will keep us from going far. one of them can be fixed with time, the other two are only going to be fixed by trading one of pau or dwight.

first, good seeing you bro.

I understand your point. two things I see how the two can work:

- Pau being the focal point on the post and Dwight cleaning up the misses and anchoring the defense or
- Dwight as the primary option downlow and Pau providing the spacing for him with his outside game

both options, one will be demoted to a lesser role, a role that the two of them can thrive at and be effective. problem is, are they willing? didn't we have an article somewhere that Dwight said he'll accept that type of role (can't find the link)? but I believe he's deferring to Kobe and not Pau.

problem I have with Gasol is he says the right things but he, most of the time, doesn't deliver. at this point of his career and having someone who clearly can produce better than him or can provide the things that can give the team W's, I'm not sure if it's smart to demand things like giving him more time in the post from his coach when clearly he became to passive since '10.

btw, I'm not hugging Pau's sacks or stepping on them. just sharing thoughts on how they can probably coexist on the court.

making dwight a forward would probably the be the worst thing anyone's done to a great center ever.

making Pau a three point shooter would probably be the worst thing anyone's done to a great post player ever

[Doormatt]

it just doesnt make any sense to me sorry. what does howard offer at the 4 next to gasol that would be even remotely appealing? apart from him being a garbage man (im sure hed be happy with that) what qualities do you think he possesses that would make him viable playing off the ball down low next to gasol? i personally think it would be, like that one guy who doesnt post says, trying to solve a problem by creating another one.

and id much rather make pau a three point shooter than make dwight play the forward position next to gasol at center.

[tugs]

was supposed to say defense but you're asking offensively. well, thing is, I agree with both of you, except I don't see it as a problem since as I've said, both can still be productive whatever position they choose to play.appropriate word for me is hindrance. hindrance on how effective they can play on their strong points.

we have a center who is in his prime. we have a power forward who may be saving all his ammo for one last run before accepting a lesser role. I'm looking at it this way and weighing two scenarios where:

-we can get the most out of Pau while Dwight can still be a beast in other aspects

-having Dwight be the man in the paint where he'll surely provide everything the team asks of him and experiment on Pau and have him relegated as the Lakers' Ryan Anderson.


basically, we are choosing the lesser of two evils. I'm choosing the first one.

hopefully I managed to answer the question.

[Kobe System]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

with what you're doing, you aren't doing anything but reversing the roles of questionable fit on the team. you accommodate dwight and pau's fit on the team comes into question. you accommodate pau and dwight's role comes into question, and not only that but then you're minimizing howard's impact and pissing him all at the same time.

i'm not concerned about howard leaving so if something needs to happen for the better good that could foreseeably cause a problem with him then whatever. but i'm just not seeing it, you don't fix a problem by making another problem. it makes a load more sense to trade pau for a player(s) that can efficiently play the role that pau is currently in while getting 100% out of dwight at the same time.

there's a problem of fit between pau and dwight, swapping roles isn't going to do anything.

Not really. We won't make Dwight a perimeter player. Kinda like how Phil used Shaq and Malone. Malone was the main low post player. Shaq was waiting on the other side. Plus we don't have to play Dwight and Pau together all the time. The problem is, even if Howard is on the bench, Pau is still playing in the perimeter.

I saw this somewhere:
16 minutes: Pau/Dwight on court
16 minutes: Pau on court/Dwight on the bench
16 minutes: Dwight on court/Pau on the bench

32 minutes per game will be good for Pau. You can add additional minutes for Dwight if you want to.

[Dissent]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

The problem with that, Dwight can't really DO anything on offense. He's awkward enough in the post; trying to move him off the block in favor of Pau would be a disaster. At least Pau is a threat from Midrange. Right now, Dwight is a decent post player who scores a lot of garbage points, which is fine. If you move Gasol to the post in favor of Howard, he's not going to give you 20 and 10 every night, the way Dwight does.

[Dr Aki]

or switch Dwight to 4 and Pau to 5 when they're playing together. Dwight is agile enough to defend the quick 4s and Pau CAN defend 5s.

pick and roll defense is still the issue

just use pau's man to set a pick and we're in for a world of hurt regardless

[H00PDREAMS]

Long over due. Glad they got together. Maybe we can move on to... I dunno, like winning games or something.

[desertlakerfan]

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

with what you're doing, you aren't doing anything but reversing the roles of questionable fit on the team. you accommodate dwight and pau's fit on the team comes into question. you accommodate pau and dwight's role comes into question, and not only that but then you're minimizing howard's impact and pissing him all at the same time.

i'm not concerned about howard leaving so if something needs to happen for the better good that could foreseeably cause a problem with him then whatever. but i'm just not seeing it, you don't fix a problem by making another problem. it makes a load more sense to trade pau for a player(s) that can efficiently play the role that pau is currently in while getting 100% out of dwight at the same time.

there's a problem of fit between pau and dwight, swapping roles isn't going to do anything.

Not really. We won't make Dwight a perimeter player. Kinda like how Phil used Shaq and Malone. Malone was the main low post player. Shaq was waiting on the other side. Plus we don't have to play Dwight and Pau together all the time. The problem is, even if Howard is on the bench, Pau is still playing in the perimeter.

I saw this somewhere:
16 minutes: Pau/Dwight on court
16 minutes: Pau on court/Dwight on the bench
16 minutes: Dwight on court/Pau on the bench

32 minutes per game will be good for Pau. You can add additional minutes for Dwight if you want to.

Actually you can't since Dwight needs more than 32 mpg at center, which is the main issue. Pau and Bynum worked better mainly due to Bynum's inability to play "star player" minutes due to injury concerns, he maxed out at around 30-32 mpg which allowed Pau to play at least 16 mpg at center. Dwight however wants to play 38+ mpg as our center, and that only leaves Pau around 8-10 mpg at his most effective position at this stage in his career.

I agree with Destro here and have been saying the same thing for months now. Pau and Dwight don't mesh well in large part due to Pau being a much better center than he is PF at this stage in his career. It's unfortunate since we've had such a great run with Gasol, but if we want to win now and don't want to risk alienating Howard we really need to make a trade.

Pau should be our PRIMARY post player, not Dwight. Post Pau, Dwight should be on the other side (waiting for the pass/ offensive rebound). Metta/Kobe cutting, Nash sniping.

lol so lets just ignore Dwight on offense.If we treat Dwight like the 3rd option he is leaving in FA.

So we are playing to please Dwight? Cool.

Uh yes? Btw winning it all would go along way towards pleasing Dwight, those two goals don't have to be conflicting when it comes to Howard as long as we handle the Gasol issue correctly(trade him).

[BEazy]

Dwight is still injured. I don't think he's even thinking about FA because he's still recovering from his surgery.