Why is everyone concerned about Gasol's defense?

[Kawhitstorm]

None of them are soft You're drinking the Kobe fan koolaid. Never heard Pau get called soft until after he left the Lakers.

Aldridge led the team in scoring against OKC, not bad for a softie.

I guarantee you, if Adams had a jump shot you'd call him soft too. Jump shooting big men get called soft for some reason. Happened to Dirk until he rang.

Even Kareem got called soft after he got mauled by Moses.

[Kawhitstorm]

The way Pop has looked in the post season these last couple of years, this is pretty much a pointless conversation. (We also haven't even added the officiating factor )

Hopefully, ThudeRefs aren't part of the Dominos 2-for-1 deal.

[YGWHI]

Not a guarantee GS wins 65-75 games. They'll have some initial chemistry issues to overcome and might get off to a slow start.

Like the Spurs won't have their own chemistry issues on court next season.

Also, despite both are terrific professionals, not sure how the team will deal with the divergence in personality between Pau and LMA off court. Especially in losses.

But concerned about Pau's defense? No.

[TheGreatYacht]

Hopefully, ThudeRefs aren't part of the Dominos 2-for-1 deal.

Ratings will be at an all time low, until the NBA gets its wet dream of Cavs vs Warrior$ Part III. No way they'll pass up that trilogy especially with the world against the Warrior$

I hope the Jones fracture comes back, Curry's ankles get stepped on by Boris Diaw, Raymond has jaw surgery so he can finally keep his jaw shut overbite ass , hope Kerr's spine snaps... their fans too

[YGWHI]

I'm concerned, for sure, but my concern is more about Pop not utilizing them properly, refusing to play them together against the Warriors, trying to match them with small lineups, overthinking matchups and coddling and protecting and over resting his players.

Agree.

When Pop refuses to stay big,

When he sits LMA and Pau, both at the same and play some 2nd unit combo who can't rebound or protect the rim,

When he sits Kawhi/Danny at the same time and our perimeter defense will be reduced to Parker/Mills-Manu against younger and faster guards,

When he sits the guy with the hot hand to put Parker dribble-dribble-dribble playing ineffective pick and rolls in crucial moments,

When he rests Kawhi because 24 years old guys can't play more than 34 minutes per game in playoffs

Remember Game 2?

When these s happen again...How LMA-Gasol match up w/Warriors will be the least of our worries.

[TheGreatYacht]

These are the same re s that were worried about our defense this year when LMA was taking Splitter's overrated ass place.... Then the Spurs went on and had a historically great defense.

No free agent would've replaced Duncan's d, but we didn't get that big of a dropoff on that end and the offense just increased dramatically.

[r0drig0lac]

Because they need something to about, so they repeat the the idiot Lakers fans say.

[BillMc]

These are the same re s that were worried about our defense this year when LMA was taking Splitter's overrated ass place.... Then the Spurs went on and had a historically great defense.

No free agent would've replaced Duncan's d, but we didn't get that big of a dropoff on that end and the offense just increased dramatically.

Agreed.

[Spurtacular]

N/M

[midnightpulp]

Like the Spurs won't have their own chemistry issues on court next season.

Also, despite both are terrific professionals, not sure how the team will deal with the divergence in personality between Pau and LMA off court. Especially in losses.

But concerned about Pau's defense? No.

I think the chemistry issues will be easier to handle for the Spurs than the Warriors. The Warriors are adding a superstar to their line up, and a rule of thumb is the higher usage a player is, the more difficult he'll having adapting. We're basically adding a Tim Duncan clone.

Also, the Spurs have been great in the Pop-era at adding new pieces with little-to-no chemistry issues. We dropped LMA in the lineup, completely changed the offensive system, and had the best regular season in history. And if Duncan knee doesn't go, who knows? Maybe the Spurs go all the way.

Might be smooth sailing for the Warriors, as well.

[T Park]

Well, reading the concerns is one thing...believing them is another. I wouldn't. He should be an excellent team defender.

Yeah been watching stuff with him with the Bulls last year. He looked fine on PNR rotations, and when with guys like Leonard Green and Aldridge, he should be fine.

If they can beg Tim to come back they'll be set bugs wise IMO, a Gasol for Diaw West trade is one you do in a heartbeat.

[T Park]

Some stats to chew on:

Gasol's at rim defense is only 2 percentage higher than Duncan's. And about equal to that of Ibaka, Stephen Adams, and Bogut. Look at Boris's at rim defense for comparison.



Gasol's man interior defense ranks 3rd on this list of bigs:



And here's some good news regarding everyone's major concern:



BUT



Spurs indeed did their homework here.

Now this is old school spurstalk stuff. Awesome awesome stuff

[I. Hustle]

Yeah been watching stuff with him with the Bulls last year. He looked fine on PNR rotations, and when with guys like Leonard Green and Aldridge, he should be fine.

If they can beg Tim to come back they'll be set bugs wise IMO, a Gasol for Diaw West trade is one you do in a heartbeat.

Bugs?! Like bugaboos? You racist POS

[T Park]

Comparing Gasol, a finesse player, to Adams, a brawler, is a joke. Adams killed the Dubs because he is a Maori warrior on the court - a controlled wrecking ball - while Gasol is a completely different kind of player who relies on skill and smarts. All bigs aren't the same, y'know.

Don't get me wrong, I like Pau, but he's not what we need next to LMA. They are both soft, skillful players, and we needed to team LMA up with a banger. Once again our frontcourt is too soft.

In the best of all worlds I'd see us trade LMA for a banger and some young pieces because I don't like relying on a jumpshooter and a softie in the playoffs, but I am fully aware of the player-culture reasons we won't/can't do thi

s.

Trade one of the top 15 players in the league? Are you effing kidding me?!

[T Park]

Here's a video of Pau Gasol being dominated by tough banger Zaza Pachulia:



In your opinion, was Gasol too soft? Could any other tough banger fare much better?

Unless pachulia got traded in pre season, he was with the Mavericks last year not the Bucks. Also I see he dropped 46 and 18 on the Bucks, which for at his age is freaking unbelievable.

[T Park]

Bugs?! Like bugaboos? You racist POS

Damnt, the dog whistle has been blown.


Bigs. Stupid autocorrect on my phone kills me every goddamn time.

[Solid D]

Unless pachulia got traded in pre season, he was with the Mavericks last year not the Bucks. Also I see he dropped 46 and 18 on the Bucks, which for at his age is freaking unbelievable.

Pachulia looks more like Zsa Zsa Gabor to me in that video against Pau. "Dah-link, can you please not play so rough?"

[TD 21]

I'm not. He's a similar defender to Duncan, just not as good.

I could care less if he's an awkward fit against the Warriors, since there's nothing they could have done to beat them. He should be more or less fine against the vast majority of the league.

Given that the depth has been gutted and there's limited means with which to replace it, this figures to be a more top heavy team than it's been in a while. They have no margin to error to begin with against those pricks, so if they even want to pretend to have a chance, they need to stay big as often as possible and pound them on the block, especially when Durant is at power forward. They can't afford to play inferior players in a desperate attempt to match-up with them.

[YGWHI]

I think the chemistry issues will be easier to handle for the Spurs than the Warriors. The Warriors are adding a superstar to their line up, and a rule of thumb is the higher usage a player is, the more difficult he'll having adapting. We're basically adding a Tim Duncan clone.

Well, our best three offensive guys are frontcourt players and they like to play in the same area.

-Pau never was the 2nd option in the paint behind an offensive threat like LMA.

-Pau and Kawhi, both want to post-up often

-Pau and LMA, both expect to be involved in pick and rolls/pops

They won't fight for touches creating drama but one of those three guys won't get what he wants.

Anyway, hopefully the Dubs issues will be bigger than any problem we will face.

[Rob123]

Comparing Gasol, a finesse player, to Adams, a brawler, is a joke. Adams killed the Dubs because he is a Maori warrior on the court - a controlled wrecking ball - while Gasol is a completely different kind of player who relies on skill and smarts. All bigs aren't the same, y'know.

Don't get me wrong, I like Pau, but he's not what we need next to LMA. They are both soft, skillful players, and we needed to team LMA up with a banger. Once again our frontcourt is too soft.

In the best of all worlds I'd see us trade LMA for a banger and some young pieces because I don't like relying on a jumpshooter and a softie in the playoffs, but I am fully aware of the player-culture reasons we won't/can't do this.

You're re ed.

[antarescrane]

LOL you're right, we should've payed Mozgov 15 a year instead of Gasol. WTF. What does a "banger" even mean? Only bigs I rather have than Gasol are whiteside, Gobert, Bogut, and Adams, and none of those were realistic trade targets. Plus if we traded Aldridge for any of those, in theory, we won't even be a playoff team. Your takes are extremely re ed.

[K...]

Gasols craftiness is like being a banger. You aren;t going to out bang zaza and dray, so why care about it. Slice and dice kills much better., I want LMA and Gasol to be passing like mad; both can finish, so it'll make a truly devastating combo

[Snaq O'Meal]

LOL you're right, we should've payed Mozgov 15 a year instead of Gasol. WTF. What does a "banger" even mean? Only bigs I rather have than Gasol are whiteside, Gobert, Bogut, and Adams, and none of those were realistic trade targets. Plus if we traded Aldridge for any of those, in theory, we won't even be a playoff team. Your takes are extremely re ed.

None of those guys you've listed can effectively take advantage of short lineups the way Gasol can.

Gasol ting on French big men Gobert and Diaw at Eurobasket 2015 was a thing of beauty. He had no trouble scoring over Gobert while swatting away Rudy's shot attempts at the other end.

I'm more interested to know how GSW will try to slow down Gasol in the paint. A tandem of Gasol and Aldridge is like a longer and more skilled version of Adams and Kanter.

[spursreport]

How is a lineup with LMA and Gasol together going to matchup with Dub small-ball? Or any smallball team with good perimeter shooting? I think that's the major theme, and it is a concern. The obvious answer is that we can't play them together against smallball lineups, and that's the case with just about any 2-big lineup in the NBA.

On the flipside, no-one will be able to match up well with the Warriors now.

Cavs will. Warriors are a jumpshooting team. They just added another shooter. Durant will have to be the alpha when the chips are down, and he has already shown he can't be one. Steph Curry isn't an alpha either as proof from the past 2 finals. Get physical with him as well and he wilts. Klay Thompson is just a sidekick as is Green. Unless Kevin Durant actually becomes a true alpha (he has been nothing but a playoff choker), or if the Warriors face injured teams again...this is a team that will fail when it is all said and done when adversity strikes.

[spursreport]

The Golden State Warriors are the Peyton Manning Colts/Broncos of the NBA. Ungodly offense that wilts in high pressure situations and "alphas" who are truly mentally weak and soft and a championship won due to other "unsung heros/events/injuries".