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Lakers Found out the Hard way About Gasol
By MoonDog | June 20, 2008
The Los Angeles Lakers found out what fans of the Memphis Grizzlies knew all along. Unless a team has a strong interior presence to compliment Pau Gasol’s game, he isn’t going to help you win an NBA championship.
It doesn’t matter that Gasol played with NBA MVP Kobe Bryant. No, they still wouldn’t have won the title with Shaq, but they certainly could have used someone like the Celtics Kendrick Perkins to take care of the paint, allowing Gasol to operate.
In the 2001 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks drafted Pau Gasol as the 3rd overall pick and was traded to the Grizzlies. After the Grizzlies’ first season in Memphis, Gasol won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Despite his personal success, the Grizzlies first two seasons in Memphis were dismal.
In 2002, Grizzlies’ owner Michael Heisley hired former Lakers’ GM Jerry West as its new General Manager. West began to overhaul the Grizzlies roster and brought in Hubie Brown to coach the team.
During the 2003-04 season Brown won the NBA Coach of the Year Award when the Grizzlies made the NBA playoffs for the first time in team history. With players like Mike Miller, James Posey and Shane Battier surrounding Gasol and with the experience of Hubie Brown to guide them, the Grizzlies had transformed themselves into a respectable NBA franchise.
For the next two seasons the Grizzlies would make the NBA playoffs, although they still haven’t won a playoff game – ever – in franchise history. However, the one constant throughout the three-year run of success was Lorenzen Wright.
Perhaps some of you aren’t familiar with Wright but he’s been in the NBA for 13 seasons, beginning his career with the Clippers in 1996. Wright, a former University of Memphis standout arrived back in his hometown prior to the start of the 2001-02 season, signing a free agent deal with the Grizzlies.
At 6-11 and 240 pounds, Wright was able to do exactly what the Lakers couldn’t in order to allow Gasol to be successful. Wright played defense, set picks, passed, rebounded and blocked shots giving Gasol room to maneuver on the exterior.
Wright has never been an All-Star and he’s never been the type of player to give you 20 points and 10 boards a game, but he did all of the little things well. And the little things are exactly what Gasol needs and the Lakers didn’t have.
Upon the completion of the 2005-06 season, the Grizzlies allowed Wright to walk and become a free agent, signing with the Atlanta Hawks. Since Wright’s departure, the Grizzlies have sunk to new lows, having identical 22-60 records the past two seasons. And the Grizzlies demise occurred with Gasol on the roster.
Memphis had a reasonable amount of above average talent on the roster during the four-year stretch Wright played for the Grizzlies, but he was the glue of those teams. Without his interior presence, the Grizzlies wouldn’t have enjoyed the level of success they did.
On February 1, 2008, Gasol was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, the rights to Marc Gasol, and 2008 and 2010 first round draft picks. Many expected this move would bolster the Lakers chances of making the playoffs. Some went as far to suggest the acquisition of Gasol would propel the Lakers into the NBA finals.
The Lakers played very well down the stretch and Gasol was a big part of that success, earning the top seed entering the playoffs.
But as the playoffs progressed, Gasol’s influence began to diminish. During the first round Gasol averaged 22.3 points per game. As the competition began to stiffen, Gasol’s production dwindled. He averaged only 13.2 points per game during the Western Conference finals.
Although Gasol increased his average slightly to 14.7 per game during the finals, it was obvious he wasn’t a factor in the series. Looking tired, slow and devoid of any defensive presence, Gasol faded away and the Celtics took the series.
One may wonder about the possibilities if Andrew Bynum were healthy and playing for the Lakers. For that matter, would the Lakers have traded for Gasol had Bynum not been lost due to a knee injury.
The one definitive fact in all of this is Pau Gasol wasn’t going to help bring a championship to Los Angeles without someone controlling the paint, and the Lakers didn’t have that someone.
Case closed.
Tags: nba playoffs, Memphis Grizzlies News, NBA, memphis grizzlies, kendrick perkins, Pau Gasol, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, MoonDogSports.com, NBA, lorenzen wrightRelated posts
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June 20th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Moondog, good breakdown about Gasol and Wright. Abanger in the middle is indesibale for some players to flourish. It is also what the Raptors need to give Chris Bosh. IMHO, Bynum would have made all the difference in the world.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Moon Dog
Gasol was never going to be the player that many expected him to be in Memphis. He certainly was never going to be a leader.
Now that he’s in a much bigger market and playing for the Lakers. He’s proving that he can be a foil for Bryant . But at the same time a mop and bucket could’ve been as equally effective considering how badly the Lakers played.
The Lakers’ll be in need of an oerhaul and at the same time Jackson has got to be a hell of a lot more than he’s been .
He’s as much to blame for the Lakers’ diabolical showing as were the players themselves.
tophatal ………….
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
This is required reading. I look forward to getting back on tomorrow to do so.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Laker fans are already calling him Pau Gasoft. All the Laker’s fans sites are really on his case bad. True, He helped the Lakers to finish out the regular season in great shape. But when playoffs rolled around, Gasoft rolled over and played dead.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
[...] The Lakers should have asked Moondog about Pau. They could haved saved some embarrassment. [...]