In hindsight only: Would we have been better off trading for Gasol?

[Gemini]

If we could have recived Gasol without including Big Al then it sounds like we could have got Pau and KG. imagine that.

I don't know if that necessarily would have been possible, since we only had one expiring contract (Theo's).  That couldn't go to both Minnesota and Memphis, and they both required one.  (Remember, we needed to send Theo along with Big Al to make salaries work.)

True. But we would have had Perk that we could have included.

[LarBrd33]

Gasol is the best player on the Lakers.  He won 50 games with Memphis while his 2nd best player was James Posey.   The guy is a stud.   Kobe won 36 games without a stud big man.    Clearly Pau is the star of that team.  Should have been the MVP.

[wiley]

The culture wouldn't have changed as much, but we still would have challenged for a title in 08,09, and 10.  And probably for a few more years.  I'll be the first one to say I would have preferred Gasol.  We got only one great year from KG.  We could have gotten 6 or 7 very good years from Pau.

No way we could have made it to the finals in 08.....

We were an awesome team that year and still barely made it past Cleveland, let alone Atlanta....
We just wouldn't have been nearly that good.........

Going forward since Garnett's knee injury is the first moment the idea has any real merit....

Getting Gasol in a trade like that would have been a major coup, a hell of a trade and fun to watch, but what we actually got was lightening in a bottle....

[horse]

He's our Spaniard, hands off.

[Mr October]

Gasol is great. And yeah he should have been the finals MVP. Boston had no consistent answer for him. He would have made a great Celtic.

However, the KG ride has been so much fun. His imprint on the defense has been critical to our success. I have no regrets.

[Witch-King]

Gasol wasn't the reason why we blew a 13 point lead in the 4th quarter. Perkins was injured and the Lakers kept getting all of the calls during the final stretch of the game. If you're asking me whether or not I think he's better than Perkins I'd say that Kendrick Perkins was enough to get us past Dwight Howard and the Magic, so I could care less. In hindsight I would not have traded for Gasol, though the way things are going the Lakers might cop Dwight Howard from the Magic like they did w/ Shaq and we'd have 'The Matrix, Reloaded' on our hands...

[Tai]

Would this question be asked if we won Game 7?

Would Gasol even matter on our team if Perkins wasn't playing by him that one game, too?

Even in Game 7, KG was driving by Gasol until he wore out.

Gasol's no doubt one of the best offensive bigs in the NBA, if not the best, but I can't say I have any regrets, either.

[Yakmanev]

As I said in the Chris Wallace thread. The only reason he was given to the Lakers in the first place was to slap the Celtic organization and fanbase in the face.

There is absolutely no way Chris Wallace sends Gasol our way in any circumstance.

[Moranis]

I don't think we would have traded for Pau prior to the Ray Allen deal.  I just don't think it was very feasible at that time.  Which means any deal for Pau could not have included the pick that netted the C's Ray Allen.  In otherwords, I think the C's easily could have had Rondo, Ray, Paul, Jefferson, and Perkins to pair with Pau.  I think the C's could have at least been comparable to the offer made to land Pau to the Lakers and may have actually been able to trump it depending on how Gomes, Green, and Minny's future 1st were looking to the Grizzlies.  Ratliff was nothing more then filler.  

I don't know if the Celtics win the title in the 08,09, or 10 with that lineup, but I'd feel a whole lot better going forward with a very solid top 4 of Rondo, Gasol, Jefferson, and Perkins not to mention the still viable Pierce (and maybe Ray Allen).

[greg683x]

I think if we would have gotten Gasol, we would have been a great team for a longer time, but I also think with Gasol, we dont win a championship at all.

Gasol is the player he is right now bc Kevin Garnett ate him alive in the 2008 Finals.  If he comes to the Celtics and never has that run in with KG, he's a much different player IMO.

Not to mention Gasol cant light a fire under peoples butts defensively like KG can, and I also dont think that we come together as a team like we did with KG either.  With KG here, I think Pierce and Allen, namely Pierce, felt they had to keep up with KG's work ethic for their own ego's and also to set an example for everyone else.  I dont see that happening with Gasol here.

[Mr October]

I think if we would have gotten Gasol, we would have been a great team for a longer time, but I also think with Gasol, we dont win a championship at all.

Gasol is the player he is right now bc Kevin Garnett ate him alive in the 2008 Finals.  If he comes to the Celtics and never has that run in with KG, he's a much different player IMO.

Not to mention Gasol cant light a fire under peoples butts defensively like KG can, and I also dont think that we come together as a team like we did with KG either.  With KG here, I think Pierce and Allen, namely Pierce, felt they had to keep up with KG's work ethic for their own ego's and also to set an example for everyone else.  I dont see that happening with Gasol here.

bingo TP

[slamtheking]

I think if we would have gotten Gasol, we would have been a great team for a longer time, but I also think with Gasol, we dont win a championship at all.

Gasol is the player he is right now bc Kevin Garnett ate him alive in the 2008 Finals.  If he comes to the Celtics and never has that run in with KG, he's a much different player IMO.

I don't think that's necessarily true.  Consider this: In the scenario where we have a big man rotation of Gasol, Al and Perk, even if LA had traded for KG they'd have had to include Bynum and quite probably two of Odom, Ariza or Turiaf and some other sweetener.  LA with Kobe and KG but not much else most likely doesn't get out of the Western conference in 08 or any other year while a C's team of Rondo, PP, Gasol, Al, Perk and possibly Ray (if not Ray then a deeper team with Delonte, Gomes and Wally with Powe, TA and hopefully BBD-->hoping Danny would have picked him instead of Pruitt if he knew he wasn't getting the 35th pick in the Ray trade) could certainly have done some real damage in the East and prbbably have made the finals each year so far and would reasonably be considered contenders for the championship. 

Seriously, who'd have the front line to contend with Gasol and Al down low with Rondo at point and West/Wally and PP from outside?  C's would have a really deep team with or without Ray's trade occurring if they had gotten Gasol and kept Al in the process.

[greg_kite]

I think if we would have gotten Gasol, we would have been a great team for a longer time, but I also think with Gasol, we dont win a championship at all.

Gasol is the player he is right now bc Kevin Garnett ate him alive in the 2008 Finals.  If he comes to the Celtics and never has that run in with KG, he's a much different player IMO.

Not to mention Gasol cant light a fire under peoples butts defensively like KG can, and I also dont think that we come together as a team like we did with KG either.  With KG here, I think Pierce and Allen, namely Pierce, felt they had to keep up with KG's work ethic for their own ego's and also to set an example for everyone else.  I dont see that happening with Gasol here.

If you're talking about KG instead of Gasol it's one thing, but we're talking KG instead of Gasol AND Big Al.  That's a lot of easy, low post scoring to go along with great perimeter scoring from Pierce and Allen, plus Rondo running the show.  I love KG, but you can't discount the value of Big Al here.  The guy was 20/10 before the injuries.  If he's playing against 4s instead of 5s and had Perk, Baby and Leon backing him up he might not have had the injuries he has suffered the last couple years.

[ManUp]

If we managed to get by the Cavs we wouldn't have beat Detroit. I also feel like we wouldn't have been a defensive team because Gasol doesn't bring the same type of impact on that end. Gasol is a notch below what KG is/was.

[EmilioBonilla]

no way, pau was too soft back then. kg's toughness revamped this team along with thib's defensive scheme