we simply don't know what the team would look like with Gasol. You can't point to the Lakers collapse and necessarily point the blame at Gasol. Two entirely different systems. Gasol is 4 years younger than KG... 7 feet 250 pounds. His role changes with Bynum out there. I remember when the guy started at center last November (with Bynum out) and averaged 20 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 54% shooting even with Kobe jacking the ball. He's still capable of that. Lakers are just poorly coached.
Currently our players compliment Rondo's strengths AND weaknesses just about perfectly. Ray will constantly demand attention (often double teams) and spreads the floor. Pierce is a dynamic scorer who can do anything and will ALWAYS demand attention. Both KG and Bass get their offense on mid-range jump shots and they both knock them down as well as any "big men" in the game. The fact that they get their offense on mid range shots as opposed to interior post play means that they suck big men defenders out of the paint (usually) and it allows Rondo to penetrate inside for layups as well as gives him 4 offensive weapons to kick the ball to. This makes Rondo's job getting assists a heck of a lot easier, but it also covers up for his blatant weakness... the fact that he has an almost non-existent range. Yes, I get that he occasionally knocks down shots (and has knocked down some in the playoffs), but for the most part he's still well below average shooting the ball. This season's field goal percentages: at rim = 58.9% (league average is 62.6%) his 3-9 feet is 26% (league average is 37.5%) his 10-15 feet is 27.8% (league average is 38.3%) his eFG% from three is 35.7% (league average is 52.3%) ... Defenders still slack off Rondo which allows him to see the court better, but this simply would NOT be the case if he didn't have such capable shooters surrounding him. Pulling bigs out of the paint is a benefit in that it allows Rondo to penetrate inside for the only shots he can make consistently... at rim floaters and layups.
Atlanta isn't a great team. But the fact remains that the second Horford stepped into this series, the Celtics were in trouble... in more trouble than anyone wants to let on. Reason being, our team still is "undersized". Bass is a 6'8 "big man" who is well below average rebounding the ball. KG is playing out of position at center and playing extremely well there. The move to center actually singlehandedly saved our season. Prior to the move, we had Jermaine O'Neal's corpse (copyright Bill Simmons) starting at center and he was freakin dreadful. I had said all season that either a starting center needed to "fall out of the sky" or we were toast. KG moving to center surprisingly gave us new life, but it meant that Bass (whose main strength is that aforementioned ability to hit mid-range shots and free up the paint for penetration) was starting at forward. This small ball basketball that had been helping us win got exposed as soon as Horford joined this series. Suddenly Horford and Smith were dominating on the boards getting multiple second chance opportunities, causing havoc inside with their interior defense and really making this series closer than it should have been. I swear that if Horford had been 100% for the full series (as opposed to 60% or whatever he is right now), we might not have pulled out a series win. Dangerous series and we snuck out alive. If you're in denial about how HOrford exposed our weakness... all I need to do is point out that Ryan Hollins was playing down the stretch tonight. Why the FLIP do you think Hollins was in the game?... he's our only legit 7 footer. Scary, scary series. So glad we didn't go to game 7.
So you have to factor in all of that to understand how Pau Gasol MIGHT have theoretically transformed this team. He presumably would play center next to KG. Suddenly our main weakness (size) becomes our main strength. Don't judge what Gasol is doing by his poorly coached performance tonight. For the season he averaged 18 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.4 blocks on 50% shooting... and he did all this while Andrew Bynum was blossoming as a dominant center and Kobe Bryant continued to take 25 shots a night. Fact is, both Bynum AND Gasol are two of the top 5 big men in the game at this point (if the Lakers ever realize what a strength they have with these guys... they will win the title. No joke). Adding Gasol means you go big with two legit 7 footers causing havoc inside. Atlanta would have posed no problem at all for us, frankly.
Also keep in mind that Paul Pierce has proven time-and-time again that he's more than comfortable letting the ball flow through him while Rondo is out. In games this season with Rondo sitting:
1/20 (LOSS) 12 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks
1/22 (Win) 34 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 steals
1/23 (win) 19 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds
1/26 (win) 24 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds, 1 block
1/27 (win) 28 points, 8 assists, 10 rebounds, 3 steals,2 blocks
1/29 (loss) 18 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds
1/31 (win) 20 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals
2/1 (win) 17 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block
4/18 (win) 29 points, 14 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
Now keep in mind this is when you completely take Rondo out of the equation and ask Pierce to carry the load. It's important to note that in the games when Rondo was OUT, I noticed we seemed to feed Kevin Garnett a lot more in the post. This is probably because we don't need to keep the post open for Rondo. So it's fair to say that Pierce couldn't carry that kind of load for a full season, but ask yourself this... what if Pierce was controlling the ball and half our possessions involved feeding Gasol (and KG) on the low post? That's a lot different. Theoretically (if there were no follow-up moves), we'd be starting Bradley at PG ... which doesn't mean Bradley would have to be Rondo. The fact is, starting Bradley at PG would provide an instant upgrade shooting the ball (since anyone in Rondo's place is by default a better shooter)... so you're lineup would look like this:
PG - Bradley
SG - Ray Allen
SF - Pierce
PF - Kevin Garnett
C - Pau Gasol
but our offense would look NOTHING like it does now. Ball probably flows through Pierce... lots of feeding the post (both to KG and Pau)... better rebounding... better shooting... better interior defense...
Would it work? Dunno. But I wouldn't dismiss it outright. Big men win playoff games. I could see the logic behind it (even if the whole thing was a garbage rumor from the start)...
Topic: Rondo for Pau Gasol trade revisited (Read 16823 times)