Gasol...what this means for the lakers

Long time no post... but due to the curent news.. i'm forced to put in my 2 cents... First of all... Kupchak. you redeemed yourself..from now on..the bitter taste left from the caron trade.. has turned sweet..i will now think of it as a.. Caron - Gasol trade. not too shabby right? but now for the juicy stuff 1. The lineup... With gasol with the lakers we have opened up many..many possibilities in our starting line up.. the most obvious starting lineup is as follows ( not considering the injuries) Fisher Kobe Odom Gasol Bynum. that line up gives us one of the best front courts in the league: -Odom being a swift near 7 footer that can create matchup problems for any team..Best of all..he's able to relax. and play his game..no longer being a 2nd option. maybe not even 3rd.. which means. odom at his best -Gasol an experienced and established all star Pf/C whom is an upgrade to our PF position on both ends..He is the pf we've needed for quite some time.. someone who can matchup against dirk/garnetts of the league. atleast to an extent..and force them to play D on a offensive threat (either him or Bynum..) -Bynum...who by having a all star pf playing by his side..he will see less double teams. and although his boards may go down..his assists would go (harder to double team kobe with 2 solid bigs inside. and Odom) Now what does that mean for our guards?. Fisher: He now has 2 low post options.. which is very helpful in case one steps out to set a screen.. fish can force mis matches and create easy baskets for the remaining big.. This will possibly lessen the load on fisher at the end of games. by adding another skilled veteran to the team Kobe: he scored 46.. just thinking about gasol joining... enough....

I told you the Spanish Fly will come to LA! Welcome to the bright lights Pau! You are most welcome!

You are right on the dot Chris. We will have one of the best frontlines, if not the best starters in all of the West. I just hope they gel as fast as they can so they can compete for the chip. Go Lakers!

Yeah same. but realistically we have a chance of winnning the west this year... after a night of thought... you have to consider that although the west is dangerous..alot of the beasts are injured.. or we can beat thanks to drew..and with the addition of gasol our chances only improve.. The teams that could possibly give us problems are the hornets (good balanced team) and the spurs. who can never be underestimated. although without parker..i love our chances..

and as for the whole league... the true test to see how well they gel is when they play boston one more again. We can match their big 3. and raise them a lamar odom. Games against celtics will see how much of a difference it is to have pau at the pf. guarding allstar pf. (which hasn't always gone well)

Yeah boy, I'm really excited for the Lakers squad now. We brought in a young versatile forward who will go well with the rest of the versatile players on our team. I'm wondering if we'll even give up any offensive boards at all now since We could possibly have a lineup of Bynum, Gasol, and Odom, which you're talking about a nightly 30 boards or more between the three players. Can anyone get a shot off in the lane without it getting altered or blocked now? We will have people pulling a lot of jumpers on us now and we will have the length and athleticism to get back and contest those jumpers too. The one thing I do like is Pau Gasol has a wet mid range jumper that will compliment Bynum's game, good times ahead if we can stay healthy the rest of the way.

six.chris - You mean to tell me that South Central has been renamed to South LA? I grew up in South Central before moving to Inglewood when I was a kid. I live in Maryland now, but I still miss home.

yeah.. they changed it to try to change the bad image..horrible i know. but its still good.. ironically the place that's becoming the new south central is san fernando valley Lol

San Fernanado Valley? That was considered a good neighborhood for the most part when I was there.

People have asked me how S. Central was since they knew I lived there for a while and I tell them it has it's good part and bad parts like any other place, of course no one ever sees the good part in the movies. I think the only positive view of S. central was in the movie Akeelah and the Bee

What I'm most excited about is Pau's jumper. It allows him to play away from the basket so he doesn't clog up the lane with Andrew.

Yeah you're right..that jumper will be perfect to add a new dimension to our pick and roll... force a big to stay out on gasol... or have gasol take it in..draw the 2nd defender and pass to bynum.. and of course the kick out to kobe..or d-fish... ah money in the bank

Phil now has even more flexbility in the lineup then before. He can match any other team's lineup big or small. Pau also provides a plug in until Bynum returns spreading the minutes out so LO and Turiaf do not wear down in the next 7 weeks.

Plus you have addition by subtraction...Stone hands is now on Memphis.

in a sense we gave up our future.. but we protected the present... I love what kupchak is doing..this team is win now..with room to grow.. seems kind of scary to me.. its not something you can say about many teams..closest thing to lakers in that way is dallas... with all they youngish players around nowitzki.. but they choke.. and in the east..its wizards..but the win now celts are too dangerous for them this year

addition by subtraction is the best way of putting it when it comes to stonehands. some say that we should pick him up if memphis buys him out. i strongly disagree. i think mbenga does everything better so i say we should sign him for the rest of the season.

you're right in a way..but with all the injuries to the laker bigs, and gasol having back problems recently... having a foul magnet isn't always good..aka forcing starters on the floor when rest is what they need.. yes he is overall better than kwame..but kwame has game experience, and would be a half way decent bench defender.(if we sign him for less than 3mil which he deserves)

When LA is back at full strength, I would have to assume the last big man on the roster (Mbenga or Kwame) would see very few minutes if any late in the season or playoffs when the rosters tend to shorten up. You would have Bynum, Gasol, LO, Turiaf, Mihm. for that matter Mihm probably wuld not see much time as a 'big'. So Mbenga, Kwame and even Mihm are there for injury fill in and foul trouble at the most down the stretch.

Having said that if LA has a chance to resign Kwame, they probably will and dump Mbenga just from a familiarity perspective in the triangle.