NBA Top 50: Pau Gasol (No. 19)

Posted Sep 19, 2008 10:00AM By Tom Ziller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Lakers

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Pau Gasol's reputation among the loudest NBA fans changes like the weather. A daily tracking poll would look like a heartbeat monitor. And if that were the case, this thing would have crashed in the NBA Finals, where Gasol got pounded off the boards and the block by Kevin Garnett and friends.

But don't get tangled: Gasol's a key player, one of the most adept power forwards in the league at scoring nattily and moving the ball.

Gasol's almost, to me, a poor man's Yao Ming: he scores efficiently, passes the ball well, rebounds worse than you'd think, and doesn't block as many shots as he could. Yao's defensive weakness comes from his lack of mobility; Gasol is limited by his frame, which looks like an aversion to contact on the big-screen. That's not totally right: Pau's a passionate player who, like any other NBA star, doesn't like to get punked. He'll fight back. Whether anyone notices -- including the guy he fights back against -- that's a different story.

Gasol seemed to settle into a nice role in L.A. upon arrival, scoring less than he'd been accustomed to, but moving the ball and immersing himself into the part of ball-movin' big man, a character he'd played in Memphis' better days. That role, of course, expects alteration as Andrew Bynum returns, bumping Pau down a weight class and likely relieving some of Gasol's less handsome responsibilities (defending the opposing Shaqs and Odens and Kamans, hit the glass hard).

That's one of the great things about Gasol: he's adaptable. He had a spate of different callings in Memphis, depending on the quality of the team around him. Always a primary scorer, though varying offenses Pau was able to slip into different modes: facilitator, post pounder, shooter. Of course, when he had no help (the last season-and-a-half there), he had to be all those things. He can't handle that. In L.A., he doesn't have to. This job's perfectly in his wheelhouse.

Is he an All-Star? You'd assume the Lakers will rack up a tidy record early, which would mean the top 3-4 contributors will get consideration for a spot. On this team, right now, Gasol's behind Kobe only in pecking order (and probably numbers), so he almost has a spot locked, barring injury. His post-trade numbers are absolutely ridiculous (59% from the field, 65% True Shooting, 128 offensive rating) despite getting fewer shots than usual. If he can keep up the efficiency in the slighter role, this team looks almost unstoppable.

Almost ...

NBA Top 50

No. 50, Andris Biedrins, Warriors

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-19-2008 @ 10:41AM

frank said...

By the time Pau Gasol finish his basketball years he
will have a gold medal, a silver medal , a rookie of
the year in the NBA all of these are done but in the future
a ring or maybe 2 or 3 from the NBA ;
Yao will never accomplish such a feat !

9-19-2008 @ 11:18AM

Alex said...

So Pau Gasol is better than Deron Williams? Riiiiiiiiiight...

9-19-2008 @ 11:20AM

adamendoza said...

Gasol @ 19?! Yay!

Williams @ 20, and now this?!

This ranking is getting disappointing.

9-19-2008 @ 11:31AM

Deron Williams is a great point guard one of the best
but the reason LA beat Utah was Pau Gasol;
In fact, Gasol in the finals against Boston Gasol
blocked Paul Pierce clean a lot while Pierce was blocking Kobe quite a few times;
Another fact, Gasol annihilated Perkins and blocked Ray Allen clean quite a few times and in game 3 KG was out of zinc and out of the game early because of
Gasol, so you must be confused about Gasol
maybe you are thinking about someone else, done.

9-19-2008 @ 4:20PM

lunatic_fo_ever said...

What NBA Finals were you watching? lol... GASOL GOT DOMINATED IN THE NBA FINALS please dont lie to yourself. The lakers beat utah esp in game 6 because of kobe. Didn't you watch game 6? D-Will almost won it for utah. Don't kid yourself. Even though gasol is a top 20 player, D-Will has had a way bigger impact on his team and is one of the top 5 pg in the league. Don-t get it twisted. jeez boston destroyed odom/gasol why do you think they lost? gasol/odom were constantly being dominated by the celts. Seriously i have to ask again. What nba finals were you watching. What were you smoking when you watched it?

9-19-2008 @ 12:16PM

Step said...

Unlike I guess most people, my respect for Gasol went up during the finals. Sure he had a bad game 6, like most of the Lakers did and he was on the wrong end of some signature moments like not finishing a dunk in game 4 or being too late to rotate to contest Ray Allen's game 4 clinching layup that cast him in a bad light and awoke the old reputation he garnered in Memphis. But I was impressed by how well he handled Garnett's defense. He didn't struggle to score against him and he even posterized Garnett in the first quarter of game 2, which is not something a so-called softie does (Garnett never gears down on defense). The only guy who contained him was Perkins but that's because Perkins is as stout a low post defender as there is in the league. Overall, I thought he was as dangerous a lowpost scorer going up against Garnett as I saw all year.

But about Gasol blocking shots or annihilating anyone, he had three blocks the entire series. He wasn't wiping out much of anyone (in the finals anyway, he blocked a lot more shots in the previous three rounds). To his credit, I thought he did a solid job defending Garnett on the low block, using his length to make shots difficult, another thing that added to his diverse offensive game impressed me.

9-19-2008 @ 12:30PM

j said...

What? a Laker grossly overrated by Ziller? Whoda thunk it?

his list sucks.

9-19-2008 @ 10:46PM

kobe said...

i guess this means odom is not even in the top 50. he was definately better than half of the guys listed, but since gasol is listed, there is no way odom is ahead of him. this list is crap. gasol over tmac?