The overrating of Pau Gasol must stop

[KingBeasley08]

Gasol is the best player on the Lakers this year and a potential MVP.

24/11/5

[comerb]

Dude is playing great , no doubt about that but when people are saying he is the best big in league is just And some are even saying he is the BEST PLAYER ON THE LAKERS.

Dirk has always and still is a better player than Gasol. Howard>Gasol too. Put Gasol on the Mavs and I guaranteeing you that they wont win 50 ++ games like the Mavs have done for a long time

Gasol is the best all around big in the league. He's a good rebounder, a good defender, a good scorer (inside & out), a good passer, etc. He doesn't really have a weakness... he used to be soft, but thats a pretty weak argument anymore.

Howard needs to work on his offensive game before I can say he's better than Gasol overall. He's certainly a better pure center(boards/blocks/defense), but Gasol is a more complete player.

Dirk is definitely a more dominant offensive player, but he's not better in any other category. If I picking a #1 guy for scoring on my team, sure I pick Dirk... if I've got a solid scorer and I'm looking for a #2 guy, I'd rather have Gasol.

[All Net]

Dude is playing great , no doubt about that but when people are saying he is the best big in league is just And some are even saying he is the BEST PLAYER ON THE LAKERS.

Dirk has always and still is a better player than Gasol. Howard>Gasol too. Put Gasol on the Mavs and I guaranteeing you that they wont win 50 ++ games like the Mavs have done for a long time

How is saying gasol is the best big in the league some stupid statement? right now there aren't many who you could say are better. Dwight maybe of course but Dirk? think this year Pau has looked better. pau is a better post scorer, better rebounder, better defender than Dirk. He is also older than Pau.

Gasol won 50 games on a Memphis team full of average role players yet he couldn't win 50 games with the teams Dirk has had? please

[Yung D-Will]

At no point in his career was he ever better than Dirk.

[Mr Clutch Melo]

The point is that Gasol is not a player than can lead a team far in the playoffs as the first option, there is a reason he only made the playoffs once before he joined the Lakers.

Replace Gasol with Howard, would Orlando still be contender ? Hell no, the impact Dwight has on that team is unbelievable . He is also averaging just 2 less points than Gasol ( despite Gasol taking 4 more shots and playing on a better team). Also Orlando is the 3 best defensive team, no way they would be there with Gasol instead of Howard.

[creepingdeath]

At no point in his career was he ever better than Dirk.

Hmm "Heidelberg Germany"...biased much? Bet you think D Hasselhoff is a good singer as well I'm not even a Spurs fan. Pau is right now a more skilled and well rounded player than Dirk ever was or will be. He's just about everything you would want in a big man. A little slight of frame but other than that Dirk has fallen behind. Pretty soon, Dirk will eat Pau's dust. It's just a matter of time.

Yeah, so because I'm from Germany and, granted, biased, means that my opinion is garbage. What about the Lakers fans posting in this thread then? Curiously enough, there are some people (even so-called LA fans, but rather Kobe haters, I guess) who claim that Pau is a better player than Kobe just because he has had some games where HE, and not Kobe, took over. With not even a dozen games played, if THAT's not a clear sign of him being vastly overrated right now...

Oh, and by saying that current Gasol is better than Dirk ever was you're just showing how stupid you are. I respect guys like ShaqAttack who have had Gasol in front of Dirk because of his great season last year and due to the fact that he has a different set of criteria (one that doesn't factor in being a #1/#2 option and the quality of teammates) than myself. But what you are arguing is just plain idiocracy.

There is a good chance that Gasol ends up with more rings than Nowitzki, but he will not go down as good as a player as Dirk, no matter what. And (American, not German, for that matter) critics who have voted him in front of Gasol in the All NBA teams year after year (oddly enough, Gasol hasn't even been selected before his trade to LA, oh my, what could that mean?) with a clear margin, not even mentioning his countless top 10 MVP votes over the past decade.

[Kiddlovesnets]

Well no one is overrating him, he has been playing like prime Malone and KG lately. Impressive.

[Mr Clutch Melo]

Well no one is overrating him, he has been playing like prime Malone and KG lately. Impressive.

wow ,

[Disaprine]

Gasol is a top 10 player in the league and a top 3 bigman to, lets leave it at that people.

[Hagbard]

Gasol is a top 10 player in the league and a top 3 bigman to, lets leave it at that people.

Why?

Saying a guy is playing MVP ball isn't the same as saying he's the best player in the NBA. It's not necessarily overrating him. It's evaluating his on court performance.

That's what MVP talk is. A shorter-term look at who, among the game's best players, is producing the best, both statistically and for his team.

Right now, Gasol deserves consideration for those accolades. His team is the best in basketball, he's playing better than anybody else on that team by a fair margin, and he's already in the discussion of who the league's top group of players are.

He is what he is. And right now, that's the best player on the Lakers, and early season MVP. That's not overrating him...it's just rating him. Making him out to be less is ignoring what's going on in the big, bright, colorful world of reality.

[Disaprine]

Why?

Saying a guy is playing MVP ball isn't the same as saying he's the best player in the NBA. It's not necessarily overrating him. It's evaluating his on court performance.

That's what MVP talk is. A shorter-term look at who, among the game's best players, is producing the best, both statistically and for his team.

Right now, Gasol deserves consideration for those accolades. His team is the best in basketball, he's playing better than anybody else on that team by a fair margin, and he's already in the discussion of who the league's top group of players are.

He is what he is. And right now, that's the best player on the Lakers, and early season MVP. That's not overrating him...it's just rating him. Making him out to be less is ignoring what's going on in the big, bright, colorful world of reality.

I agree but iam mostly looking by the end of the season.

[chris2010]

Gasol is the best PF in the nba RIGHT NOW. But in Tim Duncans or Kevin Garnetts or maybe even Dirk Nowitzkis prime Gasol would not beat them. Im a lakers fan saying this.

[TheAnchorman]

At this point yes, Gasol is arguably the best bigman in basketball. Keep in mind he did not play for the Spanish basketball team this summer in the FIBA Championships like he usually would... he's extra rested and he probably worked on his game a lot this offseason. Those stats are easily prime KG/Duncan if you think about it... his FG% is high, he just had a recent triple double, rarer because he is a bigman, he is a god on my fantasy team, etc. Overall though he will probably pan out to top 3. But the excitement you see, is not knowing yet what will really happen.

[Qwertyazerty]

The point is that Gasol is not a player than can lead a team far in the playoffs as the first option, there is a reason he only made the playoffs once before he joined the Lakers.

You mean 3 times, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pau_Gasol

There are other things to be considered in his career as a grizzly.

He made the PO with Memphis in 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006 he was 24, 25 and 26 years old at that time.

2006 He is entering his prime years. The FIBA World Championship clearly shows he can lead a team to win important things.

In the 2006-2007 season, during the FIBA world championship, he broke his foot and missed quite a lot of games in which Memphis had an awful record. Then he clearly asked to be traded, was unhappy and gave up on effort (especially defending). Without all this circumstances who knows what could have happened.

So people should stop saying it is just because he became a Laker that he sudently started to be a great player. He was a great player before that move. Spain has been in every international turnaments finals since 2006 till this world championship when he wasn't there anymore...

But, all this is history and we are talking actually... actually he is playing great, is having a huge impact and is showing he can also be a clear first option in a team like the Lakers... I maybe biased he is one of my favorite players (Dirk and Duncan too btw)

[niko]

He took over Game 7 of the finals last year and is still playing at a sick high level coming into this year. I don't get how people look at him playing and think this is a good time to discuss how overrated he is. Really? NOW? That he is kicking ass completely?