Call me crazy then. I stand by my words. Let’s get to the main source of your issue with my post: Dwight is coming for your boy Gasol’s minutes and there’s nothing neither one of you can do about it. No amount of trolling anyone that says anything positive about someone that plays the same position as Marc is gonna change that.
ok. your contention is that a journeyman vet min center would have replaced AD and pushed us over against a team that murdered us after AD's injury and then won two more rounds in the playoffs. my contention is that's insane.
funny this is coming up, i just saw a story on YouTube on Magic hey day....supposedly he had 2-3 before practice, a few more after practice and then an 5+ after games and this was every yr during the 80s...every city they visited to not just La, est was low 5k/yr high end 6-8k/yr
Again, call me insane then. Not pushing off my position based on your biased and unrealistic Marc Gasol opinions. Sorry.
Marc's been a better than average defender his whole career and especially playing along with a team concept. The reality now and last season is he cannot move laterally at all. No one's afraid to go to the bucket when he's under there cuz he can't jump more then 2" lol. I love Marc but let's keep it real he shouldn't even really be on this roster much beyond playing spot minutes for match up/situational reasons. He's a liability at this point
Marc is certainly not the defensive presence he was 5-10 years ago. But, the metrics don't really indicate he is as washed as some claim. So, it's a tug of war, not just between @abeer3 and @CarolinaLakerFan, but between the eye test and the actual on court production.He certainly does look slow out there. But he is smart and knows how to position himself to minimize the need to move fast. Where I'm at: I think Marc still has a role on the team when we play the few teams with true bigs. He can help with Jokic for instance. But, he does and will struggle with younger, quicker, more athletic 5s like he did with Ayton. But that's where AD and Dwight will shine. I also don't think Rob will hesitate to move Marc at the deadline if the opportunity to get better presents itself and Marc's contract can help that happen.
well, yes, there are facts and there are eyes. marc is slow. i never said he wasn't. i said this didn't matter. also, howard is slow, too. it's why we couldn't play him against certain teams in during the title run. anyway, this is about how howard is good enough to replace anthony davis. not about marc gasol being as or more valuable than howard, which he certainly was last year.
Personally I could have done without Marc last year or at all and would have taken Dwight back in a heartbeat. If Marc's slow than Howard is a rocket ship. His feet move laterally much better and he's quick off the floor. Howard intimidates guys going to the basket and he carries a toughness which plays a major role in some guys not even attempting to attack the rim. Blocks shots and rebounds. He's athletic, Marc is not but Marc is a cerebral player where Howard can't think the game the same way. Marc's great in the high post and a threat to shoot that other teams have to respect but with father time taking his toll Marc is becoming much less of a factor than Dwighr at this point. Again I have always liked Marc's game, and I'm not saying he wasn't a great player at one point in time. He just hasn't been that for us, at least I didn't see it last year like you did. As always I respect your opinion even if I don't agree.
the coaching staff (and all coaching staffs) disagree with your assessment of howard's lateral footspeed (he can still run in a straight line and jump, but that's it). the fact is, the team played as well or better with marc at center last year than they did with howard at center the year before. i know it's hard for folks to handle, psychologically, but it is a simple fact supported by data. we felt we had to bench marc in the playoffs, just like we felt we had to bench howard during chunks of the playoffs. had we played denver last year, i'm sure marc would have played more. i'm also going to argue that howard actually DOES think the game well (especially on defense), and it's why he's still a good/useful player even after his athleticism has left him. both marc and dwight were great players...a while ago. they're both very well-suited to playing useful 15-20mpg roles on our team, and having both is better than having one. i'm thrilled dwight's back! he'll be a good backup for marc. i'm pushing back against the idea that howard being here last year would have changed a damn thing. hell, he'd have been benched for drummond's useless a**, too!
The "data" can be argued easily enough because where no one is afraid to go to the bucket against Marc they are against Howard. The stats won't show that because there are fewer attempts by players to drive to the basket with Howard camped out there which isn't a recordable stat. I'd also like to see the "data" regarding Howard's lateral.movement vs Marc because by the eye test it's no contest just sayin..
I think he mentioned that in his introductory presser. One thing’s for sure, no way could I carry off that suit.
Not sure I would have pegged Dwight as the ultimate cheerleader teammate, but he definitely has changed