NBA Rumors: Why We Shouldn’t Believe Jim Buss About Pau Gasol’s Future

About week and a half ago, T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times wrote an interesting piece about the future of the Los Angeles Lakers, and some comments by Executive VP Jim Buss stood out.  With the team in dire need of a point guard and fans calling for Pau Gasol to be traded for one or more effective players, Buss insisted that the Spanish seven-footer would remain a Laker and that any changes made would involve Pau "moving lower to the basket."

Sorry, Mr. Buss, but you could not be more wrong. 

Nothing against Gasol, but the two years and $38 million remaining on his contract are salary cap cancer.  More importantly, moving Gasol "lower to the basket," as Buss said, is like having Isiah Thomas run a team-building and trust seminar.  It doesn't really work!

Personally, I think Gasol is one of the most fun players in the NBA to watch do his thing.  He has a great jump shot for a seven-footer and drives to the basket fairly well despite being primarily a perimeter player.  Therein lies the error in Buss's statement.

Yes, Gasol is a good player, but he comes from a European style of basketball that calls for the power forward to remain on the wing and only go to the basket when absolutely necessary.  Though it occasionally comes out in a positive light, defense isn't his strong suit and never has been.  For his entire career, he has been used to being a scorer with average defense.



I understand that he's averaged a double-double the past three years and is an alright shot blocker, but look at Amar'e Stoudemire of the New York Knicks.  He's a very similar player in that he's a big power forward who scores points and gets rebounds when they come to him.

However, there is one more giant piece of evidence against Buss's statements about Gasol.  Yesterday, according to Chad Ford and Marc Stein of ESPN, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak was shopping Gasol a...