Lakers: 3 Moves That Pushed Pau Gasol Out of L.A.
By Scott Asai
Tonight when the Lakers face the Chicago Bulls, it’s a homecoming for Pau Gasol.
Pau was selected to be an All-Star Starter for the Eastern Conference in a couple of weeks. All the talk of him being too old, washed up or soft quickly diminished once joining the Bulls.
Gasol’s final years as a Laker were bittersweet. Gasol loved L.A. and L.A. loved Gasol. There were many reasons why Pau declined the Lakers off-season offer of more money to leave for a better chance to win a championship, but here are the three main ones that happened in succession:
1) Vetoed CP3 Trade – In the summer of 2011, the Lakers acquired Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets for Gasol and Lamar Odom. David Stern, then NBA commissioner and temporary owner of the Hornets, vetoed the trade for basketball reasons. Odom never recovered, was traded twice then retired. Gasol handled the situation as professionally as possible, still wanting to be a Laker, but never fully recovering from the failed trade. Feelings could have been patched up by management, but the next two moves made it much worse.
2) Hiring Mike Brown – In a surprise hire of Brown over Brian Shaw, Gasol began to become marginalized. Andrew Bynum was thrust into the second option behind Kobe Bryant and although Bynum did have his best statistical season, it was at Gasol’s expense. Brown never ran an offensive system even when he was in Cleveland with LeBron James, so as the Lakers coach, he was a pushover when it came to implementation and accountability. Pau has always been a willing passer, but this demotion started the trend of pushing Gasol further away from the basket and de-valuing his offensive skills.
3) Hiring Mike D’Antoni – Jim Buss could have put the Lakers back on track after firing Brown five games into the 2012 season by bringing back Phil Jackson, but decided to go another route and hired Mike D’Antoni. After trading for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard in the off-season, Buss chose to cater to Nash, a 39 year-old veteran, which ignited the destruction of the purple and gold. D’Antoni didn’t value big men and in his second game as Head Coach he responded to the question in a post-game interview,
“Why didn’t you play Pau in the 4th quarter?” – Lakers reporter
“I was trying to win the game.” – Mike D’Antoni
That season was the beginning of the end as Pau started shooting more mid-range shots and 3-pointers. Even after Dwight bolted for the Houston Rockets in 2013 and they acquired Chris Kaman to pair with Pau and Jordan Hill, all three found themselves usually on the bench in favor of smaller lineups.
There were spots where Gasol returned to his dominant self under D’Antoni, but it was usually in spurts when other players were injured and they went to Gasol by default. By the time D’Antoni resigned in April of 2014, the damage had been done. In a series of poor moves by the Lakers, no amount of money could repair the hurt Pau experienced. It was time for a change for both parties.
The Lakers are fighting for a top 5 draft pick and the Chicago Bulls are contending for a championship. Gasol has returned to All-Star level and he’s providing leadership to an already deep team. Tonight the Lakers will honor Gasol with a tribute which is much deserved. Lakers fans get a chance to show their appreciation for a man who was both pivotal in the 2009 and 2010 Championships and the L.A. community.
If only Lakers management would have valued Gasol more while he was here by hiring coaches who understood his talents we wouldn’t be in this place. Unfortunately, they didn’t.