- Kobe
- Bron
- Wade
- Melo
- KD
- Dwight
- TD
- Dirk
- Paul Pierce
- KG
- Derrick Rose
- Cp3
- DWill
- Amare
- Chris Bosh
(players are in no particular order)
Which of these players was Pau better than in 09 and 10?
One year in MEM Pau averaged 20 and 9.8 boards.....I'll give him the 20 and 10 for that year even tho it's a technicality.
You're right tho, Pau gets overrated cuz they wanna discredit Kobe. Thats the ONLY time people think about Kobe. I made this thread cuz of a long ass post
@murksiderock made in the Chris Bosh clutch thread about the best players in the pre-Heatles era. He mentioned like 18 guys and didn't bring up Pau once. It was interesting that in a thread that wasn't based on stan wars, he completely forgot Pau even existed.
Hahahahahahahahaha lmfao I rolled over laughing when I saw this thread cause I knew you made it in my honor hahaha...
Let's set the record straight first though: I don't acknowledge Pau to discredit Kobe. I think it's really odd that "Laker" fans have so much disdain for the guy who was the second best player on the roster those title years. I find the downplaying of Pau to be rooted in some agenda to make it look like Kobe won two chips with a skeleton crew------>Pau was a great player who deserves his due...
Has nothing to do with Kobe at all, but for the record, I do of course think playing with Kobe elevated Pau's career and helped him become a better player. So now you can kill the narrative that I'm trying to discredit Kobe...
Now to more pressing shyt:
When I was talking about the pre-Heatles era in the Bosh thread, I was talking about the prior five years of 2005-06 to 2009-10. I didn't specify it, but I maintain that Pau was a Top 15-ish player in that stretch. I have no issue if someone says he was closer to 20 than 15, because I'm not saying Pau was tearing up the NBA...
I'll give Bosh a slight edge over Pau. I already said Amare was a better player than Pau. Particularly concerning Bosh, I don't think there is a significant margin at all. Bosh played in the weaker conference for seven years pre-Miami and made the playoffs twice; Pau played in the tougher conference for 6½ years pre-LA and led his team to the playoffs three times in a row. Don't tell me Bosh was some significantly better player. Neither of these dudes were lighting The League up and the revisionist shyt is strong on both counts here, particularly with Bosh,
who was never a consensus Top 10 player. He was Karl-Anthony Towns; Pau was Nikola Vucevic. The separation between these nikkas was never great, and that's how this whole convo started, way back when someone praised Bosh like he was some A level player and in the same post, trashed Pau like he was from the G League...
To your main point, a)you're right, I initially did forget about Pau in my list. It's easy to forget about him because he was a #2 in LA, but that was an oversight; b)....
•I'm rejecting that Derrick Rose was a better player than Pau after two years in the NBA. He was on the ascent and by Year 3 I'll concede that, but as of his sophomore year, Pau was much more seasoned and complete as a player...
•you can make an argument with Deron Williams, but I don't think it's clear either way. The Jazz and Lakers met three straight years in the West playoffs from '08 to '10, and judging them individually, they played pretty evenly. Only difference is DWill was a #1 on his team, but he's another guy whose always been a little overrated, whereas Pau was underrated...
•these other cats like David Lee and Zach Randolph were not on Pau's level and everybody knows it. 2005-2010 Pau was shooting .534 from the floor averaging 19.4/9.6. Same time period David Lee was mostly a role player averaging 13 points, and Randolph's numbers were there (20 & 10) in that period but with no real impact, he wasn't an impact player. It's a different argument when you start talking about Bo in his Memphis years, but in this stretch, nobody thought he was a better player than Pau...
I maintain Pau was Top 15-ish, and no lower than a Top 20 player...
pau was the best passing big man in the game.
I ain't even gonna entertain this