He has no offensive skills, will be out of shape for a big chunk of the year and not play in other parts of the year. He will also probably be inconsistent. And not Derrick Rose inconsistent, like Rose having a bad game tonight of being 14 points on 7-16 shooting. His bad games will be him basically doing nothing on the court. He's just not on par with some of these other players, and has a long way to go to catch up to them.
I love how you talk about Rose like he's some established superstar. Oden in his prime >>> Rose in his prime. Book it.
Let the Oden doubters have their say. The next few weeks might be the last chance they ever get. Ed O.
I wouldn't be surprised if Gasol was a contender for ROY. He plays on a bad team, which means there will be opportunities to score. His backup is Darko, so Gasol will get as much run as he can. He won't put up huge numbers, but if its close to a double double then he'll definitely be a top five rookie of the year. At that point it often comes down to health. If Beasley or Mayo or Rose or Oden miss considerable time, hit the rookie wall, or just plain struggle, then Gasol may be a surprise. Like Rudy, he has professional seasoning and seems to hit his free throws.
Yeah, I was Jason Thompson skeptic, until I've watched him play a couple games. He's has a lot more fluidity to his game than from what I first saw against Portland in the preseason. Hawes on the other hand is starting to get 3 point range which is a scary though because he has some of the best post moves of a 7 footer in the league. Kings future looks bright with those two and Martin, they just need more capable scorers right now.
I agree that he probably won't be in the running for R.O.Y. but you have clearly not watched him play, the guy is amazingly poised and smart for a 19 year old. His passing is very crisp, his perimeter D, already, is well above the league average, and he's smoother than glass on the break, the only question mark is how good of a jump shooter he'll be.
I watched the highlights from that game, Gasol looked pretty darn good for a center going against that mighty Golden State front line.....
ROY is a stats award. It almost always goes to the player with the gaudiest stats. Unlike MVP, playing on a winning team doesn't really factor into ROY voting. In fact, playing on a bad team usually helps, as it means more PT and a greater role (more shots) for the rookies on that team. Yes, it's only 3 or 4 games into the season, and yes, it was only against Golden State, but Gasol's EFF = 38 game was HUGE statically. Not only did he put up 27/16, he also had 3 BLKs and shot 9-11 from both the field and the line. At the end of the season, when the ROY voting happens, the voters won't remember that Gasol's huge game was against a weak Golden State front line, they will simply look as his statistical averages and vote accordingly. Right now, Gasol leads all rookies with an EFF = 19.0, followed by Jason Thompson at EFF = 18.0. Rudy is currently 6th among rookies at EFF = 14.0. For comparison, Brandon Roy ran away with ROY in 2006-07 with an EFF = 16.51. No single stat accurately predicts ROY. EFF comes close, but is trumped by a gaudy scoring average. Last year, Al Horford lead all rookies with EFF = 16.51, but Kevin Durant won ROY with an EFF = 15.61. The difference was Durant scored over twice as much as Horford (20.3 PPG vs. 10.1 PPG). Horford wasn't even in the top five in PPG among last year's rookies, but still came in second in ROY voting due to his strong production in other areas. So, it's still way early, but right now Marc Gasol is definitely in the running for ROY. As he won't likely lead all rookies in scoring. So, he will need to at least average double figures in scoring, put up good stats in other areas, and hope nobody else averages > 5 PPG more than he does to have a chane at winning ROY. But, if he continues to put up solid numbers night in and night out (currently 13.0 PPG, 10.2 RPG and 1.75 BPG with 0.541 FG%), there's no reason to think he won't be a legitimate ROY candidate. BNM
Since the olympics i thought that Marc Gasol was probably going to end up being the best player from that LA/Memphis trade. He is only going to get better and is underrated. I don't think he will win ROY, but if he keeps this up then he will be in the top 5 by the end of the year since ROY is about stats.... he looks good though. I like Memphis so i'm happy.
Agreed. He hasn't been hitting his shots but his form looks good. Once he starts hitting them, he may be our starting SF from here on out. Not sure what that means for Martell.
With this year's rookie class, he's a long shot - a VERY long shot, to make 2nd team all-rookie. That assumes he continues to get significant minutes after Webster comes back - which is far from a given. BNM
I think Marc Gasol will be in the ROY race all year. You could see in the Olympics while watching Rudy that he would be a good player in the league. He's not afraid of contact and he has good hands and a soft touch. As for Rice, he says alot of outlandish things...that's why I love him and miss him on the radio. I miss all those times that he and Steve Jones would go at each other on Courtside Monday Night.
