it would be almost impossible to build a championship team around gasol. as for dirk, well, he carried his team to the finals. dirk's reputation of choking in the clutch is just that, a reputation. it doesn't reflect reality though. he has consistently performed better in the postseason than in the regular season. the one exception was against golden state when for some reason the 67 win mavs decided to change their lineup and play to match up with the 8th seeded warriors who really were just a horrible matchup for dirk. where was dirk choking when he was carrying the mavs to the finals? forcing overtime and dropping 37 against the spurs in game 7 was choking? look at dirk's history in the 7th game of playoff series. in 02-03 against portland, he dropped 31 and 11 in a win. that same year against the kings, 30 and 19 in another win. in 04-05 against the rockets, 14 and 14 in their 40 point blowout win. and then the 37 and 15 night against the spurs i've already mentioned.
Already been stated, pretty much, but Dirk is the guy you could start a franchise around and Pau is probably the better player to match with a high-scoring, high volume shooting guard (because he gets more "chippier"/cheap baskets as he's a better offensive rebounder and plays closer to the basket). Dirk had a good run as the franchise guy for Dallas. Got ref-gated out of a title and then got outcoached in the first round even though they were the #1 seed. I think Dallas wins that year if they by GS... Their window is closed now and Dirk will soon be on the downside but two years of serious title contention is not too bad.
no, not really. you've got dirk playing essentially by himself(oh and with chris kaman) for germany. while pau gasol plays with several nba(or at one time nba) players. and i'm supposed to be impressed that pau's team does better? and like i said, their national teams have nothing to do with the nba.
Pau's endless array of shots in the post is incredible for the Lakers, I'm glad he's able to play the 4 or 5 so effectively for us. Dirk's no scrub so saying Pau is better than him is quite difficult, but Pau's almost the perfect big man for LA though. Had Drew gotten injured earlier Pau might be receiving much more praise, his output since Drew's absence is outstanding.
Why would you discount the World Championship Spain won? They were very competitive against the past Dream Team as well. I think it's a valid example of being able to build a team around Gasol even by NBA standards. BengalDuck's point about pairing Gasol with a high volume/high scoring shooting guard would be a requirment and high volume rebounding PF or C would also be necessary.
well, when i said it was almost impossible to build a championship team around gasol while dirk carried his team to the finals, i thought it was pretty clear that i was discussing the nba. bringing up something unrelated really isn't a valid example of being able to do so in the nba. how can you really compare the 9 games that spain played to win the world championship with a single elimination knockout stage played under international rules to winning an nba championship? especially when you consider it was basically a 3 team tournament with the US, spain, and argentina having considerably more talent than all the other teams(well other than greece, but they definitely still were a step behind those 3 in talent).
Dirk's not in his prime, I know he's better in the playoffs than people give him credit for, but I'm not sure that is completely relevant anymore.
Gasol has had success with the Spanish team for a few years now. I'm not making a comparison, I was simply pointing out you can build a championship caliber team around based on the success he's had with the Spanish team. I think the sample size is large enough to draw the conclusion you can build an NBA championship around Gasol. He'd have to be surrounded by the right role players, but you could say that about any franchise player.
you can build a championship caliber team for international competitions. i'm still trying to figure out what that has to do with my statement. gasol isn't a franchise player. dirk was and probably still is one though it's questionable whether he currently is one or not. yeah, if you replaced sheed with gasol on the pistons championship team, they still win the championship. but that's not building a championship around gasol.
