Commercial Appeal Pau Gasol remained in one piece when the game ended. Whew! The 7-foot Spaniard was supposedly too fragile. He can't play center, right? Yet, after banging bodies with the Miami Heat's Shaquille O'Neal last Friday during the Grizzlies' exhibition win at Puerto Rico, Gasol not only survived the significant span but he seemed better for the wear. "It's cool," he said. "It was good. Of course, it's different. But it's something I'm ready to do." Of course, Gasol won't give away 50 pounds and violent dunks each time he steps into the center position. The Griz, though, plan to employ and flourish with a smaller, unconventional lineup by occasionally turning Gasol into an anchor. Just add three swingmen and one of their diminutive point guards, and you have the recipe for a tempo-changing lineup that Fratello won't hesitate to use. The Grizzlies changed their roster during the offseason with versatility in mind. That means Fratello, lacking enough power players, will look to play small ball on occasion. "If you have an inflexible roster, then when teams with good small players go small on you, you can't match up. You have problems," Fratello said. "So you have to put a roster together where you can take a Shane (Battier) and put him at the four and put a Dahntay (Jones) at the three, and make it come down to 'Are your smalls good enough to beat their smalls?' I like our roster from that standpoint. We can play that way if we want to." Battier, Gasol, Eddie Jones, Mike Miller and Bobby Jackson -- with either rookie Hakim Warrick or Brian Cardinal factoring in -- could easily develop into the team's gritty group. Miller, Eddie Jones and Jackson have the ability to race up and down the court, effectively drive the lane or pull up for 3-pointers -- all while forcing the action in transition. Source
Depending on the opposition C, Gasol can play that position but in the West and in entirety he shouldn't be playing C. PF is the best position for him and while he may do fairly well at first playing the five it will eventually wear him out and will eventually struggle to hold his own playing that position.
I think Gasol is capable of playing Center, I always thought he did play center though because of his size and now his amazingly intimidating facial hair. Gasol is a good player infact great but who's gonna take his minutes at the 4, with Stro gone the only one that I know that can play 4 is Warrick and I thought they wanted him as a SF.
If memphis has to depend on Gasol playing center every night, he is going to get abused...plain and simple...he's barely tough enough to handle post play at the 4 spot, I just dont see him being a successful center...
