When Pau Gasol was first traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, everyone, including myself, was filled with joy. We now had a big man that could play big, could create his own shot with his repatoir of moves in the post, and could collect rebounds.

Pau Gasol has been great for the Lakers….on the offensive side, and to further that, when he plays against a physical defender, he cant even really do that much. His numbers in this years playoffs have been somewhat decieving. Besides his first game against the Denver Nuggets and his 18 point 10 rebound performance in one game against Utah, he has seemingly not done much in these playoffs. He isnt even converting on his freethrows, which was one of the key components to his game. But enough about offense, compared to most centers in the leauge, Pau’s offense is exceptional and I am not one to complain.

The real problem is Pau Gasol’s defense, or lack there of. Sure Andrew Bynum didnt have the offensive one on one skills that Gasol has, but he made up for that with his superb defense. If you have been watching Gasol this playoff season, you have seen some of the worst defense ever. He doesnt rotate, box out to get rebounds, and by the time he makes it to the other end of the floor the other team has already scored. Ever heard of transition defense Pau? Apparently not.

You might ask yourslef, “Well, why is one person so important? There are still 4 other guys who play good defense…” To answer that, the Lakers play a “help-style” defense. When they guard their man, they are set up so that they are below the plane and in between their man and the man dribbling the ball. This works because if you get beaten off the dribble, you will have someone “ROTATING” over and “HELPING” you out.

Pau Gasol is extremely late on his rotation’s simply because he is lazy. So what is happening? The other offensive man is getting a wide open layup, and if he misses, an offensive rebound occurs because Pau is late coming to the box.

Simply put, the Lakers can score with the best of them…but defense wins championships. The Lakers will only go as far as their defense goes, and right now, the defense is dependent upon Pau Gasol’s willingness to work hard and move his feet.

After Lakers General Manager finally pulled off that trade everyone was waiting for during the summer, plenty of Lakers fans are quite excited. But what are they excited about? They’ve heard of this guy named Pau Gasol. He played for the Memphis Grizzlies for a few years, played for Spain in the World Championships, and has a younger brother named Marc that we traded for him.

Interesting information, perhaps its time to actually look into some important facts about why this bearded man will make the Lakers a serious contender in the NBA for years to come.

Pau Gasol is an extremely versatile 7′0″ 260 lb forward/center. He is quick and agile and able to dribble through defense. Think Dirk Nowitzki with a bit less range. Pau doesn’t launch up many threes but you will see it time to time if he’s left wide open. He’s a career 23% 3-point shooter and has only taken 15 this season. The good part about this stat is the Lakers really don’t need him shooting any threes!

When it comes to two pointers, he is quite better. Pau is a career 51% shooter, 50.9% to be exact. He’s at 50.1% this season after a mighty 53.8% last season, but you have to take into account that he only played 59 games last year and was thus healthier and less tired for the games he did play. Anything over 50% is quite impressive either way you look at it though.

The second most important stat behind shooting percentage and points seems to be rebounding. He is a solid rebounder but with the likes of Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum banging inside with him, we don’t really need him rebounding all that bad. He averages 8.6 rebounds for his career and 8.8 so far this season after 9.8 last season. Another interesting number is his great team play. Pau Gasol will fit in well with the triangle offense due to his size and great court vision. He has a superior basketball IQ and knows how to get out of a tough situation. He is a tall player that will have the ability to pass out to Kobe and Bynum and even an open three point shooter like Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, or Sasha Radmanovic. The twin towers effect of Bynum and Pau will be a really tough match-up for most teams because, bottom line is, 7′0″ players are rare, especially ones that can move. We now have two that are capable of great things.

This season thus far Pau has averaged 36.8 minutes a game over the 39 that he has played so far. He’s had back issues and sat out a few games for Memphis Grizzlies, but with Gary Vitti on his case, together with the rest of the Lakers training staff (the best in the world) Pau is sure to be alright.

Another part of Gasol’s game that has drastically improved as of late is his free throw shooting. His career average at the line is only 73% (not that bad for a 7′0″) but thats due to his low stats early in his career. This season he has averaged a cool 81.9% from the line, a 7% increase from last year. The good thing is that Pau averaged 4.5-5.5 free throws per game, which translated to about four extra points a game.

A few more averages this season: 3.0 assists, 2.4 offensive rebounds, 0.4 steals, 1.4 blocks, 2.1 turnovers, and 2.2 personal fouls.

I’m looking forward to see what kind of effect Pau really has on this Lakers team. They have some great pieces in place to beat some great teams, in fact, they can beat any team. Any defense will be forced to double team Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum (if he returns in the same game shape he was in before the injury), and now even Pau Gasol requires a double team. There will have to be an open guy at some point on every offensive set no matter how you look at it.

Game one for Pau Gasol comes in New Jersey tomorrow night and I look forward to seeing what his presence on the court means and how fast he is going to be able to pick up the offense. Will he start immediately? Today is his big chance to learn the triangle offense as well as the Lakers defense. but Brian Shaw has apparently jumped on as the teacher.