Post by Rog on Oct 30, 2016 0:19:42 GMT
The 55th nominee and first of the 2016 class, Pau Gasol, was a fantastic offensive post player who came into the league with huge expectations and might have disappointed some people. Was he good enough to not only overcome the bust label but also be enshrined as a legend? Here are the facts, you decide.
Career Stats
30.6 MPG, 16.3 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.8 BPG, 0.5 SPG, 2.2 TOPG on 44.7% from the field, 73.2% from the line, and 28.6$ from three
Best Season
Cavaliers(2006) - 22.2 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.6 BPG, 0.7 SPG, 2.6 TOPG on 46.7% from the field, 78.2% from the line
Career Highs
Points: 39
Rebounds: 23
Assists: 12
Steals: 4
Blocks: 8
Achievements
Championships: 2
Player of the Game: 107
Player of the Week: 0
Player of the Month: 0
Double Doubles: 499
Triple Doubles: 6
Awards
2001 - All-Star Rookie Game Participant
2001 - All-Rookie Second Team
2003 - All-Star Game Participant
2004 - All-Star Game Participant
2005 - All-Star Game Participant
Argument for Induction
- Played in three All-Star games in his career, three years in a row as well.
- Was an offensive force for a good period of time. Bigs in FBB don't normally do 20 points a game, and Pau hit that mark a couple of years. Even his career 16 a game number is a good. For ten years you could count on 18 points a game from Pau, and at near 45% clip from the field and 75% from the line.
- Was also a good rebounder, even if he wasn't great. During that 10 year prime he was pretty much always over 10 rebounds a game.
- Great, great passer. He averaged 3.4 a game on his career, to go with 2.2 turnovers. In his better years he did 4.5 on 2.5 turnovers, always consistently under 2.5 turnovers even with a few years just below three. It was a luxury to have Pau at center that he could create offensive out of the post as well.
- Solid defender, carried a B+ or better rating most of his career, and averaged close to 3 stocks game most of his prime career, nothing special but enough to not hurt you.
- Pau won two titles as a starter on great Net teams and overall was just a guy you knew you could plug in at the PF position and basically not worry about the position. Being the number 1 pick with huge expectations shouldn't take away from the fact that he was actually a pretty damn good player.
Argument Against
- As always, not enough awards, period.
- Not really a great scorer, sure its near great for a big but he wasn't elite for long enough to be considered a strong case for Hall of Fame when the other stuff is not really all that great.
- Average rebounder, can't really even call it good as he wasn't even consistent for 10 a game or better.
- Not a good defender. Kind of had pitiful stocks and his ratings weren't good enough to indicate that he was an elite on ball defender in any way, though any talk of his defense is hard because we don't know the exact number.
- Overall he was a solid scorer, great passer, mediocre defender and rebounder, what case does he have? THe fact he was a contributor on title teams where he probably was the 4th best player? That he was a good scorer? That he could get assists which is relatively useless in FBB? I mean what is there?
Vote carefully, and remember to throw out arguments regardless of which side you're on. This should be a discussion that eventually gets the league to the proper decision on him. Your vote can also be retracted after it's been cast if you feel like switching to the other side based on the arguments that have been made. To be inducted, a player needs 70% and to be considered in a later class they need 50%. Vote carefully!
***BONUS - Don't forget that everyone who votes gets $25 and the person that makes the best argument or contributes to the discussion the best will be awarded an extra $25**
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