Pau Gasol Moved to the Bench Permanently By Mike D’Antoni

Unable to figure out how to effectively and simultaneously use both Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol in his system, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni demoted Gasol to the bench.

The result was the same last night in Chicago, as the Bulls handed the Lakers their third consecutive loss.

When asked about the move prior to the game, Pau Gasol said he disagreed with it, and admitted that his time in Los Angeles may soon be coming to an end. Following the loss, Gasol walked back some of his anger (after posting 15 points and 12 boards), and said the Lakers have much bigger concerns than just his reduced role.

Per the OC Register:

Pau Gasol is being removed as Lakers’ starting power forward in favor of Earl Clark, and not on a temporary basis, D’Antoni said before the 17-23 Lakers played in Chicago on Monday night. “We just have to do that,” D’Antoni said. Said Gasol after he didn’t start and the Lakers dropped to 17-24: “I’m not excited about it. … But right now I’m more worried about us as a team and us struggling, and it’d be selfish of me to talk about something I feel in particular.”

“We’re better when we’re small,” said D’Antoni, whose system is based in having four players on the perimeter and only one center in the post. [...] D’Antoni is determined now to stick with his style of small ball, saying: “You can’t keep going back and forth and guessing.” He already spoke to Gasol about the move and said about that conversation: “That’s life. He understands. You have to have an identity,” D’Antoni said. “And you have to create an identity.”

With the February 21 trade deadline looming, the Lakers will have a tough time moving Gasol — he’s the 9th highest paid player in the NBA this season (at $19 million), and the team isn’t interested in taking on any more long-term salaries.

The nightmare in Lakerland continues.

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Tags: Dwight Howard, Los Angeles Lakers, Mike D'Antoni, Pau Gasol

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pippenainteasy

This is the season that tests whether you’re a bandwagoner or a true fan of this LA franchise.
Max

Totally what a bandwagoner would say.
Junkie

D’antoni has never been able to utilize a lineup with two bigs. It happened with STAT and Shaq in Phoenix and again in New York with STAT and Tyson. Now it’s happening again with Dwight and Pau.
Niio

Wow such a waste, I love Pau’s game I hope he ends up somewhere he’s appreciated
spit hot fiyah

might as well shoot the little confidence that pau has left with a shotgun
DA_Artist

Pau is the best IQ big man in the league so far. He’s underrated for his coach. He deserve to play in a better team, where the people around him could apreciate what he does best: Play Basketball in a power forward-center posicion.
pposse

why would you want to play small ball when you have two legit bigs, kobe, and metta world peace?? All of those guys are considered ‘big’ at their position and yet the offensive ‘genius’ D’antoni wants to play small ball?! This guy is completely out of his mind. And the capper, you want to start Earl Clark over Antwan Jamison?! D’Antoni is beyond horrid as a coach.

Before the Lakers just sucked all around on defense, now if you guys have noticed they only scored 90 against the Heat and 83 against the Bulls. Dwight Howard shot like what, 5 shots??! This team sucks right now..that’s the coaches fault.
gusisit

earl clarks playing better, play him
Guest

Stating the obvious, but this is REALLY not going to end well……
Guest

I mean, I get that you have a SYSTEM, but surely if you don’t have the right players for it, you have to adjust. You can’t play run and gun if you have one of the slowest team in the League
http://twitter.com/apowellAdvocate Allen Powell II

They need to sit Dwight and let his shoulder get right and start Pau at center. He would be fine in that role, but he can’t be Shawn Marion in D’Antoni’s system.
http://twitter.com/apowellAdvocate Allen Powell II

Actually, Stat and Shaq put up outstanding numbers, particularly Amare, under D’Antoni for the one season they were together under him. The next year they did fine as well, but Nash struggled because D’Antoni left and Terry Porter played slower.
Max

Earl Clark has played better than Antawn, but yeah this team sucks.
Junkie

That’s true, I remember all the records Shaq was breaking when he was in Phoenix too. But watching them it seemed like they never synergized well, a lot of people will say that it’s because of STAT’s inability to mesh with another post big (even in NY), but history is repeating itself with Gasol and Dwight
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

He’s doing really well off the bench at least, but yeah. LA needs to put him out of his misery. He’s a very important piece that’s been treated like sh*t by management.
ByAnyMeansNecessary

I still don’t understand why they would bring in a coach that doesn’t fit the roster they have. Jim Buss, Jerry Buss, whoever made the decision to go with D’Antoni. Bad move. A team that has Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol will most likely not be in the playoffs and if they are, they’ll be done in Round 1. There’s not a reason why a healthy Pau Gasol should come off the bench and I’m glad he’s speaking up and letting it be known that he doesn’t like it and won’t like it. He knows he’s still capable of producing All-Star numbers. Makes absolutely no sense at all. Why is Dwight Howard shooting the ball 5 times in a game he plays 30 minutes in? Common sense should have said after Dwight was acquired that you go out and find a coach with a system that fits he and Gasol along with Kobe and Nash. This isn’t on Kobe. It’s not even really on D’Antoni. It’s on the man or men who hired him.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

Yeah, really. Everyone seems to be on completely different wavelengths. Kobe and Pau prefer the slower, post-em-up style (with Kobe expressing optimism at using Pau more in the post), while D’Antoni and Nash prefer extreme ball movement and a faster pace. And that’s fine and all, but the Lakers aren’t beating any team down the floor after a bucket outside of maybe the Celtics. This is just a wierd mesh of talent and coaching.
Redd

I agree, D’Antoni was a bad hire, I feel Phil would have been too.
pposse

Earl Clark probably has been playing better than Antwan, but my whole thing is that the last thing you want are two veterans on the bench vying for the same minutes.

everything that is happening down there is counterproductive. For example, Steve Nash..he’s cool and knows D’Antoni’s ‘system’ but why base an offense around a guy that makes 6 million in the season, who is 39 yrs old, when you have Kobe (a guy you paying near 25 million if not more to) and another guy in Dwight Howard whom you are hoping to sign and stay in LA for the long run. From an executive standpt none of this makes sense. From a coaching standpoint, D’Antoni should realize that Nash is old, I feel like Nash has been making careless turnovers, and Dwight is still only shooting 5 times a game?! i
http://www.facebook.com/Brill86 Andrew Woods

If this was Lebron, he would be getting killed regardless if the coach, players, and chemistry were in disarray. If the Lakers don’t make the playoffs heads will roll. too bad kobe’s ‘no trade’ clause ensures that his head wont be one of them
Redd

Earl Clark is doing well, but he always showed good potential since Orlando. But yeah Pau’s time is coming to an end, no way he stays there for much longer. His talent is being under appreciated.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

Yeah. That’s two bad personnel moves in a row in terms of hiring Brown and then D’Antoni. The Mike Brown hiring sucked, but this one is looking even worse because MD is adjusting to his players worse than Brown did.

I still think the best option would have been hiring Shaw in 2011 to ensure continuity, but the execs wanted to completely eradicate the team of Phil’s influence. Not sure why you would want to crush a system that worked so well, but this is the result (well, and aging).
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

they had the best offense in the league, and the best winning % in the league with Shaq and Amar’e, under D’Antoni. They just ran into San Antonio in the playoffs.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

I’ve always found the Lakers have more success when Pau is the focal point in the post. He’s an excellent passer, and he’s still very good from down low as his time in the Olympics and in recent games have shown. For whatever reason, coaches outside of PJax want to relegate him to a sparingly used option on the floor.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

D’Antoni’s lack of flexibility is really really disappointing. Pau’s complete lack of a pulse is even more disappointing. I know he should be starting. I know he should be getting more minutes. But it doesn’t help his case at all, when it looks like the basketball court is the last place on earth Gasol wants to be at.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

This team should be built for being in the post. 3 out of 5 starters are above average in the post, and one is average (MWP). They should be slowing it down every position, and working off the post if possible. It slows the game down, limits possessions for the other team, saves their legs, and allows the Lakers to use their size advantage.

I think I’ve seen Kobe in the post like once per game this year, whereas with PJ you’d always see him catch the ball at the elbow, ready to back his player down. Just genuinely confused why D’Antoni really believes this team can play a fast paced game.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

#teamBickerstaff
shockexchange

What did the Gimp do this time? They beat on this boy like a rented mule.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

Watching him lately, I’ve been shocked at the amount of times Nash has just lost his handle and turned the ball over, or passed it no one in particular and lost possesion. Also, he has been getting abused by PGs like Calderon and Hinrich, so there’s that.
shockexchange

They can abuse Pau because they know he’ll take it. They won’t do anything to upset D12 because he hasn’t re-signed. He sorta has the Lakers “a lil bit pregnant.”
jack

support Pau Gasol . think he should play inside lane . and do positional warfare also best wish Kobe . fans from china .email 1957184545@qq.com
aceson

Why would Phil have been bad, because of Nash?
bike

Just today, I read a comment by Kobe where he thinks LA should probably slow it down and play out of the post more. I see a major, major clash emerging between Kobe and Mike D.; adding yet another nail in the coffin. If this team does not make the playoffs, it should go down as one of the strangest things to ever occur in an nba season.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

How come? Phil played a more slow it down style, which is what I preferred for this team. Nash would have likely been underutilized however.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

Yeah, this is what I was reffering to in my earlier post on this topic. When speaking to the media, it is clear that Kobe and Pau prefer running it through the post – Kobe loves when Pau gets touches. Nash and D’Antoni really emphasize ball movement and not sticking it in one spot.

Trouble brewin.
pposse

This is the main reason i thought that PJAx would have been great for this team. Dwight Howard may be above average in the post, but there is a lot more that he can improve on, it just seems to be the next logical step for him individually for him to continue progressing. The triangle and PJax’s staff would have been the best thing to happen to DH, instead they choose to relegate him to pick and rolls.

When your team is bigger and have outstanding talent, the team should win almost all of their games. I know football is different, but look what happened when Bama played Notre Dame in the championship; they murked them, the Bama team was too big, too strong too good for them. Those same principles/ foundations translate to bball and every day life for that matter!
patrick

being demoted to the bench means not playing. Gasol is playing however, he’s just now starting
ByAnyMeansNecessary

Brian Shaw was the guy I thought they were going to hire. But you’re right. They didn’t want anyone around who was associated with Phil. Why go away from a system that just won you 2 championships? Shaw would be new blood. Kobe respects him. Phil would have been around as a consultant I’m sure. Another mistake they made was keeping Brown for this season and then firing him after only a few games. They should have made that decision during the offseason and come into this season with a coach who would have had a training camp to implement his system.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

Well, the thing was they didn’t want Phil’s influence at all, in any respect, around the organization so I doubt they would have kept him as a consultant even if Shaw had been hired. With Phil’s retirement, it was essentially a “fresh start” for the organization. If I remember correctly, they even fired a whole bunch of Laker employees that had been around since the 80s (according to Lazenby). They completely retooled personnel wise in 2011, and essentially let their championship winning bench go…Shannon Brown, Odom (though that was a good call), Fisher, Jordan Farmer, Vujacic, etc.

I don’t know why they would try to make Kobe play under a system different from the one he’s played for most of his career, and has won 5 championships with, but they did, and it was clearly a mistake. Kupchak has done an excellent job of putting together a top-heavy roster, but as we’ve been seeing, sometimes chemistry plays a bigger role in a team’s success than simply talent-gathering.
theDankerNuggets

I really like this move by D’Antoni. Pau and Howard wasn’t working that well together, bringing Pau off the bench will allow him to park himself in the low post and do what he does best, and that will be a miss match against any second unit big.
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

probably because Phil would have been trying to teach the triangle, in the middle of the season. which is more complicated than D’Antoni’s offense.
.
the coach isn’t the team’s main problem. although, it’s a problem.
K_HOLIDAY

Guess LA Mike watched NY Mike move his power forward to the bench and was like ” HEY, let me try, let me try!”
aceson

Yeah that makes sense. Do you see D’Antoni coaching next season?
http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

depends on the roster honestly. i think we’ll find out sometime after the draft.
RayJr

Agreed. Especially last night at the beginning of the game the look on Pau’s face said it all.
Redd

Yeah and if you hired pj at the time you hired Mike, Oau would still be hampered and not be able to have the triangle going effectively. That would’ve thrown everything out of wack.
Turk

Tim Duncan over Gasol.
LakeShow

I wish I didn’t agree with all this.
RKJ92

LOL I was just thinking that..
shutup

And this is not the answer. Back to the drawing part

Pau Gasol Moved to the Bench Permanently By Mike D’Antoni

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