Everything Marc Gasol

[golden]

Yes, Gasol needs to take at least 4 3PA per game. And he needs to knock them down at 38% or higher. Otherwise...

Gasol isn't a knock down 3 pt shooter while JV was a reliable, ultra-consistent, hyper efficient scorer near the basket. This helps to get opposing bigs, like Embiid and Cousins, in foul trouble.

[S.R.]

Both JV and Marc have been relegated to watching the likes of Norman Powell and Fred van Vleet isolate. This is not just a "there are a lot of good players" issue.

Come on, the number of Norman Powell and FVV iso's this team runs would be very, very low. And Gasol had 4 guards with higher usage % than him in Memphis. It's a guard's league in general, this isn't some Raptors thing.

JV does have high USG right now in Memphis, which is fun to see. It should be noted it's only a couple of points higher than what the Raps were giving him this season, which was a career high prior to the trade.

And yet with all that, Memphis is only keeping him on the floor around 25 mpg. For me the real shift in JV's prospects will be if he can be a regular starter and get 30+ mpg in the current NBA. That would be amazing for him and he'd for sure be an All-Star at that point. Until then he's still doing essentially what he was doing here - being selectively used by his coach and producing highly efficient pts + reb when he's put in those situations where the team thinks he can succeed. That's just such a different scenario than best players you put on the floor against everybody.

As a fan I do miss him here and am not convinced yet the Memphis trade made Toronto better. I would definitely argue that if Lowry for Conley had been included, that might have torpedoed our season.

[golden]

Come on, the number of Norman Powell and FVV iso's this team runs would be very, very low. And Gasol had 4 guards with higher usage % than him in Memphis. It's a guard's league in general, this isn't some Raptors thing.

JV does have high USG right now in Memphis, which is fun to see. It should be noted it's only a couple of points higher than what the Raps were giving him this season, which was a career high prior to the trade.

And yet with all that, Memphis is only keeping him on the floor around 25 mpg. For me the real shift in JV's prospects will be if he can be a regular starter and get 30+ mpg in the current NBA. That would be amazing for him and he'd for sure be an All-Star at that point. Until then he's still doing essentially what he was doing here - being selectively used by his coach and producing highly efficient pts + reb when he's put in those situations where the team thinks he can succeed. That's just such a different scenario than best players you put on the floor against everybody.

As a fan I do miss him here and am not convinced yet the Memphis trade made Toronto better. I would definitely argue that if Lowry for Conley had been included, that might have torpedoed our season.

But isn't Nurse's calling card supposed to be innovation? Subscribing mindlessly to "it's a guard's league mantra" would be the opposite of thinking out of the box. Not fully exploring JV's upside is a legitimate knock on Nurse, when you consider how he's managed FVV, in particular and successfully developed Pascal's. And JV is the perfect candidate, when you consider his efficiency vs. USG being so elite.

And speaking of USG, I notice that people really don't understand how USG works. JV is up 4 percentage points (which is a lot) in a USG range typically reserved for the most elite scorers (~ 30%). The work by Dean Oliver (father of modern NBA analytics) shows that for most players, their ORTG should plummet far below league average, while JV is still comfortably above, even as he is now facing starters as a 1A/1B scoring option.

The timing of his injury sucked so bad. I'm convinced that if JV was able to come back a month before the trade deadline, most of the issues with our bench, rebounding, giving up leads, etc.... would have been fixed.

[GOLDBLUM]

I frankly don't know what Gasol was brought in for.. I'm not seeing a reason why from his play on the court. You can say Nurse is using him wrong.. but then why would he be using him right suddenly in the playoffs? For me it was a panic move.. a move made because the 76ers and Bucks did something. I don't think Gasol made us better. At best he makes us the same. Passing from the post is not something this team needed. We needed rebounding, 3pt shooting and more defense. Gasol's defense is over rated.. especially along the perimeter. He's definitely poor at rebounding. Has he hit a 3 as a Raptor yet? And our chemistry is sh!t.

At this point, the only thing I'm expecting is leadership from him in the playoffs. Like we could have used against the Cavs last year. And that's sad, considering we could have just picked up some vet from the scrap heap. ZBo for example is not with a team.

Yeah it's early.. but we had good early returns from both Serge and Tucker when they were brought in around the deadline two years ago.

I hate people who say "I told you so".. I'm hoping he proves me wrong. I really am. Just a frustrated fan.

I'm just straight up quoting from the Kawhi thread and pulling it over here to the Gasol thread where it belongs cause I'm crazy like that.

I'm exactly where you are right now PM. Much has been said about the leadership that he can provide...

Someone alluded last night to the fact that with JV and others shipped out, we've lost our identity. JV may not be a grizzled leader (he's now a grizzlies leader.) But he was basically as a good a teammate as you could find in the NBA - or so it seemed. Never complained about his role, which he had much cause to do so. Always brought the levity, always brought the fierce competitive spirit -- especially showed up in the playoffs. I believed whole-heartedly in trading away Derozan, even though I had much love for him. In trading away JV, I worry we've tipped the balance from having a team that plays for each other, to hired guns that aren't gonna hold together like glue when the time comes. I mean, glue hasn't helped in years past, so maybe that's irrational.

As Keon said, foolish to make judgements after 3 weeks. In fairness though, Marc looks downright ugly out there much of the time, while JV is somewhere beasting.

Hope, after all the good work he's done for us, that this isn't Masai's first big loss in the trade market. We can't afford it.

[Shredder]

I must admit that I wasn't a huge fan of the trade when I heard it. I still have my reservations. But his play during the Boston game, made me change my tune. The ball screens/ handoffs with lowry that he was setting by just being a big dude was special. They were leaving kyle wide open.

Nurse said early in the year, that he might just try something once or twice throughout the season that might be a playoff bread and butter play. Maybe he's doing that now. I sure as hell hope so. Also being an older dude, with his eye on a ring, maybe it's extra hard for Marc to get motivated to play the Cavs.

I'm trying to be optimistic here, if you can't tell. I feel the same way as I started this year about the team. We are better constructed for the playoffs, so until the playoffs I reserve my final judgement.

[SkywalkerAC]

Gasol will be fine, but the trade isn't exactly looking like a home run.

[bertarapsfan]

I'm just straight up quoting from the Kawhi thread and pulling it over here to the Gasol thread where it belongs cause I'm crazy like that.

I'm exactly where you are right now PM. Much has been said about the leadership that he can provide...

Someone alluded last night to the fact that with JV and others shipped out, we've lost our identity. JV may not be a grizzled leader (he's now a grizzlies leader.) But he was basically as a good a teammate as you could find in the NBA - or so it seemed. Never complained about his role, which he had much cause to do so. Always brought the levity, always brought the fierce competitive spirit -- especially showed up in the playoffs. I believed whole-heartedly in trading away Derozan, even though I had much love for him. In trading away JV, I worry we've tipped the balance from having a team that plays for each other, to hired guns that aren't gonna hold together like glue when the time comes. I mean, glue hasn't helped in years past, so maybe that's irrational.

As Keon said, foolish to make judgements after 3 weeks. In fairness though, Marc looks downright ugly out there much of the time, while JV is somewhere beasting.

Hope, after all the good work he's done for us, that this isn't Masai's first big loss in the trade market. We can't afford it.

Piggy backing off this one of JV biggest contributions that ever team needs is that tough guy who can put a body to you but still do it within the rules. Now with no JV serge has to fill that role. Unfourtantly as we saw last night serge has a hard time being that enforcer within the rules of the game. Was serge trying to bring that toughness the reason we saw him go at chriss? its unlikely but maybe the team feels that void now that JVs gone and serge was trying to step up. One thing i am sure about if JV was in the same scenario last night he probaly chest bumps chriss and gets in his face but it ends their. In the playoffs vs guys like embiid/drummond/baynes and maybe even cousins is where were going to miss JV the most.

[octothorp]

Something that is entirely not Gasol's fault but a bit frustrating... He's supposed to be one of those guys who gets the benefit of the doubt on calls more often than not, compared to JV who never got the benefit of reputation calls. If anything, Gasol's getting as bad as if not worse a whistle than JV. Small sample-size but his fouling rate is up about 1 per 36 over his season in Memphis, and is higher than any season in his career. JV's has dropped since leaving Toronto. Again, not blaming Gasol for that, but just shows your reputation doesn't count once you come to Toronto.

[golden]

Something that is entirely not Gasol's fault but a bit frustrating... He's supposed to be one of those guys who gets the benefit of the doubt on calls more often than not, compared to JV who never got the benefit of reputation calls. If anything, Gasol's getting as bad as if not worse a whistle than JV. Small sample-size but his fouling rate is up about 1 per 36 over his season in Memphis, and is higher than any season in his career. JV's has dropped since leaving Toronto. Again, not blaming Gasol for that, but just shows your reputation doesn't count once you come to Toronto.

I don't think that's a reputation thing. He looks confused at times with the coverages and this should improve with reps and communication .... we hope.

[TrueTorontoFan]

this suspension could be a blessing in disguise as it gets this man going.

[MixxAOR]

It starts out as "blessing in disguise" and then it turns into "can't wait till (blank) is back"

[GLF]

It starts out as "blessing in disguise" and then it turns into "can't wait till (blank) is back"

LOL like clockwork. It's just everyone trying to be positive. Until we lose lol

[golden]

https://streamable.com/qicfo

[GOLDBLUM]

https://streamable.com/qicfo

Ha. That's just cruel.

[Beneperez]

I must admit that I wasn't a huge fan of the trade when I heard it. I still have my reservations. But his play during the Boston game, made me change my tune. The ball screens/ handoffs with lowry that he was setting by just being a big dude was special. They were leaving kyle wide open.

Nurse said early in the year, that he might just try something once or twice throughout the season that might be a playoff bread and butter play. Maybe he's doing that now. I sure as hell hope so. Also being an older dude, with his eye on a ring, maybe it's extra hard for Marc to get motivated to play the Cavs.

I'm trying to be optimistic here, if you can't tell. I feel the same way as I started this year about the team. We are better constructed for the playoffs, so until the playoffs I reserve my final judgement.

Finally a sensible post. This is exactly where our heads should be at. Especially the last line.