[valentine]

Very skilled but soft. I’ve been saying this for years and it just kills me how he lets guys smack the ball out of his hands or bump him out of position or makes him shoot fadeaways or if he tries to rebound and gets bumped or there’s a fight for a rebound he struggles to get it. I still wouldn’t trade him for any other PF but it just kills me when i watch the Lakers play and i see him being soft

[SteroidParticipant]

I don’t see how any guy averaging 10 or more rebounds a game for the season is soft. He should be getting pushed out the lane more if he was so soft. I guess they just let him grab boards without any fight or boxing him out. If he struggles so much getting rebounds then he definitely wouldn’t be getting 10 of them. I don’t see why you expect Pau to be something he’s not. Just because he isn’t muscling people down in the post doesn’t mean he’s soft. He’s a skilled big men who relies more on that over brute strength, which is clearly not his forte.

[iguapops420Participant]

 Pau has never played this passive and soft in his career. Something is really wrong. Not attacking, no fighting to regain position, settling for weak jumpers, and making frowns a the ref for tossing the ball too hard at him. He MUST step up and produce. His size MUST be used. Hes got to play bigger han himself and right now, he’s not.

[WizardofOzParticipant]

I agree with Quincey about hs rebounding. He puts up good rebounding numbers, but it always seems like he taps it and is always getting the ball slapped away from his hands when he grabs it, and he usually doesn’t grab it with two hands.

But he played soft on offense too. It looked like his confidence was shot. He’s being too passive, and was settling too much. And the Lakers clearly tried to get him more touches after they barely gave their bigs the ball in Game 1. They need to get him going if they expect to reach the Finals.

[OhCanada-Participant]

and making frowns a the ref for tossing the ball too hard at him

Thats gotta be the funniest thing yet these playoffs.

I watched the game from beggiing to end, the thing was towards the end he did put forward an effort to toughen up. He drove on Gray, got smacked around a bit, went to the line. The double teamer was really getting into Pau in this game whether it was a small gaurd like Jack,or Green, or it was Ariza they were all smackin at the ball and really givin Pau the buisness…He looked uncomfortable, he looked like he forgot its playoff time.

Kinda reminds me of the year they lost to Boston in he finals and KG was sorta having his way with him. Like tht but worse…

[llperez]

Pau is playing soft right now and it’s entirely possible he plays soft throughout these playoffs. However, he brought it the last 2 finals. He played Dwight straight up then played kg’s game out physicaling him and grabbing like 19 boards in game 7. I’ll trust him and all these lakers until we get eliminated.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Maybe he just isn’t up for playing New Orleans. Definitely passive, but the Lakers won game two, so I guess he did enough. I agree with the above that the last two seasons, the championship runs, and the multiple seasons now in which he and Nowitzki have been the best PFs in the game should really end all this talk about Gasol being soft. 

[quinceyh1]

you can play soft and get 10 rebounds. He’s soft sometimes because he does soft things alot, more than most big men. K.G game has never been power but he knows when you have to power up and when to fade away. You dont just smack the ball out of his hands and he rarely avoids contact.

Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge Laker fan but there’s a reason other players call Gasol soft. They never say he sucks or can’t play because they all know he is very skilled. Did you see how Chris Paul kept trying to chump him him by throwing his hip at him or pushing him. Yes Chris isn’t scared of anyone but if you watch the game he does a lil extra at Gasol.

If he was always soft i wouldn’t say anything but the guy CAN play hard/tough he has done it plenty of times, its when he decides to play soft that gets me and the Laker nation upset

[Author]

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