Once the Lakers scrapped the Triangle for a more traditional offense, it exposed their weakness at point guard even more. In the triangle the flow of the offense is ran through the post and is a benefit to a skilled big man like Pau Gasol.
In a more traditional offense the point guard needs to feed the big men in the post and the Lakers seem more interested in giving those touches to Andrew Brynum and not Gasol.
It has turned Gasol into a defacto jump shooter and he isn’t too happy with that.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Indiana Pacers last night, their third straight defeat. And Pau Gasol sounds like he’s less than thrilled with the way he’s being used on offense.
I got two jumpers, open, that I missed, and that was all the opportunities that I had.’ Technically, he also got a basket at the rim that the Pacers conceded with a four-point lead in the final seconds. But he spent most of the night on the perimeter, occasionally heeding Bryant’s call to come over to set a high screen, or else following Kobe’s direction to spread out to give Kobe operating space. The low post belongs to Bynum. And while Gasol is happy to get Bynum the ball there — including with a nice alley-oop that was among 10 Gasol assists — Gasol wants a few touches down in the paint himself. ‘A little too many jumpers for my taste,’ Gasol said. ‘I’d like to get a couple more looks inside the paint. That’ll increase the [shooting] percentage.’”
Gasol is right and considering the how badly the offense is suffering he needs more touches and shots inside the paint. The Lakers are playing pretty good defense, but until they find an offensive system that meshes well with Bryant, Bynum and Gasol they will continue to struggle.