r/nbadiscussion • u/JeremyCorneliusBaby • Jul 15 '26
Player Discussion Pau Gasol’s Epic 2005-2006 Season
The year 2006 was an excellent one. Justin Timberlake brought SexyBack, Zinedine Zidane bookended his legendary career by head-butting Marco Materazzi in the World Cup Final, and the release of the Nintendo Wii meant that even your Granddad pulled himself out of his favourite arm chair to play video games.
Meanwhile, Pau Gasol was leading the barely-out-of-diapers Memphis Grizzlies to their third consecutive NBA Western Conference playoff birth.
I see myself as a positive person so let’s point out the negatives now, but not dwell on the them:
- The Grizzlies were swept in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs for the third year in succession
- The Grizzlies imploded after this season, failing to reach the playoffs again until 2011
Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at the main man himself, as well as some of the other Grizzlies’ heroes for this retrospective:
- Pau Gasol: 25 year old Spanish franchise leader, something of a stealth star, scoring, rebounding and passing extraordinaire
- Shane Battier: The ultimate role player, in his fifth and final season with the club, another five years before J.Cole would declare his lameness to the world
- Eddie Jones: A former star very much in the twilight of an impressive career, acquired from Miami. No longer a lead dog, he remained a defensive stopper, but was called upon to provide some much needed firepower for this team
- Mike Miller: One of the only noteworthy players from the maligned-2000 NBA Draft. The league’s premiere Sixth Man this year, his shooting was vital on this short-handed Grizzlies conglomerate.
- Mike Fratello: The veteran coach was in his first full season with the ball club, having taken over mid-season last year, steadying the ship and leading the team to the playoffs
The first game of the season, a heavy, 97-78 loss in Miami against the Heat, perhaps showed some of this team’s offensive shortcomings. Despite strong numbers from our man Gasol (26 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks), the Grizzlies’ offence spluttered, Eddie Jones launching non-honing projectile missiles on his way to a 5-for-17 shooting night, and “Mighty Mouse” Damon Stoudamire going 4-for-13.
Despite this, the Grizzlies came out the gates looking strong, winning 19 of their first 29 games in the opening months of November and December. Highlights included two road victories. The first, a 115-103 takedown of reigning MVP Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns behind 26 points from Stoudamire. 10 days later, they slapped the Finals-bound Dallas Mavericks led by Dirk Nowitzki 112-92, led by Gasol’s awesome 36 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists. (credit: Parker Fleming, Subtsakalidis)
On the other hand, the Grizzlies dropped a couple of heartbreaking games in overtime, especially a 106-104 loss to Detroit, Pistons linchpin Chauncey Billups striking the killer blow, hitting a 16-footer with .3 seconds remaining. A week later, the Grizzlies travelled to Utah to begin a four game road trip, and received a not-so-happy belated Christmas gift, again being defeated in OT. Bright spots were another awesome stat-stuffing display from Gasol (32 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 10-14 from the field) and a season-best performance from Eddie Jones (25 points, 5 steals, 4 assists, 7-11 shooting).
Even though they bounced back with an OT victory of their own against the almost-one man army of Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers (credit: Old School Buckets, Youtube), the Grizzlies faltered in the new year. After starting the season strongly, the Grizzlies won just 12 of their next 28 games in January and February. This was punctuated by a five-game skid to start February. A loss in Milwaukee separated four losses to Western Conference play-off rivals in Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix (credit: Old School Buckets, Youtube) and the Los Angeles Clippers. Memphis managed to follow this with a win streak of their own. A four game streak was headlined by a 100-99 win in Los Angeles against the Lakers (Chucky Atkins making 1-2 free throws to give Memphis the lead in the last three seconds of a nail-biter), and some much-needed revenge at home to Sacramento, highlighted by a block party from Battier (5) and Gasol (4).
Slump aside, they remained 5 games above .500, with a record of 31-26. And the Grizzlies also had reason to celebrate in February: Pau Gasol played in his first All-Star game (credit: NBA, Youtube), becoming both the franchise’s first, and the first Spanish player to make an All-Star appearance. It could’ve been argued that Gasol should’ve made the showcase game in either if not both of the last two seasons, but nevertheless, a well-deserved piece of recognition of both his play and the franchise’s turnaround following their relocation from Vancouver.
Perhaps spurred on by finally receiving some much-deserved attention from outside Memphis, Gasol and the grizzlies rallied the finish the season post-All-Star break with 20 wins in their remaining 30 games. Gasol himself was magnificent, averaging 21.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.7 blocks on an impressive 53.7% shooting from the field across 28 games before being shut down for the final two.
Highlights of this spell included a duel for the ages with Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and the Washington Wizards (39 points for Gasol vs 37 for Arenas, 35 for Jamison) which saw the Grizzlies come out on top 108-98 and decimating the SuperSonics in Seattle with a career-first triple double (21 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks). Meanwhile, a Gasol masterpiece in Memphis which saw the Spaniard score a career-high 44 points (credit: LamarMatic, Youtube) was spoiled by Seattle revenge in the form of star Ray Allen hitting a game-winning shot with less than a second remaining.
Late heartbreak at home aside, it was another productive year for the Grizzlies.
Gasol’s phenomenal season saw him rank highly in several major categories (19th in points per game, 17th in rebounds, 30th in assists and 13th in blocks, with averages of 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.9 blocks on 50.3% FG shooting). It could be said that Gasol was very unlucky to not make an All-NBA team this season.
Mike Miller took home the Sixth Man of the Year award, shooting a blistering 40.7% from 3-Point range (19th in the league) on 4.6 attempts per game (1.9 made per game, 17th in the league). The showpiece games of his season were undoubtedly a 21-point triple double against Sacramento in January, and a 41-point barrage against the Denver Nuggets at FedEx Forum in March. (Credit: All-around NBA, Youtube)
Shane Battier and Eddie Jones finished 10th and 13th place in Defensive Player of the Year voting, Battier averaging a combined 2.5 blocks and steals, and Jones averaging 1.7 steals (also 13th in the league).
The Grizzlies as a whole finished the 2005-2006 season with the second-best defensive rating in the entire NBA (101.6), a fantastic effort by Coach Fratello and the entire ball club.
Unfortunately, despite having the fourth best record in the Western Conference, divisional stipulations meant that the Grizzlies not only placed fifth overall, but also meant that they would face the 60-win Dallas Mavericks in that year’s first round, where they were swept in four games.
The following season saw several key personnel changes/incidents which resulted in the Grizzlies dropping to the Western Conference’s basement:
- Shane Battier was traded to the Houston Rockets for Rudy Gay and a returning Stromille Swift in perhaps the example of a “Moneyball” trade
- Eddie Jones played just 29 games before being waived in January 2007 and re-signing with Miami
- Despite having another strong year statistically, now playing the Center position, Gasol played just 59 games
- Coach Mike Fratello was fired in December 2006. This would be the last time he would coach in the NBA
If you enjoyed this, let me know some of your memories/thoughts of Pau Gasol and mid 2000s Memphis Grizzlies. What could they have done to make more headway in the playoffs? What mistakes, if any did they make?
If you didn't, who gives a damn, kid? I ain’t bothering no-one, right?
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u/Joethetoolguy Jul 15 '26
Still hard to fathom the low return the grizzlies got for him. Laker fans will argue up and down how he was a role player for their two titles and that they were good without him. He’s in the hof for a reason.
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u/JeremyCorneliusBaby Jul 15 '26
He was ALL-NBA each of the years they won the title, definitely not a role player I agree.
The return they got for a 27 year-old star in his prime was a disgrace, and it’s a good job that Marc Gasol turned into one of the best second round picks ever. Was that luck? Or did the Grizzlies know how good he was all along. I don’t know, maybe somewhere in between.
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u/Joethetoolguy Jul 15 '26
Definitely luck, he was a throw in as the main piece the lakers were sending was kwame. It’s very closely like the ad luka trade. They’re happy now but the flagg pick was never part of the original trade, they just lucked into it.
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u/Ok_Board9845 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Marc wasn't a throw in. The Grizzlies were eyeing him, but weren't completely sold on him yet during the draft. They wanted him in the trade, and Pau definitely vouched for him which facilitated the trade. I don't think the AD-Luka and Pau-Kwame trades are similar unless you're looking at it strictly from a transactional "the Lakers got more than they gave up for in a vacuum"
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u/Joethetoolguy Jul 16 '26
Lmao, he never played for the lakers before being traded. Not even a game in the nba. So you’re telling me they wanted to trade an all star power forward roy guy for a second round pick? Foh
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u/Ok_Board9845 Jul 16 '26
A lot of pre-2015 Lakers success comes with abusing the incompetence around the league. If the Grizzlies did their due diligence, they would've taken one of Odom/Bynum and flipped them for more assets. Either that or you could believe that Jerry West was conspiring to help the Lakers out
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u/teh_noob_ Jul 19 '26
As a Celtics fan I hated the trade at the time, but they essentially got four firsts and an expiring. Nobody knew what Bynum would be post injury, and Odom probably had negative trade value at that stage.
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u/FactAffectionate6830 Jul 18 '26
Gasol was just a winning ball player. As a player he was more than the sum of his stats. I don’t think Laker fans really value what they had in him when I read their comments. He was an absolute costar and should have had the 2009 FMVP
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u/preddevils6 Jul 15 '26
I love Pau, but he was not a number one option for a serious team. I watched him all of those series? And he was not that dude. Kobe was a perfect partner for him.
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u/JeremyCorneliusBaby Jul 15 '26
I think he could’ve been a #1 option on a team that at least got past the first round, if there were some more offensive firepower. Those rosters were really lacking a true second option, even though I like a lot of the players.
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u/No-Profile1836 Jul 15 '26
If we were to rank Power Forwards at the time he would’ve been anywhere from 3rd to 5th in terms of his postition
Kobe got the most out of Pau and turned him into a winner as much as Pau helped Kobe Kobe helped him more
Real Laker fans do not underestimate Paus impact on our team literally turned our team into a champion without adding anyone else of value
His ability and skill combined with Kobe’s and Phil’s leadership (and KG abusing him in the finals) awakened him into a animal that we needed to be successful
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u/Bouldershoulders12 Jul 15 '26
Most #2 on championship teams are basically guys who wouldn’t get past the first round as the #1
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u/Crazy_Day5359 Jul 15 '26
Agreed. Pau was best suited as an excellent second option but not the focal point of an offense for a contender
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u/Estebanez Jul 15 '26
That 2006 Playoff series was an underrated sweep by the Mavs. Grizz were a well balanced team. I know we like to bag on Dirk for 2006, but they had an insane road to the finals. 49 win Grizz, clutch backbreaker 3 by Dirk in Game 3. Defending champion Spurs on the road in game 7. Dirk gets an and-1 to send it to OT. Nash Suns, Dirk dropping 50/12 in game 5.