great player, no doubt about that. but on the level of kg and duncan? i think not, both are future hall of famers, and one may be the best PF of all time. gasol isnt that good. with gasol as the first option i dont believe a team could be a championship contender. dont get me wrong though, this guy is a STAR, he has a HIGH basketball IQ and is an exceptional complementary star to bryant. if he plays at this level, with the production hes putting up, i think he can go down as one of the best sidekicks in the game ever. he might not have pound for pound strength, but he does just fine with his abilities. he is not pau gasoft, he is pau gasol. and hes an integral reason that the black mamba will be vindicated for finally winning without shaq (thats also a lakers in 5 or 6 prediction lol)
Well, as far as Duncan, he's the best of all time. I agree with that. Still, he had a lot more help than Gasol ever had on his Griz teams.
KG is really overrated, though, and a lot of his success with the Celtics has got to do with Celtics management getting Ray Allen, Garnett, Paul Pierce, three all-stars, and surrounding them with a load of good roleplayers on one one team: the perfect storm. In Minnesota, Garnett had a lot of help, over 13 years or so: Gugliotta (great player), Anthony Peeler (solid shooter), Sam Cassel (in his prime), Terell Brandon (terrific little point guard), Wally Szerbiak (in his prime), Sprewell (still putting up great numbers at that time), Marbury.
What did Pau get? Mike Miller, Shane Battier, Jake Tsakalidas, Warrick (actually a good player but not on the level of the talent that Garnett got), a washed up, mid-30's Eddie Jones (he retired a year after Memphis), a washed up Damen Stoudamire (retired after Memphis). It's not fair to say he can't lead a team on his own, if he never got to play with real talent yet was still able to win over 50 games.
As for Gasol going to the hall of fame, I think that's already a given, in about 15 years it'll happen. The basketball hall of fame is open to NBA players, non-NBA foreign players, female players, etc. On his stature in the world of Spanish basketball and international competition, alone, he'll get in. After all, he's considered the greatest Spanish player of all time and one of the best international player to ever play basketball. Gasol will also have his number retired, by LA and maybe even Memphis
Like you said, he's an integral part of the Lakers' success. And, as I said in my previous post, Kobe needs Gasol more than Gasol needs Kobe. Kobe, on his own, was missing the playoffs, getting swept, etc. In fact, the Griz were outperforming the Lakers in the regular season, for a few years. Pau just needs a clutch shooter around him (there are many of those). Kobe, though needed the right type of big: imagine if Bynum had not gotten hurt and LA had not made a move for Pau. They'd be sunk. Pau has that game-changing ability to control the pace of a game, dominate both ends and take a team to the next level.
Gasol, Marbury and Crawford, on a Knicks team, would have made us a contender. It would have given us the same dynamics that the Lakers have: tough inside play that could bail us out in difficult situations, outside shooting and the ability to finish off the dribble, something the Griz didn't have and the Lakers do.
If you give Kobe Stoudamire or Bosh, or even Dwight Howard, to play with, I don't think you have a clear cut championship team, though you do have a contender. Those guys just don't have the intangibles that Pau has, and they don't have the all-around game and clutch ability that he does.