Gasol Trade: Lakers Can Win Title ... Now
I like this trade. A lot.
It isn't perfect. No big deal is. But it gives the Lakers a chance to win an NBA title this year. Not a couple of years from now. Not next year. Right now.
The Lakers get Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, two No. 1 draft picks (2008, 2010), the rights to Marc Gasol (Pau's brother) and Aaron McKie -- momentarily out of retirement to make the deal work. Oh, and the Lakers get the Grizzlies' No. 2 in 2010.
Pau Gasol is an athletically gifted 27-year-old 7-footer who averages 19-and-9 (points-and-rebounds) in his career. He arguably is one of the 30 best players in the NBA.
And now the Lakers add him to Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom, and that's a quartet as good as any in the league. I'm not saying the Lakers WILL win a title this year -- Bynum coming back strong is key -- but they have a chance.
Before the trade, I didn't think they had a shot.
Here's what I like about the trade:
1. Kobe is happy. He told reporters before tonight's victory in Toronto that "now it's on us" to go out and win. No more complaining about not having enough help. He has enough help, now, and just said so. And a happy Kobe is absolutely critical to the Lakers doing anything. A happy Kobe stays for the length of his contract -- in 2011.
2. Unlike, say, Kevin Garnett or even Jason Kidd, potential Lakers acquisitions over the previous year, Gasol almost certainly will have no issues with being a "sidekick." That makes him a perfect addition to Kobe's Lakers because ego issues will be limited.
3. The trade demonstrates management's desire to win now, and let's give Jerry Buss and GM Mitch Kupchak some credit for pulling it off. It showed some brass, but it also showed ingenuity to go after a guy who was MAYBE available but probably going to Chicago or somewhere ... I mean, there wasn't really a whisper of rumor about the Lakers and Gasol, and then, bang, they get it done. Nice.
4. Gasol is a proven scorer. With Bynum out, the Lakers really had no second scoring option. Odom is up and down. Derek Fisher's stroke comes and goes. Luke Walton, Vlad Radmanovic, Jordan Farmar ... well, maybe they will score. Maybe not. Now the Lakers have another guy who ought to be double-teamed ... even if he won't be, with the Lakers. Gasol is a career 51 percent shooter from the field, and he can get his own shots. Have to like that.
5. Kwame is gone. He could be the biggest dog in Lakers history. Lazy, passionless, a guy with a big sense of entitlement -- despite never having done anything. On top of that, he can't play. His hand-eye coordination is astonishingly bad. About all he can do is take up space in the lane, on defense. That's not enough to warrant paying him $9.1 million this season, which is what The Big Stiff is getting.
Here's what I don't like about the trade:
1. The Lakers give up Crittenton, who could be a real player. The Lakers are counting on Jordan Farmar to continue to develop, at the point, but Crittenton looked like a guy who could be a serious player. Better than Farmar.
2. The Lakers basically are not players in the draft for the next three years. A No. 2 this summer, a 1 and a 2 in 2009, a couple of 2s in 2010. Anyway, only one No. 1 pick in the next three drafts. That's a little scary.
3. These Lakers HAVE to work, because they've just given up almost all of their trade assets. Kwame actually has value because his contract is up after this season, and that will clear $9.1 million off the books. The Lakers could have done something with that cap space; now the Grizzlies can. They aren't going to get better in the draft, because Memphis has two of their next three No. 1 picks. Also, Gasol is signed through 2011 and is owed the following the next three seasons: $15.1 million, $16.5 million, $17.8 million. That's a big hunk of payroll the Lakers are committed to.
4. Gasol has some of the shortcomings you normally associate with Euro-developed players. He's a little soft, he's a little frail. He's not really a center. He's almost a small forward in a 7-foot body.
5. Gasol is a bit injury prone. He's missed games this year with back injuries, and you never like to hear about bad backs on your 7-footers. He has played more than 59 games only once since the 2003-04 season.
6. And this is nitpicking, because Gasol was miscast as The Man, in Memphis, when he's really a very good complimentary player, but he has never won in the playoffs. Not one game. Zero. He led the Grizzlies there three times, but they were swept in the first round every time. Demonstrating Gasol isn't the kind of guy who can raise his game.
In balance, I like the trade. I like it a lot. I think it WILL work, because Gasol has been remarkably consistent over the years. He pretty much always scores 18-19 and rebounds 7-9. There aren't many guys like that around. Now the Lakers have one.
Perhaps THE biggest part of this: It ends, for the foreseeable future, the "Kobe Might Leave" issue. Where can he go where he will play with players better now -- and in the near future? Nowhere. Kobe is here, and he is engaged.
Well, yeah, and there's the THEY COULD WIN THE WHOLE THING aspect to this. Say Bynum comes back, and is a 20-10 guy again by the start of the playoffs ... who has a better threesome than the Lakers' and the trio of Kobe, Bynum and Gasol? I like that three better than any in the NBA. Including Boston's Garnett, Pierce and Allen ... including San Antonio's Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.
This could be very interesting ... and the Lakers' season ought to last until late May ... and maybe even until June. now that Buss and Kupchak have added Gasol to the mix.