The Los Angeles Lakers came within a David Stern veto of trading Pau Gasol this summer, and it appears as though Jim Buss is determined to get that move done before the looming trade deadline. On Friday, a flurry of rumors hit Twitter regarding the big Spaniard’s future and all of them had one thing in common – Gasol being in a new uniform come season’s end.
First Roland Lazenby, one of the more respected Lakers insiders around, tweeted this:
“It seems we'll soon be getting news that Gasol has been traded. No details confirmed, but he's apparently gone.”
Lazenby has never been one for spreading rumors just for the sake of spreading rumors. His insight as it relates to understanding the Lakers organization and L.A. fans is unmatched. If he’s putting this out there, he firmly has to believe it to be the case.
All of that being said, he did hedge his bet with this tweet:
“Considering the Chris Paul fiasco, it's good to remind that nothing is official. Only whispers, but it's a whispering NBA world these days”
Next up was Adrian Wojranowski, who tackled the situation from the perspective of potential Gasol suitors:
“Houston has continued to aggressively probe the Lakers on a potential Pau Gasol trade, but there's no deal close, league sources tell Y!”
But he too qualified his statement with this:
“Houston has continued to aggressively probe the Lakers on a potential Pau Gasol trade, but there's no deal close, league sources tell Y!”
Larry Coon also weighed in:
“Tweeted by @lazenby. He's someone you take seriously when he says something. RT @17_Mack: Well, then where is all this coming from?”
“Still no confirmation on anything Gasol related -- and I checked with one of the best-connected people I know. GMs call HIM to find out.”
What does all this mean? Not much of anything at this point. But there is something to be said for two of the more knowledgeable basketball insiders in Lazenby and Wojranowski throwing Gasol’s name out there like this. Whether or not that means that he’ll actually be traded remains to be seen, but the talks are undoubtedly being had.
Back during the offseason when Stern famously killed the deal that would have netted the Lakers Paul and sent Gasol to the Rockets, you had a trade that made sense for all parties involved. Yes, L.A. was parting ways with one of the best power forwards in the game – but the addition of arguably the best point guard in the game would have offset that. What we have now is very different from that situation. What we have now is Gasol being shopped for scraps.
Buss seems to have his heart set on moving Gasol, but unless he gets equal value back (which it doesn’t look like he will), this could go down in history as a huge trade blunder for a franchise that has traditionally avoided huge trade blunders.
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