Sources: Chris Paul to LA Lakers

[Big Sexy]

According to ESPN Chris Paul is going to be a Laker. The proposed three team deal will send CP3 to LA, Pau Gasol to Houston, and Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, and Goran Dragic to New Orleans. This is really a great trade for all three teams.

The Lakers have the best point guard in the league and a top 3 player period in Chris Paul. It also makes their weakest position now their strongest. A starting lineup of Paul, Kobe, Metta World Peace, Insert Random Veteran PF, and Andrew Bynum makes them the favorites to win the West. They need to add some bench depth but they can get some quality guys for cheap.

The Rockets basically get an upgrade inside with Gasol over Scola plus save some money by shedding the contract of Kevin Martin who never really fit in that well with the Rockets. Goran Dragic is irrelevant.

The Hornets knew that Paul wasn't going to resign and by making this trade they have a nice little team. A starting lineup of Jarrett Jack, Kevin Martin, Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, and Emeka Okafor, with Trevor Ariza as the sixth man certainly could be a lot worse.

Thoughts on the trade? Winners? Losers? Could the Lakers still possibly pull off a Bynum for Howard deal? Go.

 

[Khalifa]

Wow, I hope this happens. But before I go onto the Lakers I will discuss the other teams.

Hornets: I definately think they got a great deal out of this. They had a pretty average lineup and then when West got injured it showed how they had no depth at all. Now they get a great scorer in Martin and a Scola who is a great tough low post defender. Lamar Odom could go back to his oldself which is not motivated and lazy. But then again he might not. Either way this is great for the Hornets. and if they resign West (which is doubtful now hey?) then they will be a force.

Rockets: I think they got a sweet fuck all for what they gave up. Sure Pau Gasol is a great player but he can be soft and can fade off (Like he did for the whole second half of last season). They also gave up some quality players. Martin is capable of scoring 26+ every night, Scola will give you his all everynight while giving your team some toughness and Dragic is a great back up point guard offensively. Looks like the Rockets are gonna be rebuilding which is sad because they have always had a good team but just couldn't get it to work.

Now for the Lakers. Like you said Sexy, this makes the Lakers have their weakest position go to strongest. We have always lacked the speed and point guard and Chris Paul now gives up that while taking the load off Kobe. We might lack at the Power Foward position but free agency is coming up and there are plenty of big men to easily fill that avoid. Giving up Lamar wasn't really a concern because we always had to many ball carriers and he would just not show up sometimes. But Brown comes to play every night. This gives Barnes some more minutes as well. I do think it will be kinda hard though, for Kobe and Paul to work on the offensive end together. They do both need the ball to do what they do, but obviously you are going to give the ball to Paul more often than not. But then how will Kobe adapt? Sure he had Shaq but that is different. I dunno, but I don't care. All I care is that we are getting that ring. And Bring on Chicago for the first game

Edit: About the Howard deal. Jesus imagined if that happen. Lakers would be by far the best team in the league. Heat would have nothing on us. It would be impossible to guard us because no other team has a good PG/SG/C combo that the Lakers could possibly get. I was just thinking who they would trade but. Surely Bynum, Brown and Blake would not be enough?

 

[GI Cake]

I think the Lakers have a very good all around team in CP3, Kobe, and Meta World Peace. But they still have not answered their issues in the post game. And giving up Gasol and Odem didn't help in the least bit. However, if the rumor mills are true and the Lakers are looking to get Howard from Orlando than their post game will be more than shored up. As for winning the West, I don't see any other favorable contenders to win in the West other than L.A. You have the Defending Champs in the Dallas Mavericks but so far if they lose Chandler their defense will be hurt significantly. Then you have the Memphis Grizzlies who stunned the NBA with their their Post-Season performance. All in all if the Lakers do not lose any of these guys to injuries you are looking at a number 1 or number 2 seed team.

I remember reading an article saying that Chris Paul didn't want to leave the Hornets unless the Hornets were going to get a good trade in trading Paul, but were given Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, and Goran Dragic. Do the Hornets plan on making Odom a starter on their team or use him as a 6th man like the Lakers did? And what about Scola? I feel none of these guys are going to be able to make up for the loss of CP3. Granted, with these guys they can play a really good rotation and shored up their team, but without an all star like Chris Paul I don't see them going into the post-season with the Lakers.

 

[J.J.]

You're writing off Kevin Martin like he hasn't averaged 20ppg+ through his career. I'm not a fan of the trade and felt Lakers should've got in on the Raymond Felton trade with the Knicks back during the season, then could've worked a trade to acquire Dwight Howard. Atleast now this assures we won't see CP3 in NY.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

Great trade for the Hornets and Lakers but terrible one for the Rockets. Scola isn't that much worse than Gasol so to give Martin up plus a 1st round pick and Dragic(who I think has more value than your giving him credit for) is horrible for them. If Gasol played for a smaller market right now he wouldn't be nearly as sought after, hell the Lakers got him in his prime for basically an expiring contract. It's just the fact that he plays for the Lakers that makes him seem better than he was. I guarantee you if Gasol was the exact same player except on say the Pacers or Hawks he would not garner a 25ppg scorer, an 18 and 10 PF a 1st round draft pick and a young PG that averaged close to 10 a game last year. Something just seems fishy there.

 

[J.J.]

Guess that's all down the drain since David Stern vetoed the trade. I wonder if it would've been vetoed if the league didn't own the Honets? I disagree with the above poster and think Gasol is much better than Scola by far, I won't even insult him like that. Lakers became instant contenders again once Gasol came there and wouldn't have been anywhere near that level had it been Scola instead of Gasol. Gasol has been a valuable big man considering Andrew Bynum has knees like an 80 year old.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

Guess that's all down the drain since David Stern vetoed the trade. I wonder if it would've been vetoed if the league didn't own the Honets? I disagree with the above poster and think Gasol is much better than Scola by far, I won't even insult him like that. Lakers became instant contenders again once Gasol came there and wouldn't have been anywhere near that level had it been Scola instead of Gasol. Gasol has been a valuable big man considering Andrew Bynum has knees like an 80 year old.

Gasol is definitely better, sorry if my original post didn't make that clear but Gasol averaged about 18 points and 10 rebounds last year with a PER of about 22. Scola averaged about 18 points and a little over 8 rebounds with a PER of about 18.5 last year. So even though he is better than Scola he's not THAT much better where I'd give up Scola plus a 1st round pick(which teams covet) and a scoring machine(24 a game) who put up a similar PER to Gasol as well to get him. If this was Gasol from 4 years ago when the Lakers got him then yeah, but not the over 31 year old one with alot of miles on his legs from the deep playoff runs of today.

 

[Big Sexy]

The Paul to the Lakers deal is looking like it will be 100% dead soon. The talks were reopened earlier today to try and tweak the original deal but the Lakers have since backed out of the trade completely. Now it looks like they will be sending Lamar Odom to Dallas for cash considerations. The move opens up some cap room for LA and it gives Dallas a much needed boost to their teams outlook after losing Tyson Chandler to the Knicks.

Odom is a guy who can play multiple positions and succeed in both a starting role and playing big bench minutes. Having him at small forward would help to somewhat ease the loss of Chandler in terms of size and rebounding. A starting lineup of Kidd, Rudy Fenandez, Shawn Marion, Dirk, and Brendan Haywood with Odom and Jet Terry playing big minutes off the bench is a solid core. If they can get good production out of some of there young talents like Rodrigue Beaubois, Corey Brewer, and Brandon Wright then they have a chance to contend again in the West.