Pau Gasol-Kwame Brown Trade: Analysis

Media Roundup: Paul Gasol-Kwame Brown Trade
By NBA Rotoman

News of the Gasol-Kwame trade exploded Friday and warranted home page coverage on ESPN, FoxSports and many major online newspapers.

What's it all mean? In the blogosphere, it is apparent that Lakers fans believe they got the best of the deal and Grizzlies fans feel like they got hosed.

SportsHubLA's headline, "Lakers Go Pau, and it's a Real Wow!" summed it pretty well. They report:

"And Pow! is the sound the Lakers made on Friday, landing a heavy blow to the chin of their principal rivals in the West, San Antonio and Phoenix, and a shot to the solar plexus–Pao again!!!–on the entire NBA."

SportsHubLA believes that today's trade will mean championships—plain and simple. Pau Gasol means rings—yes rings.

"I don’t care how careful the Lakers are restraining their gleeful joy today, how can they NOT be dreaming of Figueroa St., floats, and a victory parade when they will now boast a frontcourt of 7-1 Andrew Bynum and his 90-inch wingspan, along with the multi-dimensional 7′0″ Spaniard, complemented (that’s the operative word, here) by 6-10 Lamar Odom?"

Grand Theft Gasol-o?

ESPN's Marc Stein called the Lakers' acquisition of Gasol "grand theft" and says Kobe is now flanked by two blue-chippers thanks to the heroic actions of the Danny Ainge of the West—Mitch Kupchak. Stein puts today's trade in truly historic terms:

"So credit the Lakers for seizing yet another purple-and-golden opportunity, as history says they always do during their rare and brief downturns.

It happened in 1975 when they found a way to trade for Kareem Abdur-Jabbar. It happened some two decades later when they maneuvered to score Shaq and Kobe within a matter of weeks in the summer of 1996."

Not So Fast Guys...

SI.com's Paul Forrester spoke to a mystery NBA scout who wasn't nearly as optimistic as most of the emotion in Lakerland or in the blogosphere. The mystery scout said the move looks good on paper, but it's up to Gasol himself in order for there to be great success:

"Bottom line, it's going to be up to Gasol how well he's willing to assimilate to the Lakers rather than how the Lakers assimilate to him.

"It makes the Lakers better on paper, but you can argue that there are five or six teams equipped to win the West, so it will have to play out in the matchups during the playoffs."

More Trades in the Future?

Another cautionary response was delivered by CBSSports' Tony Mejia who agrees the move looks great on paper, but says due to injuries (Gasol's back problems and Bynum's recent injury, not to mention Chris Mihm), the Lakers might need another trade to make a postseason run.

"If the Lakers struggle early on this road trip, it's within reason to believe that Kobe Bryant will come to management and ask for the backcourt mate he's always wanted, New Jersey guard Jason Kidd.

"Brown's expiring $9 million salary is gone, but Odom and Farmar are pieces who have been identified as potential bargaining chips to land the future Hall of Famer Kidd, who confirmed a trade demand issued through his agent earlier this week."

Regardless, this trade will be talked about often over the course of the next week dwarfing any coverage of any other trades. How much ink have you seen spent on the Jason Collins-Stromile Swift trade today? Exactly. This was a big one.