Lakers Rumors: Trading Pau Gasol for Rajon Rondo Worth Shelving Celtics Beef

Would the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics really engage each other in talks over a blockbuster NBA trade? Would GMs Mitch Kupchak and Danny Ainge, who played against each other during the rivalry's fiercest period in the 1980s, really consider swapping All-Star Pau Gasol and Rajon Rondo?

That just might be the case and if it means another swindle for the Lakers at the expense of the hated C's, all the better.

Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld was the first to pontificate on the possibility of such a deal in the wake of a recent conversation between Kupchak and Lakers sideline reporter Mike Trudell, in which Kupchak said:

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"Well, if there were a way for us to get a 25-year-old, All-Star, ball-handling guard we'd love to do it…but that's not likely in February. So you look at other alternatives, and see if it's better than what you have. That's all."

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The comments may seem innocuous enough—who wouldn't want to acquire a hypothetical 25-year-old All-Star point guard if they could—until you consider the way Kupchak has dropped hints about personnel decisions in the past. As Eric Pincus recounts:

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Kupchak has a history of being somewhat of a “literal” speaker. He’s not the kind of GM who will flat out lie to media, but rather chose not to answer the question directly or indirectly.

You might call that a “tell.”

One example would be Kupchak mentioning at a season ticket holder event (prior to drafting Andrew Bynum) that there was a high school kid he’d hate to see on another team.  Later, he made a similar comment about a 17-year-old.

Bynum at the time was the only 17-year-old, high school kid in that class. Kupchak all but spelled it out before the Lakers took him in 2005 NBA Draft.

Applying that logic to the Trudell quote, there is exactly one 25-year-old, All-Star, ball-handling guard in the league.

Rajon Rondo.

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It certainly wouldn't be a surprise for Ainge to shop Rondo at this point, either. The Celtics' brass made a concerted effort to send Rondo to the New Orleans Hornets in exchange for Chris Paul but were ultimately rebuffed, leaving the sixth-year guard out of Kentucky disillusioned with the team for a time before the season began.

If a Gasol-for-Rondo deal is in fact on the table in any shape or form, it would behoove Kupchak to pull the trigger as soon as humanly possible. Rondo is younger and cheaper than Pau and would fill a position of dire need for the Lakers—point guard.

Surely, even Kobe Bryant wouldn't mind playing alongside a guy who can make his life easier by handling the ball and creating shots for the team. There's little doubt that Kobe is well aware of Rondo's particular talents after battling the pesky point guard in two NBA Finals series.

As beautiful as the synergy between Kobe and Pau is at times, it's clear that Gasol is on the way out of his athletic prime.

And—as opposed to the failed Paul trade—the Lakers would be giving only one of their two seven-footers. If anything, moving Gasol out would open up more space for Andrew Bynum in the middle, allowing a kid who's already an All-Star starter to take his game to the next level as the Lakers' singular focal point in the post.

True, the rule of thumb in basketball dictates that you never trade big for small, but if you can go old for young, fill a huge hole on your roster and create more cap flexibility—especially if you're a team as woefully entangled with the league's salary restrictions as the Lakers currently are—then sending Gasol to Beantown for Rondo is a must.

Even if it means conspiring with the enemy and inviting far-fetched theories of double agency into your midst.

Then again, it's highly likely that this is all nothing more than speculation and conjecture and that Kupchak really was speaking in generalities rather than unknowingly letting on to a possible deal.

In any case, the fact remains that the Lakers need help in the backcourt and what better way to acquire such assistance than by squeezing the Celtics?

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