Lakers Trade Rumors: Team Meeting Will Keep L.A. Focused Until Trade Deadline

Taking some time to focus on the task at hand—winning, even in the midst of myriad trade rumors—can't hurt the Lakers. So that's what head coach Mike Brown and his assistants allegedly urged the players to do during a team meeting on Thursday in Minnesota.

In lieu of practice after two straight losses to Detroit and Washington, Brown instead held a team meeting in which everyone—players and staff included—was encouraged to speak his mind.

The most intriguing aspect of the meeting is that the assistant coaches urged players to "curtail any 'external chatter,'" according to a source. Presumably, that chatter relates to the trade rumors that have swirled for weeks, primarily involving Pau Gasol.

Gasol and Kobe Bryant, both of whom have publicly aired their grievances about the team's public handling of trade rumors this year, spoke up during the meeting after encouragement from Brown.

Gasol, for one, seems to have decided to tune out the rumors until Thursday's deadline has passed, telling ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin:

"

I stuck to my beliefs and my principles, which is togetherness, unity. If we're going to be successful, we're going to do it all together, being on the same page, holding each other accountable and just counting on each other and having each other's back.

"

Gasol's analysis is right on: If this team is going to come together to achieve anything for the remainder of this season, no matter who's on the roster and who gets dispatched, they're going to have to simply focus on playing, and playing together, instead of on what may or may not be going on in the front office. It's all out of their control anyway, so why waste time complaining about it—privately or publicly?

The Lakers have had an up-and-down season thus far, failing to display the straight-up dominance they've been accustomed to over the past couple of seasons. Popular assumption has been that the inconsistency has resulted from frustration regarding the trade rumors. For a while, it boiled over onto the court, and hopefully this airing of grievances will put a stop to that officially.

Everything will be all over on Thursday anyway, and until then, nobody knows what's going to happen. The only thing Gasol, Bryant and the rest of the players can focus on is what happens on the court.

Maybe the Lakers don't need a trade to make a push toward another title. Maybe this renewed focus will give the Lakers the push they need to restore the dominance they're used to.