Lakers Rumors: Unwillingness to Deal Pau Gasol for Rajon Rondo Is Laughable

With the NBA's trade deadline just a day away, the Los Angeles Lakers have yet to make the impact move they desperately need. A trade of forward Pau Gasol for Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo may have been on the table.

If L.A. balked at it, then it was a major mistake.

According to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers are unwilling to include Gasol in a deal for Rondo, so there is little to no chance of Rondo ending up in Los Angeles. While dealing Gasol would weaken the frontcourt, Andrew Bynum is still in place, and point guard is a huge need.

Celtics general manager Danny Ainge has since said that Rondo won't be getting traded, according to ESPN, but that could very well only be due to the Lakers' refusal to deal Gasol. Los Angeles' hesitance is strange when you consider that Gasol has constantly been rumored to be on the move for months.

If the Lakers have been shopping Gasol around vigorously, then you have to wonder exactly what they're hoping to get in return. There's obviously no guarantee that something close to a one-for-one deal of Gasol for Rondo was on the table, but Bresnahan makes it sound as if it was in the Lakers' hands.

Gasol was a huge part of two Lakers' championship teams and he can still be an effective big man, as evidenced by his averages of 16.6 points and 10.5 rebounds per game this season. At the same time, though, he is going to be 32 years old soon and he really came up small in the playoffs last season.

Rondo, on the other hand, is just 26 years of age, locked up under a long-term contract and has room to improve. He is certainly one of the best point guards in the league and his numbers back that up as he is averaging 14 points, 10 assists and five rebounds for the underachieving Celtics.

It's true that the Lakers and Kobe Bryant have excelled in the past without a true point guard, but there is no doubt that point guard is one of the most integral positions in the game right now. Not only would a big three of Bryant, Bynum and Rondo be better in the future than a triumvirate that involves Gasol, but it would be better for the present as well.

The Lakers are going to be players in the Western Conference this season, but there are a ton of tough teams to contend with. Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Dallas, the Los Angeles Clippers and many others promise to be tough outs in the playoffs. It's doubtful that a stagnant Lakers squad could survive all of them.

If the Lakers ever intend to trade Gasol, then this is the deal for them.

They may have already let their opportunity slip by, since Ainge has asserted the notion that he isn't trading Rondo. He would look pretty bad at this point if he went back on that, so the deal is probably dead.

We may never know for sure what the discussions precisely entailed, but the Lakers may have really dropped the ball. The organization can say that it wants to improve, but in order to get something good, something of value has to be given up.

Rondo would have been a perfect fit, but the Lakers are simply gun-shy.