How Andrew Bynum's Emergence Allows LA Lakers to Trade Pau Gasol

Andrew Bynum has been emerging as one of the league's top centers this year. He is averaging career highs in both scoring, at 18.7 points per game, and rebounding, with 11.8 per game. He's emerged as the focal point of the Lakers interior offense, and as such, that allows the Lakers the freedom to trade Pau Gasol. 

Allow me two qualifications here. First, it would be nice to see his personal growth reach the same level as his professional growth. Second, it might be difficult for the Lakers to find the right trade with Gasol. 

Bynum, when he's "right," is the second-best center in the league and is maybe a year removed from taking over as the best center in the league. 

There is something of a "law of diminishing returns" effect with Bynum and Gasol both patrolling the paint together. While the tandem makes for an amazing one-two punch of seven-footers, it also means neither player has the full impact he could without the other. 

Bynum is now at the point where he could carry the offensive load by himself and average 25 points per game in the paint. While that doesn't quite make Pau Gasol "expendable," it does make him more "tradeable." The Lakers would be better served spending that money on another skill set than a redundant one. 

Now, when you're talking about trading Gasol, you have to bear in mind that teams aren't waiting to stock up the coffers of the Lakers with their best young players in order to acquire the services of a 31-year-old big man who, while still very good, is no longer one of the top 10 players in the league, as he was when the Lakers acquired him. 

He's no longer on the same level he once was, and he's older than he was then. Both of those factors are going to have an impact on what the Lakers can get in return for him. 

One potential idea of a trade would be something like Avery Bradley and Paul Pierce for Gasol. Bradley would give the Lakers some depth on the bench and a terrific defender at the point guard position. Pierce would allow the Lakers to jettison the problematic Metta World Peace. 

He would also give the Lakers a second wing alongside Kobe Bryant to give the Lakers a lethal combo there, and with Ramon Sessions getting to choose which of the three between Pierce, Bryant and Bynum to deliver the ball to. 

As to the replacement for power forward, it would allow the Lakers the opportunity to develop the promising Jordan Hill. 

Of course, this is just a kind of "for instance." The specifics of that trade are just one idea. Bynum's improvement allows the Lakers the chance to shop Gasol and see what's there. If worse comes to worse, they just don't trade him and keep the best pair of big men in the NBA.