Lakers Rumors: What Pau Gasol Drama Means Going into Offseason

The Los Angeles Lakers are going to have an extremely turbulent offseason until they make a concrete decision on Pau Gasol.

Is he staying or is he going? That is the question that every fan and even the Spaniard himself would love to know.

According to Bulls.com’s Sam Smith on Monday, Gasol was rumored to be interested in playing for Chicago and that the Lakers would be exploring some type of trade that involved bringing Luol Deng to L.A. in return.

The next day, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times caught up with the power forward and was told that he had no desire to play for any other team but the Lake Show.

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"My position is still the same," Gasol told The Times. "I still would love to be a part of the Lakers and continue to be here to help the team win more championships as soon as possible. It's out of my control and it's out of my hands, no matter what."

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The latter part of Pau’s quote certainly rings true.

After nearly being dealt to Houston as part of the eventually vetoed Chris Paul blockbuster trade back in December, Gasol had had to live with constant rumors swirling about from then on—right up until the final minute of the trade deadline.

Now that the offseason has begun, general manager Mitch Kupchak hardly seemed confident that the player that helped raise two championship banners in the Staples Center would be back.

ESPNLA’s Brian Kamenetzky reported that the GM admitted Gasol was mentally shaken by the vetoed deal and felt he would never trust the organization the same again.

When asked about the Lakers making trades in the offseason, Kupchak did not hesitate to say that things are likely going to happen:

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"Why not? Sure. When you lose, and we went through it last year and we didn’t make really, other than at the trade deadline, we didn’t do anything last year, but when you lose before you think you should have lost, you have to open up all opportunities." 

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One of those opportunities might be jettisoning Gasol and his $19 million per-year contract that does not expire until the summer of 2014.

The Lakers would like to shake up the roster and bring in some fresh talent. If they can land what they feel is an upgrade in exchange for Pau, it’s likely that they make the move.

It would be best for the organization and the players involved if they were somehow able to keep the whispers out of the media and expedite any personnel changes they intend to make.