L.A. Lakers Draft 2012: Top 5 Draft Prospects and the Trades to Land Them

Lakers fans want a title and they want it now. Kobe Bryant wants another title and he wants it yesterday.

After a second straight second-round playoff exit, the Los Angeles Lakers front office knows change is needed, Lakers players know change is coming and everyone in Los Angeles seems to know that the only way to bring about effectual change is to trade Pau Gasol.

The often beloved and nearly as often besmirched Big Spaniard has almost certainly played his final game in the purple and gold. However, while most Lakers fans will hate to see Gasol go, they also realize that trading him is the easiest and best way to improve the team and hopefully win an 18th franchise title (yes, I am counting their 1948 NBL title).

The vast majority of Lakers fans probably hope for and expect the team to trade Pau Gasol for another superstar such as the Nets' Deron Williams or the Magic’s Dwight Howard. However, Lakers brass made it abundantly clear when they dumped reigning Sixth Man of the Year and player favorite Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks for little more than salary cap relief, that ownership is indeed serious about cutting costs.

Such being the case, it would not surprise me at all to see Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak trade Pau Gasol for little more than a lottery pick, a solid role player or two and some much-needed extra cap relief.

Over the next five slides, you will read about which draft prospects may be the best fit for the Lakers and help them return to true championship contention, as well as how trading Pau Gasol would enable such a draft pick, as well as other valuable pieces, to be acquired.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is perhaps the closest thing to a perfect basketball player in this draft class, at least in the area of intangibles. Kidd-Gilchrist has all the desire, determination, will to win, toughness and leadership qualities one could ask for in an NCAA champion, let alone one who just happens to be the youngest player in this year’s draft.

To his credit, he may already be the best wing defender in this draft as well, with the potential to be a true lock-down defender at the next level.

I personally believe the Kidd-Gilchrist will be a very good NBA player and is the sort of player that any championship contender would love to have on their roster. I can certainly see MKG as a dynamic slasher and finisher in the mold of a stronger Gerald Wallace on the offensive end and as a Scottie Pippen, elite-level defender on the defensive side of the ball, with all the intangibles of a player like Derek Fisher throw in the mix.

Such a combination would indeed make for a magnificent all-around basketball player.

All of the above said, while I believe a team like the Charlotte Bobcats or New Orleans Hornets may be making a huge mistake if they decide to draft Kidd-Gilchrist to become the primary scorer as well as savior of their moribund franchises, I believe a team like the Los Angeles Lakers would be a perfect fit for a player like MKG.

In fact, MKG is exactly the type of player the Lakers need in more ways than one.

Firstly, Kidd-Gilchrist is not just young, but the youngest player in the entire draft, and the Lakers need youth badly. Secondly, he is extremely athletic and as the OKC Thunder proved, the Lakers are in dire need of an influx of athleticism.

Thirdly, he is a small forward and if there was one positional problem area for the Lakers last season, it was there, where Metta World Peace and Matt Barnes did their best Dumb and Dumber impersonation for a large portion of the season.

Fourthly, he is a low-maintenance, hard-working, do-whatever-it-takes-to-win sort of player, and as such he is not only exactly the type of player such an ego- and star-studded team as the Lakers could use, but a player that team leader Kobe Bryant would instantly respect and want to go to battle with game in and game out.

In order for the Lakers to acquire Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, I believe they would need to secure the third pick in the draft from the Washington Wizards, as I believe Anthony Davis and Thomas Robinson will be drafted first and second overall by the Hornets and Bobcats, respectively.

The Wizards already started exchanging youth and potential for proven production and veteran leadership when they traded the ultra-talented JaVale McGee to the Denver Nuggets for veteran star center Nene.

Adding a veteran star power forward in Pau Gasol, veteran defensive specialist and warrior Metta World Peace and a quality veteran backup point guard in Steve Blake may in fact give the Wizards the perfect blend of youth and experience to make the playoffs as early as next season. As such, I do believe the Wizards would be interested in working a deal with the Lakers.

I believe the Lakers could obtain this third pick from the Wizards via the following trade:

Lakers Trade: Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace and Steve Blake

Wizards Trade: Rashard Lewis, Chris Singleton and the third pick (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist)

The above trade can be completed immediately, even before the draft takes place and if the Lakers are serious about cutting costs and adding youth and athleticism, this is a trade the front office should at least consider.

Financially speaking, this trade would save the Lakers a boatload of money. The Lakers owe the Gasol, World Peace, Blake trio a combined $61,272,090 over the next two seasons in mere base salary. Even if they were to amnesty World Peace, while they would decrease their penalty taxes, they would still have to pay the same $61,272,090 in total salary.

By acquiring Rashard Lewis, Chris Singleton and the third pick to use to draft Michael Kidd-Gilchrist from the Wizards, the Lakers would be on the hook for approximately $41,509,915 in salaries, and that is if they pick up Singleton’s and Kidd-Gilchrist’s team options in the future.

Considering the fact that Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace and Steve Blake’s contracts all expire after the 2013-14 season whereas Chris Singleton’s 2014-15 and Kidd-Gilchrist’s through 2015-16, the simple fact is that the Lakers would be saving just under $20 million in base salary alone, not including tax savings. They would also be receiving at least an extra year of dynamic young small forward Chris Singleton’s services and an extra two years of Kidd-Gilchrist’s.

I believe the triple-headed small forward lot of Kidd-Gilchrist, Singleton and Rashard Lewis is quite an upgrade to the Metta World Peace and Matt Barnes duo. While the Lakers would be losing their starting power forward and backup point guard, I sincerely don’t believe either player would be hard to replace.

Veteran power forwards such as Lamar Odom, Antawn Jamison and even Elton Brand (who I believe will be amnestied by the 76ers) could all be acquired on a veteran minimum contract. Finding a point guard to replace Steve Blake shouldn’t be difficult at all, with veterans such as Jason Kidd, Andre Miller, Chauncey Billups, Kirk Hinrich and more all set to hit free agency and be available on a veteran minimum contract.

Lakers ownership may have a hard time turning this trade proposal down, especially with the new collective bargaining agreement being the beast that it is.

Harrison Barnes

Harrison Barnes is perhaps the best pure scorer, at least from the small forward position, that exists in this draft class.

In all honestly, the above sentence is really all that needs to be said as to why Barnes should be on the Lakers radar and why General Manager Mitch Kupchak should be considering trade scenarios and proposals that would effectively allow the Lakers to acquire the University of North Carolina star.

Simply put, Barnes may be the type of player that the Lakers cannot afford to let slip through their fingers.

Personally, I don’t believe Barnes is the best fit for the Lakers, but since I’m not the omnipotent creator, I can’t claim that my personal opinions are always right and therefore like to present viable options whether I agree with them personally or not. Barnes could, in fact, turn into a Hall of Famer.

However, Harrison Barnes seems to me to be a high-volume scorer and player who wants to be the No. 1 option on a team, and that simply won’t work in Lakerland with Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum first and second in line at the dinner table. I also do not believe Barnes is solid enough on the defensive end to play alongside Kobe or to even earn a starting spot over mercurial small forward Metta World Peace.

I personally believe that Terrence Ross would be a better fit at the small forward for the Lakers than Harrison Barnes, but Los Angeles is a star’s city and the name Harrison Barnes already carries star power, much more so than Terrence Ross, anyway.

This said, it wouldn’t shock me to see the Lakers seriously consider making a play to acquire Harrison Barnes.

In order to acquire Harrison Barnes in the draft, I believe they would most likely need to secure the fifth pick in the draft from the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are steep on youth and talent and lacking in veteran leadership and production. Trading with the Lakers may be the quickest way for the Kings to surge back into prominence and become a perennial playoff team.

I believe the following trade would interest both teams.

Lakers Trade: Pau Gasol and Steve Blake

Kings Trade: Tyreke Evans, John Salmons, Francisco Garcia and the fifth pick (Harrison Barnes)

The above trade is one that could also be made immediately, even before the NBA draft.

This trade, unlike the Michael Kidd-Gilchrist proposal, is more about adding talent and depth than saving money. The Lakers would lose their starting power forward and backup point guard in this deal while gaining a new starting point guard, starting small forward, backup shooting guard and backup combo wingman.

That is quite a haul, all things considered.

Financially speaking, the Lakers would be shedding $46,285,850 in total salary and on the hook for only approximately $39,711,759 in guaranteed salary, so not only does this deal land the Lakers two young studs with superstar potential along with two quality role players, it saves them over $6 million in base salary alone.

I also personally believe if the Lakers to acquire John Salmons and draft Harrison Barnes, they would amnesty Metta World Peace, saving themselves even more money.

Harrison Barnes would be a great addition for the Lakers and the duo of John Salmons and Francisco Garcia would give the Lakers the best backup shooting guard and small forward combo they have had in years.

However, it is the addition of Tyreke Evans that might make this deal too good for the Lakers to pass up. Evans is a dynamic 22-year-old combo guard who won the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2009 after averaging over 20 points, five rebounds and nearly six assists per game. He has a career per-40-minute average of 20.1 points, 5.9 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Just last season, Evans had one five-game stretch where he averaged 25 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and another where he averaged 23.4 points, 7.2 assists and six rebounds per game. Mr. Evans may, in fact, be an absolute Godsend for the Lakers franchise and the greatest point guard they have had since Magic Johnson was running showtime.

Kendall Marshall

Kendall Marshall is quite possibly the best pure point guard the NBA draft has seen since Jason Kidd in 1994. This fact alone may make him the perfect fit for the Los Angeles Lakers, as Marshall would thrive in and enjoy distributing the basketball to Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum.

Marshall is the rare point guard who can dominate a game—on the offensive end anyway—without ever taking a shot. Last season as a sophomore at the University of North Carolina, Marshall averaged 11.9 assists per 40 minutes and an incredible 3.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Jason Kidd, by comparison, averaged 10.4 assists per 40 minutes and a 2.1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in his best and final collegiate season.

A lot has been made of Marshall’s utter lack of scoring. However, while Marshall did average only 8.1 points per game this past season, he did so taking just 6.3 shots per game. Marshall actually scored 238 points on a total of just 225 field-goal attempts. That works out to an adjusted field-goal percentage of 52.9 percent, which is outstanding for most centers, let alone a pass-first point guard, and is actually, ever so slightly (by .2 percent) better than Jason Kidd’s collegiate career average.

All of the above said, Kendall Marshall may indeed be the point guard the Lakers have been searching for since Magic Johnson retired.

In order for the Lakers to be able to draft Marshall, I believe they would need to secure at least the No. 14 pick in the draft. It just so happens that that pick belongs to the Houston Rockets, a team that already traded for Pau Gasol last year in the Chris Paul fiasco and may be more interested than ever in the Spanish legend now that they have missed the playoffs for a third straight year, despite having a winning record each time.

I believe both teams would agree, or at least strongly consider, to the following trade:

Lakers Trade: Pau Gasol and Steve Blake

Rockets Trade: Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, their No. 14 pick and the Knicks No. 16 pick

The above trade is one that could also be made immediately, even before the NBA draft.

The Rockets would most likely consider the above trade a no-brainer, as they are not only getting the best player in the deal in Pau Gasol, but they are dumping two players that don’t seem to a part of their future and who also have expensive contracts in Scola and Martin.

Houston would also be receiving a quality backup veteran point guard and perhaps most importantly, one that is not named Goran Dragic and therefore poses no real threat to star point guard Kyle Lowry of stealing his minutes.

Houston losing the two first-round picks could simply be considered collateral damage by the Rockets and since there almost assuredly won’t be an elite big man or even shooting guard prospect to be had in the range of these picks, Houston shouldn’t have any problem letting the picks go to acquire a true superstar power forward like Gasol.

In fact, I believe Houston would look at losing the picks as nothing more than the cost of doing business, or better yet the cost of being able to dump the contracts of Scola and Martin on the Lakers.

When this trade is complete, the Rockets would have the necessary funds to make a major play for free-agent center Roy Hibbert, or, the center I feel would complement Gasol best and which Houston should be focusing on, JaVale McGee. The Clippers may be called “Lob City” due to the dynamic Chris Paul-to-Blake Griffin/DeAndre Jordan connection, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the Pau Gasol to JaVale McGee pairing produced more alley-oops between a single duo than any other in the NBA next season.

Gasol’s passing skills and McGee’s unbelievably freakish athleticism would be a perfect pairing.

As for the Lakers, losing Gasol will hurt, no matter where he is traded to or when it happens, but being able to dump Steve Blake’s contract is actually a bonus. Acquiring two starter-level players in Scola and Martin along with two first-round draft picks, one of which can be used to draft the aforementioned Kendall Marshall is a king’s ransom for the soon-to-be-32-year-old Gasol.

This a deal the Lakers would be foolish to pass up.

Terrence Ross

In the second slide of this article, I mentioned that I personally believe Washington Husky small forward Terrence Ross may actually be a better fit for the Lakers than Harrison Barnes. Amazingly, if the Lakers play their cards right, they may actually be able to acquire both Terrence Ross and slide three protagonist Kendall Marshall in the same trade.

I believe Terrence Ross will still be on the board when the No. 16 pick is set o be drafted and as such, if the Lakers are able to pull off the trade proposed in the previous slide with the Houston Rockets, they would indeed be able to draft both Kendall Marshall with the No. 14 pick and Terrence Ross with the No. 16 pick!

I have already explained why I believe both the Lakers and Rockets would agree to this deal in the previous slide. However, I will now explain why I feel Terrence Ross is such a magnificent fit for the Lakers, a better fit than even Harrison Barnes.

In fact, I will first allow the stats to simply speak for themselves:

Player's Per-40 Stats	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Steals	Blocks
Ross	21.1	8.2	1.8	1.7	1.2
Barnes	23.4	7.1	1.5	1.5	.4

Player's Shooting Averages	FG%	2P%	3P%	FT%
Ross	45.7	51.8	37.1	76.6
Barnes	44.0	46.9	35.8	72.3

It is abundantly clear from the stats above that the only—I repeat—the only area where Barnes excels above Ross is in scoring the ball. However, even this is only due to the fact that Barnes shoots the ball nearly 10 percent more than Ross when he is in the game. Simply put, Terrence Ross is a better free-throw, three-point and field-goal shooter than Barnes as well as the superior rebounder, passer, ball-handler and defender.

Despite all of the above being the case, Harrison Barnes is expected to be no worse than the seventh pick in the draft while Terrence Ross could go as low as the early 20s. Let me be the first to say that is utterly ridiculous!

Terrence Ross is a better basketball player than Harrison Barnes, period.

Barnes is a bit younger and time will tell who becomes the better player when all is said and done, but for the time being, Ross is undoubtedly the better player. The Lakers should be thrilled to add a talented small forward who enjoys playing defense, shoots the ball at a high clip and is the sort of "glue guy" every team needs to be successful.

Terrence Jones

Terrence Jones enters this year's draft fresh off a national championship with the Kentucky Wildcats and a sophomore season in which he did just about everything—except free-throw shooting, that is—magnificently.

Jones could have easily been a lottery pick in last year's draft after, averaging nearly 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocks per game.

Instead, he decided to return to school, dedicate himself to being more of a power forward than a small forward, improve his all around game and win a national championship for good measure. His plan couldn't have went any better!

While many talking heads may point to Jones' decreased production as a sophomore from that of his stellar freshman campaign, such a decrease in numbers was simply do to his playing two less minutes per game (Kentucky blew out a lot of teams this year) as well as being surrounded with greater talent than he was during his freshman campaign. The fact of the matter is that Jones improved his offensive game by dedicating himself more so to post play and therefore increased his field-goal percentage nearly six percent. Jones also became an even more effective defender and averaged 4.2 combined blocks and steals per game!

Personally, I view Terrence Jones as a clone of Atlanta Hawks hybrid forward Josh Smith, period.

Imagining a Josh Smith and Andrew Bynum frontcourt, let alone a Josh Smith and Dwight Howard frontcourt, is enough to make any Lakers fan salivate. Such could be the most dominant power center and stretch-four pairing in league history, and the Lakers would be wise to consider it if acquiring the appropriate pick, which would allow them to draft Terrence Jones, is a possibility. I believe it is,

I have little doubt that the Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers would both agree to the following trade:

Lakers Trade: Pau Gasol

76ers Trade: Andre Iguodala, Craig Brackins and the No. 15 pick

I believe Philadelphia will most definitely amnesty starting power forward Elton Brand before the start of next season so that they will have the funds necessary to re-sign both star sixth man Lou Williams and starting center Spencer Hawes.

This will leave the 76ers with a gaping hole at the power forward position, a hole that could be perfectly filled by Pau Gasol.

A starting frontcourt of Hawes, Gasol and Thad Young, coupled with the three-headed monster of Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner and the aforementioned Lou Williams would give the 76ers one of the more skilled lineups in the East. The addition of Gasol will also give the 76ers one thing they sorely lacked last season—a true superstar and go-to post scorer.

If Gasol can average over 17 points playing with Kobe Bryant being the first, second and third offensive option and over 10 rebounds with Andrew Bynum swallowing up boards at a rapid rate beside him, it would not surprise me at all to see Pau average over 23 points per game in Philadelphia as the first option and grab over 12 rebounds per game with Spencer Hawes alongside him in the post.

As for the Lakers, this is as close to a no-brainer trade as they could hope for...if they like Terrence Jones as a starting power forward next to Andrew Bynum (or Dwight Howard). I don't see what's not to like. A starting frontcourt of Bynum, Jones and Iguodala is scary on both the offensive and defensive ends!

Offensively, Bynum is an absolute beast on the blocks, period. Jones is a terror as a stretch four and his ability to step out to the three-point line and either shoot the three or use his excellent first step to blow by slower defenders will space the floor and allow Bynum all the room he needs to operate down low. Iguodala is the jack-of-all-trades poor man's LeBron James who can do just about everything, and his willingness to pass and play point forward could make the Bynum and Jones duo nearly un-guardable.

Defensively, Bynum is a monster fly swatter and glass cleaner. Terrence Jones has the ability to guard both power forwards and small forwards, and he's also a fantastic rebounder and magnificent shot-blocker who also plays the passing lanes and gets more steals than many power forwards even dream of. Iguodala is one of the best defenders in the game today, bar none, can guard three positions on the court and has been known to flat out lock some opponents down from time to time.

If the Lakers have the opportunity to trade Pau Gasol and receive both Andre Iguodala and Terrence Jones, I think it is something they must strongly consider.