NBA Trade Rumors: Why Portland Should Deal No. 6 Pick for Pau Gasol

The Lakers really want to get into the top 10 of this year's NBA draft, most likely so they'll have a shot at landing either Perry Jones III or Quincy Jones, as Sam Amico reports on Twitter. To get in there, they're willing to part ways with Pau Gasol.

"Willing," perhaps, isn't the right word—it's more like "desperate." The cash-strapped Lakers are desperate to be rid of Pau Gasol, who is owed $38 million over the next two years. As a result, they're "willing" to trade him for the meager price of full responsibility for his contract, a top 10 draft pick, plus another player or two.

Granted, Gasol doesn't make sense for a lot of the teams with top 10 picks, but there are certain clubs that would be wise to consider the move. That means you, Portland.

Nobody in the top five is giving up its pick for Gasol. That's a certainty. The only team in the top 10 that makes even remote sense is Portland, which holds the sixth and 11th picks. So even if Portland gives up one of those picks, it still has the opportunity to bring in some young talent just five selections later. 

And, given the fact that the Trail Blazers are widely expected to go with Andre Drummond at No. 6, they could not do themselves a bigger favor than to trade that pick and prevent themselves from making a huge mistake. Pau Gasol may be 32 next season, but he's going to be far more effective over the next two years than Drummond will be.

First and foremost, the Trail Blazers need help up front, and they're expected to use their first pick to get it. Drummond, Tyler Zeller and Meyers Leonard are the best available centers, and two of them aren't worth a top 10 pick. The only one that is possibly worth it is still an enormous risk because, despite massive offensive upside, he plays the same way as every other UConn big man who inevitably busts in the NBA.

Take Hasheem Thabeet for example. He was selected by Memphis with the second overall pick in the 2009 draft, and in three years since, he's bounced around three different teams (incidentally, his current one is Portland) and has averaged around 10 minutes, 2.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Not exactly the production you'd expect to see out of one of the NCAA's most dominant big men or a player who's projected to be the top center in his draft class.

And Thabeet was better than Drummond was at UConn. By the time Thabeet left UConn as a junior, he averaged 13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game. Drummond, by comparison, averaged 10.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks as a freshman before declaring for the draft. 

Granted, just because Thabeet was a bust doesn't necessarily mean that Drummond will be, but there are tremendous similarities to the way they play, including their tendencies to be passive despite their size and strength.

And for the Trail Blazers, trading that pick for Gasol also means giving up at least one player and a lot of cash in return, as well as committing themselves to the idea of Gasol playing center, at least for the time being.

But it also means that they get some proven veteran talent, something they've been lacking for quite a while now. Plus that veteran talent averages a double-double, knows how to pass and, most importantly, knows how to win a championship.

If Portland holds on to the pick and takes Drummond, it will hurt a lot more when he inevitably busts than spending $38 million for a solid veteran.