Lakers Rumors: Team Must Use Pau Gasol to Add Youth Alongside Kobe Bryant

The Los Angeles Lakers are in need of a youth movement, and they are trying to create one. The problem is how to get there.

According to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, Pau Gasol might be the answer. 

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Separetely, Lakers interested in Kentucky's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, would be open to trading Pau for Top-5 pick and right package o' players

— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) June 27, 2012"

So here's the issue with this. For the Lakers to win, they have to jettison some of their elite talent, and the most tradeable player they have right now that can land them something significant in return is Pau Gasol. 

However, it's hard to trade a 31-year-old player who is getting paid $20 million for a lottery pick, and there's a good reason for that. 

Players at the top of the lottery are horrible. They're the worst teams in the NBA. That's why they're at the top of the lottery. 

You don't build a team around a maxed out player in his 30s. By the time you get enough pieces around him, he'll be patrolling the lane with a walker. 

Does that mean it's impossible for the Lakers to parlay Pau Gasol into a young player like Michael Kidd-Gilhrist though? No. It just means it's very difficult to do it directly. Indirectly, though, there's a better chance. 

A three-way trade could be intriguing. The Houston Rockets are looking to land a center for themselves. They've accumulated a number of assets to do so.

What if the Lakers were to try and work a three team trade or two separate trades? We know Houston traded for Gasol last year before they didn't. 

The Lakers could try and work a trade revolving around Kyle Lowry and draft choices for Pau Gasol? 

Plus, the fact that Gasol is not a mere "rental" like Dwight Howard would add to sell value for Houston. 

The Lakers could then try and use those assets and turn them into a higher draft pick, which is a much more reasonable scenario. 

There may be some opposed in principle to going into a mini-rebuilding mode right now, but it's time to accept that the Lakers of 2010 are a done deal. They aren't going to win another title. A 1-8 record in the second round of the playoffs the last two years is all the evidence you need. 

The Lakers are getting older, not better, and they need a youth infusion if they are going to compete for a title in 2013 and give Kobe Bryant a chance for his sixth ring. If your argument has something to do with being "fair" to Kobe Bryant, that is what is fair to Kobe Bryant.