Lakers Rumors: Reported Chris Paul Trade a Home Run for Los Angeles

Warning: If you are an LA Lakers fan reading this you are about to be very excited.

Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that a Chris Paul trade is officially happening:

This tweet came just seconds after Wojnarowski reported that it was Andrew Bynum, not Gasol that was in the trade.

The difference is monumental.

 Bynum is only 23 and has shown significant improvement in the last two years. His knee issues seem to be a non-issue and he is one of the last true centers in the league. Kobe Bryant had clearly grown tired of Gasol’s tendency to be soft in big moments and lack of strong defense in the post. Plus he’s 31.

This report goes against a report from Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld that claims the Lakers rejected a trade for CP3:

It’s not clear if a third team was involved, which is what Wojnarowski reported earlier on Thursday:

ESPN’s Marc Stein reports that a third team is in fact involved:

Are you getting all of this? Regardless of all of the madness, it looks like Paul is officially a Laker and the rest of the NBA just let out one big collective grown.

If LA had gone into the season with Derek Fisher and Steve Blake as their primary point guards, there was no way the Lakers were ever going to get past the second round.

Now that they reportedly have CP3 all of those worries have been extinguished. The problem now is that there isn’t much inside scoring presence without Gasol. Odom and Gasol were the main scoring options in the paint and Bynum is never going to score more than 13 a game. Then again, with CP3 on board, maybe that’s all they really need from the front court at this point. 

They can always trade for Dwight Howard to fill that hole if need be.

For now, the Lakers just got a whole lot better for the upcoming season with what looks to be a done deal to bring CP3 to LA.