Chris Paul Trade: Why Deal Is Great for NBA

From all appearances, Chris Paul is going to be a Laker. 

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tweeted this:

Wojnarowski's full report can be found here.

Howard Beck of the New York Times ran down the rest of the trade on Twitter.

Now, this is a reported trade. Nothing will be official until Friday. But for the sake of argument, let's say that it's going to happen.

First of all, this is a great move for the Lakers. J.J. Barea torched them last year in the playoffs. He's far from an elite point guard, and Derek Fisher is only getting older. Without improving at that position, the Lakers wouldn't do any better this year than they did last year.

From the NBA's perspective, this is a great move. They now have a West Coast version of the Miami Heat. This is a role the Lakers have played before, and the league is better when they are in it. 

People care about "Dream Teams." They don't always like them, but the caring is all that matters. I can't tell you how many people I knew that were passionately cheering for the Mavericks last year during the NBA Finals. 

These weren't fans of the Mavericks. Heck, some of them weren't even fans of the NBA. But they were all watching the finals to see LeBron James and the Heat lose. That's all the league cares about. 

Villains work well in professional sports. Nothing makes a greater villain than a superstar loaded team. This loaded team is the Lakers, which makes the move even better for the NBA. 

This is a high profile team in a huge market. It's the same team that employed great players like Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and later Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. 

This is a market driven by stars. When the Lakers are doing well, the league is doing well. With this trade, the Lakers will be very good for a long time. 

From an on-court point of view, I see similarities between this squad and the "Showtime" Lakers of the 1980's. They will run up and down the floor and put up big point totals.

The NBA was never better than it was when Magic ran the show in Los Angeles. There will never be another Magic Johnson, but Paul is a strong start towards rebuilding that kind of team. 

This is pretty simple. When the league's most exciting team plays in Los Angeles, the league is better. 

With this move, the Lakers are the most exciting team in the NBA. The back court of Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul makes this the best team in the NBA to watch. 

What's better is that they aren't a runaway favorite. The league is already exciting to watch. So, the Lakers getting a jolt makes a good situation better.

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