Chris Paul Trade: Kobe No Longer Has to Hope for Teammates to Step Up

The Lakers acquired Chris Paul today after striking yet another blockbuster deal involving the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Hornets. The Lakers gave up Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom in order to make the deal work.

If it looks like the Lakers gave up too much, then let's reexamine the deal.

As great as Gasol and Odom were for the Lakers, there were times when they were silent and did not step up. Last year during the playoffs, Pau was absolutely atrocious and every night Kobe was hoping for someone to step up.

Now with Paul, he is guaranteed somebody will give the same effort he does every night. For the first time since the Shaq days, Kobe is going to be playing with a guy that's just as valuable as he is, if not more.

This is why the Lakers were monster winners in this trade. They get consistency with Paul every night. He brings youthful exuberance, great defense, high IQ and a knack for facilitating offenses.

If anybody called the Lakers slow yesterday, they can't do it anymore. Paul automatically brings much-needed speed and agility to the Lakers squad.

Secondly, the Lakers now match up well with every team in the Western Conference. Dallas lost Caron Butler and are close to losing Tyson Chandler today to free agency, and Dirk Nowitzki is approaching 40. San Antonio's core is aging and showed last year in the postseason that they suffer from fatigue late in the season. The only team that had a legitimate shot against the Lakers were the Oklahoma City Thunder.

With Chris Paul, the Lakers can silence Russell Westbrook and keep up with the quick and swift Thunder. Even without Dwight Howard, the Lakers can match up with Thunder bigs Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins. Andrew Bynum has shown that he can take out Perkins from games and the Lakers will definitely sign another big to take over the power forward position.

Kris Humphries, anyone?

More likely than not, Bynum will be traded for Howard and the Lakers should have no trouble getting past Oklahoma City. 

In the finals, the Lakers are most likely expecting to play the Celtics, Bulls or Heat. Chris Paul gives the Lakers an advantage against all of those teams. It makes them quicker against the aging Celtics. It gives them someone to cancel out Derrick Rose. It also gives them a mismatch against the Heat point guards. 

Finally, anybody that is complaining about the Lakers not having any depth on the bench right now, please be patient. The free-agency season hasn't even started. The Lakers will sign some players to fill up their roster spots much like Miami did when they acquired their Big Three. 

Guys like Matt Barnes, Steve Blake and Lamar Odom are replaceable parts. It's not like they lost or are expecting to lose any big-time superstars in the Paul or Howard trades. 

The Lakers showed again with this trade for CP3 that they want to win now and in the future. Kobe is not getting any younger and this move was the first step to build the Lakers for years.