the rich get richer and the poor get dumber

on february 1, 2008, the lakers received pau gasol and a 2010 second round pick from the grizzlies for kwame brown, jarvaris crittendon, aaron mckie, the rights to marc gasol, a 2008 first round pick and a 2010 first round pick.

in the recent trade with the grizzlies, the lakers were able to obtain a highly productive and highly talented player in pau gasol without sacrificing anyone in their regular rotation except for kwame brown. in essence, the lakers replaced kwame brown's spot in the rotation with pau gasol. if that isn't an upgrade, then i don't know what is. when healthy, the lakers starting five consist of derek fisher, kobe bryant, lamar odom, pau gasol and andrew bynum. in addition, they were able to keep their deep and effective bench intact, with includes jordan farmar, sasha vujacic,¹ luke walton, vladimir radmanovic, trevor ariza and ronny turiaf. such a lineup will provide versatility and depth that can match almost any playing style that the lakers may encounter.

with that being said, the addition of pau gasol does not automatically make the lakers the favorite to win the nba finals like many experts believe [the spurs should still be the favorite]. for example, no one knows how well gasol will fit with the lakers, and there may be rotation issues when andrew bynum returns from his injury. with gasol and bynum playing the power forward and center positions, respectively, lamar odom moves to small forward, where he may not be as comfortable. odom will be moved to the perimeter to space the offense, and he will be asked to guard smaller and quicker players on defense. but there is an advantage of odom playing small forward. he will have a considerable size advantage on the offensive end, where he should be able to garner his fair share of offensive rebounds. in the end, i do expect odom to play better with the pressure of being the second best player on the team being lifted.

while some may view the acquisition of kwame brown as helping the grizzlies in terms of clearing cap space for this off-season, it also benefits the lakers as well. while the grizzlies will have approximately $17 million to spend in free agency after this season, kwame brown's expiring contract would not have helped the lakers as much. though the lakers would have taken kwame's contract off the books, the money freed up still wouldn't have allowed the lakers to land a free agent that would be the same caliber as pau gasol. basically, the grizzlies helped the lakers with kwame brown's expiring contract as much as they helped themselves.

this questionable trade for grizzlies becomes even more so when considering the trading for rookie point guard javarvis crittendon. i understand that he has value since he may develop into a good player, but the grizzlies already have two young point guards in mike conley jr and kyle lowry [both of whom were high lottery picks]. not only that, the grizzlies rarely play conley and lowry at the same time; so crittendon, as a third string point guard, won't get much playing time. now, having crittendon as a team's young third string point guard only makes sense if there is an aging poing guard ahead of him that he would allow him to move up in the depth chart once he leaves/retires, but that isn't the case with the grizzlies. hopefully memphis general manager chris wallace has a plan to trade one of the young point guards, otherwise it will be a logjam at that position. furthermore, with the emergence of jordan farmar as a quality backup point guard, jarvaris crittendon became expendable, which made it easier for the lakers to trade him.

so other than kwame brown's expiring contract and jarvaris crittendon, what else did the grizzlies get in trading arguably the best player in their franchise's history? by the looks of things, not much. true, the grizzlies did receive two first round picks from the lakers, but realize that these two first round picks will at best be in the late teens [but more likely, these two first round picks will be in the twenties]. i still wonder when teams will learn that low draft picks are not that valuable based on the fact that most of the previous ones have not had that much impact in the league. the last remaining piece of the trade is the grizzlies gaining the rights to marc gasol [yes, he and pau gasol are siblings]. some scouts say that he may develop into a player like his brother, but at this point no one really knows.

in conclusion, the lakers obviously became title contenders with the trade for pau gasol since they didn't really didn't give anything that great of value to get him. the grizzlies look like they got the short end of the deal, and this trade raises the question of what the other offers were for pau gasol since their asking price wasn't that much. the lakers now have a bigger and stronger frontcourt, while the grizzlies only have the hope that this trade will expedite the rebuilding process. i'm sure chris wallace believes that this trade will help build a championship contender; unfortunately for grizzlies, it looks like he's building it in los angeles.

¹ much like pau gasol, sasha vujacic instantly became a better player when he decided to grow a beard and grow his hair out. i can't stress it enough that this is what all struggling or fringe players should do to help their careers. i call this 'the samson effect.'