The Los Angeles Lakers have done it again. They pulled off a big time trade that landed Chris Paul while sending Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol away to the New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets respectively. The initial reaction I'm seeing on Twitter is a lot of doom and gloom -- oh, no, the Lakers did it again. But I'm not so sure this deal is as good as some seem to think, especially in the short term and especially if they can't some how also get Dwight Howard.
I put together a more detailed analysis of the trade here. I looked at it for each team and broke down the salary numbers. The long of the short of it is this: I don't see the Lakers being better with Kobe, Paul and Bynum than they were with Kobe, Odom and Gasol.
What made the Lakers so damn good was their size. Kobe was great, sure, but the Suns beat the Lakers when it was Kobe and Kwame Brown. Add Kobe to those three seven-footers with compatible skill sets and whamo! Rings.
Now, if the Lakers can still manage to flip Bynum for Dwight Howard it's game over. But we are a ways away from that.
In the mean time, Bynum's knee is still a question long term. Chris Paul missed half the season two years ago and played with a giant brace on his knee last year and he wasn't the same guy and Kobe went to Germany for some kind of plasma therapy on his knee.
That's a lot of knee issues along with the obvious time it's going to take them to gel. The Lakers now have Bynum up front and then....(crickets). So, let's no rush out and panic over this deal just yet. K?
[Update by Seth Pollack, 12/08/11 7:11 PM MST ]
It would appear the other NBA owners didn't agree with me that this wasn't a great deal for the Lakers so they apparently nixed it. High comedy right there, folks. Any guesses which owner(s) bitched the loudest?
Twitter / @WojYahooNBA: The NBA has killed the pro ...
The NBA has killed the proposed deal to send Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers, league sources tell Yahoo! Sports.