Sources: No Pau Gasol Trade Imminent
Conventional wisdom holds that reliable winners in the NBA are built on centers and point guards. (Pau) Gasol will be 32 this summer, and his trade value will only wane from here—if the Lakers can turn Gasol into a good young point guard to pair with (Andrew) Bynum for the next decade, now is the time to do so. The most credible of the rumored deals around Gasol are the ones that have the Lakers getting a point guard in return, including packages involving Houston’s Kyle Lowry or Boston’s Rajon Rondo.
But, two league sources say, nothing involving Gasol is imminent. The Lakers nearly wound up with (Chris) Paul for Gasol and Lamar Odom, after all, and it is a step down from Paul to Rondo or Lowry. Rondo, whose reputation as a difficult player has only deepened in the past year, was just slapped with a two-game suspension for throwing a ball at a referee, and though that alone would not scare off the Lakers, Rondo is collecting a worrisome history of run-ins with authority. The Rockets, furthermore, have shown no inclination to deal Lowry, who has developed into a Chauncey Billups-type. That could be posturing, of course—the Rockets really like Gasol.
