Almost everyone has probably already put their two cents in regarding this trade.

The Lakers got Pau Gasol.

The Grizzlies got a whole lot of nothin’!

… at least for right now.

Memphis gets room to draft some free agents and some first round draft picks down the road which could turn out to be valuable (though that is unlikely considering the fact that they just made those draft picks somewhere between the 25th and the 30th picks in those years).

If some other team had accomplished the same thing, it might not have been such a bad trade on the Grizzlies part.

The reason?

A few of the teams in the NBA have a hard time attracting free agents, and the Memphis Grizzlies are one of them. It is highly unlikely that the cap-space will be of much use to them to use on an A-list free agent because attracting A-list free agents to Memphis is very difficult. Add to that the fact that the Grizzlies just aren’t very good and you find that they may have a very difficult time attracting players of caliber unless they are willing to highly overpay for someone.

Look for the Memphis Grizzlies to be bottom-feeders of the league for the next decade…again… UNLESS their draft picks over the last few years develop into All-Star caliber talent AND they can keep them. Hopefully, for the league’s sake, that turns out to be true.

As for the Lakers, everybody is handing them the title.

To that, I say, NOT SO FAST!

Pau Gasol has been injury prone of late.

Pau Gasol has never won a playoff game.

NOT A SINGLE GAME!

It’s like sending McGrady over to the Lakers and expecting them to be the NBA champions.

McGrady at least has won a playoff game, if not an actual series.

PAU GASOL HAS NOT WON A SINGLE PLAYOFF GAME.

And that doesn’t even mention the fact that they’ll still have to go through some of the following teams: the San Antonio Spurs (who are always tough in the playoffs and usually running on a 10 game win streak when the season ends), Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, and New Orleans Hornets.

Those aren’t chump teams!

I don’t think that a player who has NEVER WON A SINGLE PLAYOFF GAME automatically puts the Lakers over the top.

If anything, I think a healthy Bynum helps them more than Pau Gasol, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.