Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol Must Be Traded: 9 Realistic Lakers Trade Opportunities

The Los Angeles Lakers as currently constructed are done winning NBA titles. They must be blown up, quickly, severely and without emotion, lest they be doomed to being a perennial playoff contender and title pretender.

The simple fact of the matter is that the trio of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace will be 34, 32 and 33 years of age respectively next season, and even coupled with emergent young star center Andrew Bynum, they are simply too old to win another title being three of a team's four best players.

By the time Bynum truly becomes a superstar capable of dominating games on a daily basis, the Lakers' three elder statesman could be getting ready for retirement.

Now, before I go any further I will say that if I were the Lakers' GM, I would strongly consider trading Andrew Bynum and/or Pau Gasol before this June's draft to maximize the talent surrounding Kobe Bryant and therefore try to win as many titles as possible before the Black Mamba rides off into the sunset and ends his brilliant career. I have explained this in my article titled, "Lakers Must Trade Andrew Bynum and/or Pau Gasol to Maximize Kobe Bryant's Career."

However, the truth is that the Lakers' brass and especially the man truly running the team, owner Jim Buss, may decide that the best way to move forward is to build for the future and to build around Andrew Bynum. If that's the decision, it goes without saying that both Pau Gasol and the greatest Laker ever, Kobe Bryant, must be traded immediately to enable the team to surround Bynum with a plethora of young talent capable of contending for a title for the next decade.

Trading Pau Gasol is the easy part. Trading Kobe Bryant and getting him to agree to be traded (as he is one of the few players in the league to have a true no-trade clause in his contract) promises to be much more difficult. However, in all reality, the Lakers trading Kobe Bryant may be best for both the franchise...

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