According to ESPN's Marc Stein, this type of deal is actually possible:
We've heard more than one rival team speculate that a three-way deal where Pierce lands in Memphis, Gasol goes to Boston and Gay joins the Lakers makes "some sense." Sources say that the Celtics and Grizzlies have indeed held some exploratory trade talks since Gay hit the market.
In this deal, the eighth-place Boston Celtics would trade veteran Paul Pierce for some rebounding help in Pau Gasol. Memphis would then get some future payroll flexibility by getting rid of Gay. Finally, the Lakers would get a big-time playmaker.
Unfortunately, this does not make as much sense as it does on paper.
Gay simply does not fit in with the Lakers. He is a perimeter player who takes a lot of shots in order to score, but they already have one of those in Kobe Bryant.
The problem is that the small forward is very inefficient with his scoring. He averages only 17 points per game despite the fact that he takes 16.4 shots per game.
His shooting percentage is a low 40.4 percentage, and that drops to only 30.1 percent from behind the arc. Even though he is a solid free-throw shooter, he does not get himself to the line often enough.
Gay's Player Efficiency Rating of 14.1 would rank ninth on Los Angeles.
Despite his ability to put up points, there is little chance he improves the Lakers offensively.
In addition, the team seems to have made a drastic change that will improve the team without making any trades.
After dropping to 17-25 on the season, the Lakers finally had an epiphany. They realized that the Mike D'Antoni offense does not work for this team.
In the last two games, Los Angeles has r...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
