Odom and Gasol are on the other side of their careers and would never be a key piece to help either Houston or New Orleans go deep in the playoffs. And as Gilbert said, the Lakers would get a top 3 pg and clear major cap space.

The lockout was "supposed" to be to help the smaller market teams have a better chance of competing and increasing revenue. This trade would have only made it even tougher for teams out West to compete, especially if the Lakers would make more transactions for a quality 4 man and help gain depth.

Yeah; it sucks, because in theory Paul should be able to go where he chooses and Odom, Gasol, Scola, etc now find themselves in the awkward situation of having to come back to teams that wanted to trade them. But that Paul trade wouldn't help out the league at all, and we're talking about a time right now where the NBA's future earnings and fan interest are in limbo after this lockout.
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