L.A. LAKERS
The Trade: Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor for Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, Steve Blake and Derrick Caracter.
Additional Notes: I'm not sure the Hornets would keep Odom here — they could spin him to, say, the Clippers (for Aminu and Ryan Gomes) or Minnesota (for Michael Beasley and Anthony Randolph).
The Verdict: As a full-fledged Lakers hater, this one sends chills down my spine. The Hornets save $7 million this season, rebuild around Bynum (good luck with that) and dump the last three years of their Okafor/Ariza deals ($62.7 million). The Lakers get a true center back (Okafor, an underrated double-double guy who can protect the rim), a defensive swingman who knows how to play with Kobe (Ariza), and one of the biggest point guard upgrades in basketball history (going from Steve Blake and Derek Fisher to Chris Paul). They're reinventing their team AND making it better. Yikes.
If I'm The Lakers, Here's My Biggest Concern: We can't get Howard AND Paul. Is getting Paul a better course than getting Howard? My answer: Yes. Getting Howard requires a Bynum/Gasol package; getting Paul means you keep Gasol, which means you'd have three of the best 15 players in basketball (Kobe, Gasol, Paul) and some competent rotation guys (Okafor, Ariza, Fisher, Metta World Peace and Free Agent X). That's a no-brainer in my mind. I'd have a better chance of winning with Kobe, Gasol, Paul, Okafor and Ariza than Kobe, Howard, Odom and Turkoglu — not just this season, but the next two after that.
If I'm The Hornets, Here's My Biggest Concern: Do I really want to rebuild my entire team around Andrew Bynum, someone who missed an extraordinary number of games already, might be headed for more knee problems down the road, and seems to have the emotional maturity of a Real World roommate? Am I the only one who remembers him clotheslining little J.J. Barea last spring, then storming off half-naked? That's going to be my signature guy for the rest of the decade? Really?