Originally Posted by
spurraider21
To be honest, Memphis was trying to dump Gasol (though I'm really not sure why). In return they got some prospects (including Marc Gasol (boom) and Javaris Crittenton (now a 1st round bust)), and they got Kwame Brown just to make salaries add up. Kwame was an expiring contract. That deal wasn't really a "Stern" move, though I'm sure Jerry West being in charge of Memphis helped, since he probably tried harder to dump Pau onto the Lakers than any other team. To this day, I have no clue why they were so intent on dumping Pau, but it was known around the league they wanted to trade him. Probably because they got swept the only times they made the postseason.
In addition, its not like the Lakers were some powerhouse before the trade. In 04-05 they didn't make the playoffs, and in 05-06 and 06-07 they were bounced in the first round. Acquiring Pau took them to the top, but at the time it wasn't really a case of the "rich getting richer" or anything like that. Plus they pulled the trade right after Bynum went down.
All that said, fuck LA