Lakers Rumors: Pau Gasol Heading Back to the Hawks
According to Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times, the team that originally drafted Pau Gasol, Atlanta Hawks, inquired about his services shortly after the ending of the series versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In the report, the Lakers would be receiving Josh Smith, who at 6’9″ would be much shorter, but if you’ve seen Smith play, you know he more than makes up for it with his crazy athleticism.
Check out this youtube video to see what I’m talking about:
The thinking here is that both of these power forwards need a change of scenery with Pau Gasol playing out of position and Smith having his fair share of confrontations with coaches and media.
The Lakers would be saving about $25M with this deal as Smith makes about $13.2M and Pau is due $38.3 over the next 2 years. With the pending collective bargaining agreement coming with that super luxury tax, the Lakers are in full cost-savings mode to soften that tax as much as possible.
It should be noted that Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld did spark up an interesting theory where the Lakers are making a play for Josh Smith to leverage his childhood friendship with Orlando Center, Dwight Howard.
The draft is tomorrow.
Hold onto your butts.
