Rick_Garcia's Blog

You must admit Lakers fans if you have been disappointed by past Mitch Kupchak performances as general manager of your team he's more than made up for it.
The Lakers made a impressive trade that may catapult them into the NBA finals.
They gave up Kwame Brown a center who has been a big disappointment, Javaris Crittenton their top draft pick this year, two number one draft picks ('08,'10) for a terrific young center Pau Gasol. He's a 27 year old from Spain who is averaging almost 19 points and just under 9 rebounds a game.. And yet even at 7 feet tall he has pretty good shooting touch which will allow the Lakers to play him next to Andrew Bynum when he returns from a knee injury in about five or six weeks.
Perhaps just as important is how it affected the Lakers competition. The Phoenix Suns one of the best running teams in the NBA will now have Shaq trailing the offense. And they seem to have lost some outside shooting by giving up Shawn Marion. The Suns felt they needed to get bigger to match the Lakers size but they may have just made it easier for the Lakers to defend them (remember hack a Shaq).
Ultimately, the success of the Lakers still revolves around Kobe. If he can continue to participate in the offense they way people smarter than him have designed it, then Gasol and the team will flourish.  In fairness to Kobe he has been more of a team player this season.
But if Kobe goes back to his bad habits of seasons past and ad libs at the wrong times then it doesnt matter who the team trades for the Lakers will run out of GAS----ol!