Disgruntled Memphis Grizzly and Spaniard Superstar Pau Gasol was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers today (Discussion).

With one swift move, the LA Lakers have truly upgraded their lineup and their championsip prospects. They did so in two ways – obviously, with the addition of the 27-year old NBA All-star Gasol, and with the subtraction of the constantly underperforming and disappointing Kwame Brown, the Michael Jordan number one overall draft selection from 2001.

The Lakers also gave up promising guard Javaris Crittenton, veteran Aaron McKie, two future first-round draft picks and the rights to Pau’s brother and Spanish National Teammate, Marc Gasol.

Once Andrew Bynum returns from his knee injury and Pau Gasol learns the triangle offense, the Lakers jump from pretender to contender.

On the other side, this trade gives promising second-year man Rudy Gay room for development.

And it also gives the Memphis Grizzlies two of the biggest, most visible, disappointing draft picks in the current era- Kwame Brown and Darko Milicic in the front court. Not to mention Stromile Swift. Are they going to pick up Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rafael Araújo too?

Sources: Discuss the trade in our forum thread…, Gasol goes to Lakers in Major NBA Trade (AFP), Pau Gasol and the Lakers Discussion Thread (Ibn)