The Los Angeles Lakers may or may not deal Pau Gasol before the trade deadline gets here, but they don't need to in order to get better.
In fact, it's probably the case that they can help themselves more by keeping Gasol and making another move.
There are two ways they can help themselves, and they are looking earnestly into both of them. One is to add a wing who can put the ball on the floor and hit from deep. The other is to add an upgrade at point guard. The Lakers could do either one—or both—of these moves before the day is over.
They are trying to land a wing through talks with Minnesota, according to ESPN.com,
The Lakers revisited talks to acquire Minnesota Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley on Wednesday, multiple league sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Several variations of the trade have been discussed. One would land Beasley on the Lakers in a three-team deal that would send Portland Trail Blazers guard Jamal Crawford to the Wolves and Luke Ridnour from Minnesota to Portland. Los Angeles would give up one of its two 2012 first-round draft picks in the deal and use its $8.9 million trade exception, acquired when it traded Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks in December, to absorb Beasley's approximate $6.3 million salary.
Portland would also receive the Lakers' first-round pick. As of late Wednesday night, no deal was completed, but a source familiar with the negotiations said, "the sides have momentum."
Additionally, they are in talks for the services of Ramon Sessions, according to the report.
The Los Angeles Lakers are also in discussions with Houston and Cleveland about a three-team deal that would send Ramon Sessions to the Lakers, Jonny Flynn to Cleveland and a Lakers first-round draft pick to Houston.
Cleveland, however, is unwilling to do the deal unless it gets a first-round pick for Sessions.
The Lakers could be in the process of acquiring both Beasley and Sessions giving up their first-round picks.
That would certainly make the Lakers a more formidable team than they are now. Depending on whom they started, they could potentially have a starting lineup with Sessions, Kobe Bryant, Beasley, Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
That's a lineup that could validly contend for the title.
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