Could it be the Los Angeles Lakers? With a recent trade netting the LA Varsity team Pau Gasol, it's looking more likely.
The Lakers gave up uber-bust Kwame Brown, promising but unproven Javaris Crittenton, and two future first round picks to pick up the 7-foot Spaniard and probably the greatest player in Grizzlies history (which is not saying much, but still). Gasol gives the Lakers a proven low-post scoring presence, something they had been missing since Andrew Bynum, the team's rising-star center, went down with an injury. This should keep the Lakers in playoff contention and make them very imposing when Bynum returns, giving them a starting lineup of Jordan Farmar, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Gasol, and Bynum, with Luke Walton, Derek Fisher, Trevor Ariza, and Chris Mihm coming off the bench. That is a pretty talented and deep team, one that could certainly make a deep playoff run.
On the flip side, Memphis gives up their franchise's most visible and popular player for essentially an expiring contract (Kwame Brown), a backup point guard who now becomes a problem because they already have two point guards getting most of the minutes (Crittenton) and two first round picks that look to only go lower and lower in the first round. Basically this was a salary dump with the idea being having enough salary cap space to sign an impact free agent.
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