The Lakers pulled off a stunner Friday afternoon completing a trade to acquire big man Pau Gasol.  In exchange for the 7-footer, Los Angeles gave up Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittendon, and two future first-round picks.  At first glance the deal appears like highway robbery.  This gives Kobe another all-star to quiet his trade demand, and allows Lamar Odom to play a more comfortable support role.  With Andrew Bynum out at least six more weeks with injury, Gasol can help keep the Lakers afloat until the young center comes back.

But how good does the trade make the Lakers right now?  While fans in Tinseltown might think acquiring Gasol will vault their team back to the top of the standings immediately might need to stop and think for a moment.  Certainly, a front-line comprised of Odom, Gasol, and Bynum is formidable.  Add Derek Fisher, and Kobe Bryant to that mix and you have probably the most talented starting five in the NBA.  Plus Mitch Kupchak didn’t gut probably the best bench in the league to make this move either.  In no way am I criticizing this move, but the Lakers and their fans might still need to wait for the return of Bynum for them to reach a true championship level.

According to AccuScore simulations, Gasol does not have a major positive impact on the Lakers by himself.  Certainly replacing the offensively challenged Brown with the skilled and talented Gasol should help offensively.  He is a skilled passer and a good scorer giving Los Angeles a great option in the low-post who can also step out and hit jumpers.  Gasol has also thrived in international competition for his native Spain, and he should have no trouble adjusting to the triangle offense that is predicated on ball movement.  Gasol however, has been a high-usage player in Memphis and is not been a truly great rebounder.  He has a career average of 8.6 rebounds per game in over 35 minutes on the floor.  He has also never averaged 10 boards a game.  On a per minute basis, he is actually worse than Brown.  And all of this was done with the Grizzlies who never had another great post player to steal rebounds away from him.

Turnovers have also been a problem for Gasol averaging 2.6 per game throughout his career.  While much of this is due to the amount of time he has handled the ball for the Grizzlies, it is 0.5 to 1.0 more turnovers than similar high-scoring forwards like Dirk Nowitzki, Antawn Jamison, and Carlos Boozer.

The Lakers are already a strong rebounding team ranking in the top 10 in margin in that category so adding another decent rebounder in Gasol will not help very much in that area.  The Lakers are also in the bottom eight of the NBA in turnover margin.  They could actually get a little worse with Gasol in the lineup.

Gasol does immediately help the Lakers offensively with his high shooting percentage (.509 career), and his ability to score from all over the floor.  He also has much better hands than Brown, and will be able to score off the opportunities created by all the attention paid to Bryant.  While he could turn the ball over more than one would like, he will be able to finish around the hoop and find open jump shooters with his passing ability.

The Lakers, against the top six Western Conference teams, improved their winning percentage by just 1 percentage point with Gasol in the current lineup.

The real improvement in this team comes when Gasol is paired with Bynum.  When Gasol does not have to be the primary big man as the main rebounder and scorer in the post, the Lakers improve by a whopping 6 percentage points.  Over the course of an 82-game schedule this is an improvement of nearly 5 games.  It is already February 1 though, and the Lakers hope Bynum may be back for the last 15 to 20 contests of the year before the playoffs.  With the playoff standings likely to remain bunched together for the rest of the year this trade, while perhaps not immediately beneficial, will make the Lakers very formidable in the playoffs and really capable of coming out of the West.