Lakers - Chicago Trade?
What about Pau for Boozer and CJ Watson. Especially from the Bulls fans, would you pull this off?
The Lakers get quality back for Pau plus a point guard. The money works, saving the Lakers $2M off the salary cap, but they can toss in the value of the trade exception so the Bulls are not eating the extra $ for nothing.
Personally, I like Pau, but this keeps Andrew available if the Magic get desperate, though straight up Drew for Howard seems unlikely, and there are very few other pieces the Lakers can include in a trade, since they are taking on an extra $4M in salary to make the deal, especially if the Magic want to package Hopward with Turkoglu. If the Lakers get CJ, they can include Blake or Luke in the deal to make the money come out closer, or include Fish with the expectation that he is waived or cut since he wants to be in a city with good treatment options for his daughter.
I don't see age as a factor, since Pau is only about 8 months older than Boozer. Pau's contract doesn't escalate much, but Boozer's only jumps about $3M over the 4 years, hardly a huge leap.
If you look at this site, http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2012_leaders.html, Boozer is highly rated across the board, including on defense, where he is rated above Noah and Deng.
I like how Gasol can play in the middle when Bynum gets a rest (or gets hurt), but I don't see where (other than passing) Gasol is a big improvement over Boozer on either side of the ball. On the plus side for Boozer, if he plays while Kobe sits, Boozer is going to demand the ball in the low post. So as long as one of them is on the floor at all times, there is going to be a scorign threat, something lacking when Kobe sits, even when Pau or Bynum is out there.
And DM, no way I would trade Bynum for Boozer. Swap him for Howard, yes. But if Howard is not in the offing, then we shou