In an interesting article about Kobe and visiting Bulls, he says: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Actually, despite the continued yearning of Bulls fans, Bryant's remote chance of going to Chicago ended two weeks ago. Having seen talks that were only exploratory and brief mushroom out of control, General Manager John Paxson is now reportedly focusing on lower-key players like Memphis' Pau Gasol in deals that won't make headlines for a week. Happy with his uncomplicated, up-and-coming young team, Paxson just wanted to know if the Lakers were holding a fire sale like Minnesota's for Kevin Garnett. Aside from that, the Bulls weren't interested. Having sold all their seats through the terrible post-Michael Jordan years, they're not risk-takers. They're also 180 degrees removed from the level of drama they featured in their dynastic days. Now they get upset about Ben Wallace's headband. Unfortunately, Paxson's young team emerged from a week of trade rumors looking as if it had seen its own ghost. Meanwhile the diverse opinions Bulls fans first expressed about Bryant coalesced into a single plea: When will Kobe be here? When the Bulls lost their home opener to Philadelphia, fans started chanting "Kobe! Kobe!" No one expected that to last but no one expected the Bulls to keep losing. At 0-4, the Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson wrote that the chants were "now as much a part of home games as Benny the Bull." "As hard as we work as a team," said Luol Deng, "to hear boos and the 'Kobes' when we're losing that much, it definitely hurts. I think since I've been in the NBA, this is the lowest I've felt."</div></p> I still don't know at this point what kind of deal would bring Gasol here, and actually I think his mention in this article was probably just picking up John Jackson's speculation a week or so ago.</p>
Going off my other thread for a minute, I do think the Lakers might have some interest in Wallace. Maybe a 3 way could be swung to get Gasol here?</p>
I don't think the Lakers need Wallace and his huge contract. We already have our 3 headed monster in the middle.</p>
Why would Memphis give up Gasol? They just teamed him up with Darko, and Pau's Spanish friend is on the team. Its not like he is upset like he was last year.</p>
If we could basically swing Noah/Hinrich/Deng/Sefolosha and come back with Gasol/Artest, I'd be Very happy. I think Gasol is an upgrade over Deng, and Artest an upgrade over Hinrich. Our defense and offense both improve. Thabo/Noah are negligible players.</p>
