Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Pau Gasol had a pretty tumultuous season this year. While it wasn’t a failure of a campaign by any means, it wasn’t a memorable one, especially with the subtle distance growing between Kobe Bryant and Pau.

And Pau knows he’s on the trading block. It’s likely he gets shipped out of L.A. way before the 2012-13 season starts, because this isn’t the year 2010 anymore. According to reports, he sees this and apparently, he’d like to land in Chicago. From Bulls.com:

The interesting part, according to Lakers’ insiders, is Gasol would like to play for the Bulls. And what you hardly need any sources for is to see how he and Bryant basically can’t stand one another. It was no secret around L.A. what all those post series comments were about. “We got to be committed to each other,” said Ron Artest. “This year we wasn’t as committed collectively, and that hurt us a lot.” Said Bynum: “We just weren’t doing it together.”

Well, can you blame Pau Gasol?

Gasol was largely underutilized in Mike Brown’s offensive system, and with Kobe constantly riding his tail (and the riding being far more aggressive in recent seasons; get your mind out of the gutter, jerk), it’s becoming a pain to stay dressed in Purple and Gold. Likewise, the fan-base is upset with Pau, despite the fact that most Lakers fans seem to love him to death.

The other side of this equation is, what the hell will we get from Chicago that’ll be of use to us? Perhaps Luol Deng, since we need a solid offensive and athletic wing, while maintaining defense at the 3, but this team still desperately needs a point guard, and John Lucas just won’t cut it. The only other piece that might work is Omer Asik, and something tells me that Pau Gasol isn’t enough for Chicago to part ways with him (since most deals with Chicago fall dead at the mention of Asik).

Don’t rule out a three-team trade, though, especially with Mitch Kupchak being the craftiest GM in the league when it comes to acquisitions off of trades. It’s obvious that Chicago would love this (he’d fit so damn well and compliments Derrick Rose perfectly), but the Lakers expect to get a serious haul for a player that’s obviously worthy of being a second option on a championship team.

We’ll see how this plays out. While everyone’s upset that L.A. got bumped early in the playoffs again, there’s no doubt that we all get giddy over major offseason moves.

With reigning MVP Derrick Rose bringing the Bulls to L.A. for the holiday you already knew it was going to be a battle. Early on the Lakers brought the fight to Chicago though. Kobe Bryant quickly showed that he wasn’t downplaying his wrist injury. Oh, no doubt he is going at it with a bum hand but it truly didn’t slow Kobe’s role in any way.

Bryant was every bit the aggressive and assertive apex predator that usually stalks basketball courts across the country this time of year. Up until midway through the second quarter it was Mike Brown’s team that set the tone.

Then D-Rose and the Bulls got it going.

Some sloppy play was expected to be seen around the NBA for the first couple weeks but that does not excuse the Lakers and their careless turnovers. Giving Rose more touches in transition is like giving Charlie Sheen an invitation to a party with an open bar. Things are going to get out of hand in a hurry.

Before you could blink the Bull ran the Lakers into the locker room with a 7-point lead thanks to 34 second quarter points.

After the half you could really see Coach Brown’s defensive philosophy coming into focus. With more time the Lakers have a chance to be a solid defensive team. The Bulls didn’t find nearly as many opportunities to run thanks to better ball security and rebounding.

Pau Gasol cleaned the glass with a solid effort that netted 8 boards. However it was the combined effort of Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy off the pine that helped compensate for the lack of Andrew Bynum. McRoberts and Murphy have barely been Lakers for a week but both know their way around a backboard. The two newest members of the frontline posted a combined 13 points and 16 boards.

But it was L.A.’s communication, contesting of shots and general activity on the defensive end that eventually opened the game up. Well…that and Chicago looking like Tim Tebow in an accuracy contest. The Bulls couldn’t buy a bucket scoring just 12 in third and were pretty hapless through most of the fourth.

Eventually the Lakers opened a double digit lead. Perhaps they got too relaxed with a lead late. Maybe it was just a case of Chicago wanting it more.

Whatever the case, the Lakers were left standing in the blocks once crunch time hit.
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