The Lakers aren’t interested in trading Pau Gasol for now, having been encouraged by Gasol’s play in the last three games and his fence-mending efforts with coach Mike D’Antoni, who criticized his performance, report Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The Lakers have reportedly fielded offers for Gasol, and they engaged in exploratory talks with several teams, according to Shelburne and Stein, but they didn’t get too far.
The Rockets are one of the teams the Lakers spoke to about Gasol, but those talks never got serious, the ESPN scribes say. Stein thinks that the Lakers might be better off trading Gasol for Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, but says such a deal would likely have to involve a third team and cautions that such talk is merely speculation (Twitter link).
The Lakers remain interested in Tyson Chandler and they’ve made exploratory calls on Iman Shumpert, but it doesn’t sound like the Knicks are biting. Gasol is set to hit free agency at season’s end, and the Lakers are apparently open to re-signing him.