I have changed my mind on how this is going to go down, as the pressure mounts on the Lakers to make a move, and it makes too much "sense" in the old classic blundering wnnabe Sacramento Kings way as a way for our attention starved owners to try desperatelyto make a spalsh and be talked about again.
Thing is D'Antoni is in town, and frankly Jamison looks more comfortabel to him than a big frontcourt, because, of course and all that. Will want open court players, scorers. The Lakers being the Lakers are going to have to sell it to their fanbase, and from a practical sense are going to have one eye over thier shoulders to the post Kobe era if this doesn't work.
Accordingly this is my new prediction:
Salmons $8.1
Robinson $3.4
Fredette $2.4
Outlaw (our pound of flesh) $3.0
----------------------------------------
$16.9
for
Gasol $19mil
TRob will be Jamison's protegee and they'll pitch it as Amare of the future. Jimmer will be behind Nash/Blake and they'll pitch it as Nash's protege. Salmons may be the real find as their solid roleplaying Kobe/Metta backup. Outlaw will just look like the veteran bench fodder top teams have, but is really just a salary matcher. They'll all be benchers, but will look like a step up from the Dariuses and Earl Clarks and Robert Sacre's they'll jettison to make room. It will leave us shy a player unless we take back one of those scrubs. We'll call up Honeycutt just to fill out the roster. Who knows, maybe we really will sign Mike Bibby out of retirement to be the extra PG body.