ESPN

This was no easy season for Pau Gasol, between the weight carried from a poor 2011 postseason, being traded/untraded for Chris Paul, hearing his name swirl around the rumor mill like a Hollywood Starlet in the pages of US Weekly, and a new role that didn't play to his strengths in a compressed season that offered little time to practice out the kinks. His streak of three consecutive All-Star bids came to an end, replaced instead by a streak of public comments from Kobe Bryant cajoling him to be more aggressive.

Beyond receiving the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, Gasol's reasons to smile were limited this season. And the rediscovery of a toothy grin may come while donning a different uniform. Even before Mitch Kupchak acknowledged later in the afternoon a shakeup could be coming, Gasol's demeanor and body language wasn't that of someone banking on a return next season. He was the odd man out of this year's system -- and a pricey one at that -- which could lead to being out altogether. For the time being, however, he remains in his customary state: Limbo.

"I wish I could have clarification, but they can't give it to me right now," said Gasol. "I think management still has talk to ownership to see what direction this thing will be going next year... If they knew it would be good to know obviously, but I understand. We just finished playing two days ago, things don't work that easily. I wont really worry too much about it. It's something I've been through already this year, so if something does happen, it does and if it doesn't I'll be happy to be back next training camp ready to go, and Hopefully have much more peaceful year, and just focus on our goal, which will be to try to win another championship."

Besides, as Gasol noted, he, Mike Brown and Mitch Kupchak didn't spend nearly as much time talking about the future as the recent past. The pow wow lasted about an hour, which is very long by exit interview meeting standards. But considering the chaos of Pau's season, it's not surprising extra time would be required to hash out matters. Unlike the airing of grievances that accompany Festivus, Pau didn't present the sitdown as heated or hostile. His recounting of events came with the typical Gasol-ian politeness. But it's clear he got some things off his chest.

"I told them it was hard for me at times," shared Gasol. "I never had to search for offense or for looks in teams I've been on. They've always been, not given to me, but I always had them because of what I bring to table. So to have to go and search, I have struggled at points, at times with that. But obviously when you have certain players are also very good contributors on the offensive end, you have to make sure combine all those weapons, make them work at their best. And that takes a little bit of time, too.

"I always like to be aggressive and proactive, but I was still trying to adjust to the fact it was different. I wasn't getting the same things I was getting before. I'm not used to attacking from different positions on the court. Analyzing a little more made me think of it a little more. But I don't like excuses at all. It's just analyzing and seeing the fact and understanding why things happen a certain way."

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In news shocking nobody at all, LeBron James officially won his third MVP award Saturday afternoon, becoming the eighth NBA player to win at least that many.

Kevin Durant finished second, and Chris Paul third.

Just behind Paul was Kobe Bryant, who earned two first place votes and edged out Tony Parker in the voting.

Whether some Lakers fans see this as a slight, I don't know (ok, I do know). To me a fourth place finish is remarkable accomplishment. We're talking about someone who put up MVP-adjacent numbers at 33 years old, with almost two decades worth of regular and postseason minutes on the odometer. This while playing a position where this sort of production with that level of mileage is exceedingly rare.

It won't end in hardware, but this will go down as one of Kobe's more impressive seasons.

Four years ago this summer, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul were two of 12 NBA players determined to restore America's standing as the worldwide kings of basketball. In a classic game against Spain (featuring none other than Pau Gasol), Team USA won the gold and showed fans how a team of elite superstars can push egos to the side for the sake of a larger goal.

With Lakers-Clippers on the docket this evening, various ESPN scribes (including the K Bros) gathered thoughts from Bryant's and Paul's Olympic teammates and coaches about the experience of working with them. Click here to make a patriotic trip down Memory Lane, and below are excerpts with Kobe's and Paul's recollections about one another:

Kobe on Paul: He's tough. He's tough as nails, man; he doesn't back down from anything or anybody. I'd never been as close to him, but when I was [on the Olympic team] I'd try to challenge him, see what he's made of and he's a tough little sucker.

Paul on Kobe: Me and Kob really figured out how much we had in common on that trip. That Olympic experience is when we got a lot closer. Me and my wife send him Christmas cards and his family sends us Christmas cards, and now we talk on a regular basis. We both want to win so badly. It's one of those things where as great a relationship as we have, as long as we're playing on the same court against each other, we're always going to get into it, you know what I mean? That's the respect factor, because you know that he wants it just as bad as I do.

There's a lot on the line Wednesday when the Lakers "visit" the Clippers (7:30, ESPN), starting with positioning in the Pacific Division. The Lakers will wake up Thursday in first place no matter the result-- they're 1.5 games up heading in -- but a victory for the LAC would pull them even with the Lakers in the loss column, and more importantly the winner takes the season series 2-1, earning what could be a very useful tiebreaker.

Andrew Bynum, absent from Tuesday's win over New Jersey, will obviously play a huge role in the outcome. Defensively, he provides a major deterrent/shot altering deterrant in the lane for Chris Paul, a guy who (for those new to the game) makes his way to the paint with regularity. At the other end, not only is Bynum a key weapon for the Lakers as a source of points in the post and a means of drawing double teams, but his presence guarantees Blake Griffin has to play defense, matched up against Pau Gasol.

Unburdened from responsibility on his side of the floor, Griffin is far freer to load up on highlight dunks and soaring rebounds.

The Lakers are riding what might be the most unsatisfying three game win streak in sports history. With only 12 games left before the playoffs, they don't have a lot of time to coalesce, and their apparent allergy to comfortable leads obviously won't play well in the postseason. The LAC, meanwhile, have quietly posted a six game win streak, their longest as a franchise since March of '92 (an NBA record for largest gap between five win streaks), including a thumping of Dallas Monday night. Before, though, they'd lost 12 of 19, and still have some work to do convincing observers they're truly on track.

Add in a quickly developing, very chippy rivalry and, to paraphrase Rasheed Wallace, both teams have good reason to play hard.

To get a better feel for Wednesday's battle royale, we sat down with Kevin Arnovitz and Jordan Heimer, hosts of ESPNLA's The Clipper Podcast (among other things) for an audio preview. Click here to listen. To serve the more literary crowd, Arnovitz was nice enough to answer a few questions...

1. Maybe 10 days ago, we were all speculating about Vinny Del Negro's job security. Now the Clips have won six straight. What has changed?

"The Clippers had a relatively easy homestand against of slew of really, really bad road teams. But in the process, they've started to figure out some stuff defensively. On top of that, they've gotten some otherworldly shooting performances from all over the roster. The average NBA team puts up an effective field goal percentage of 48.6 percent. The Clippers over their six-game winning streak? 54, 55, 54, 57, 61, 54."

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While Los Angeles Lakers fans’ sentimentality certainly took a hit on Thursday with the trade that sent beloved franchise figure Derek Fisher to the Houston Rockets, from a pure basketball analysis there is no questioning that the Lakers improved.

Upgrading from the 37-year-old Fisher to the 25-year-old Ramon Sessions to better equip the Lakers to contend with the league’s wave of dominant point guards (one of whom, Chris Paul, they intended to have on their team of course) made it a pretty successful day regardless, but the Lakers came ridiculously close to landing Michael Beasley as well.

How close?

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the Minnesota Timberwolves backed out of a three-team deal also involving L.A. and the Portland Trail Blazers at 11:53 a.m. PT, just seven minutes before the noon PT deadline. The trade that was in place would have sent Fisher to Minnesota and the Lakers’ first-round pick acquired in the Lamar Odom trade with the Dallas Mavericks back in December to Portland. Portland, already engaged in a full-fledged fire sale, would have sent Jamal Crawford to Minnesota and the Timberwolves would have sent Anthony Tolliver to Portland. Minnesota would have also been receiving cash considerations from both L.A. and Portland as well.

But, Minnesota owner Glen Taylor and general manager David Kahn pulled out of the deal at the last minute (well, eighth-to-last minute), leaving L.A. officials “puzzled and disappointed” according to a source. Who knows what changed Minnesota’s mind. Maybe it didn’t feel comfortable being on the hook for $3.4 million for a 38-year-old Fisher in 2012-13. Maybe it was concerned that Crawford would opt out of his relatively bargain price of $5 million for next season. L.A. didn’t have time to wallow in the uncertainty trying to figure out the answer. Instead, it scrambled to put together a secondary deal with the Rockets before the trade deadline passed.

Ironically enough, the Rockets were one of the Lakers’ dance partners (along with the New Orleans Hornets) in the vetoed Paul trade back on the eve of training camp. The Rockets took Fisher and the Lakers’ first rounder and sent back 24-year-old big man Jordan Hill, a former lottery pick by the Knicks, in exchange.

Beasley, an athletic and offensively gifted 6-foot-10 forward, would have filled the void left by Odom as the Lakers’ primary bench scorer. Even though he would have required a financial commitment from the cap-conscious Lakers, it was a calculated risk. If he worked out as a rental player for the remainder of the season, this offseason Los Angeles could have extended him a qualifying offer of approximately $8.172 million, making Beasley a restricted free agent and opening the door for him to remain a Laker next season. They could have, however, simply allowed Beasley to enter unrestricted free agency by not extending an offer and let him walk.

But it wasn’t to be. Minnesota pulled out, for whatever reason, and L.A.’s great trade deadline day was downgraded to merely very good.

Here are some other tidbits to consider, gleaned from Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak's news conference on Thursday as well as from conversations with others familiar with the Lakers' plans leading up to the trade deadline:

• The Sessions deal was agreed upon in principle on Wednesday afternoon. Once that deal was in place, the Lakers pushed to get the Beasley deal in line as well. Beasley had been on the Lakers' radar since December as L.A. wanted to follow the Paul deal by adding Beasley much the same way this time around the Lakers wanted to follow Sessions with Beasley.

• Despite reports to the contrary (including my own), a source familiar with the Lakers' thinking insists that Steve Blake was never being considered in the three-team deal. It was always Fisher. There was genuine concern with how Fisher would handle losing his starting role to Sessions. He had a streak going of 416 consecutive starts. He was half responsible for there ever even being a season in the first place as president of the National Basketball Player's Association. He had teamed with Kobe Bryant in the backcourt to win five championships. It's just not easy to bench a guy like that.

• While the Lakers like the fact that Hill balances out their roster and gives them a fifth big man, there is not an expectation he will suddenly move up the depth chart past Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy in backing up starters Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. That's not to say that the Lakers wouldn't be pleasantly surprised if he came in and competed so well in practice that he'd earn playing time in games, but if he doesn't end up being an impact player that's OK with L.A. because his contract is up at the end of the season.

• The Lakers were comfortable with using both their first-round draft picks (one in the Sessions deal and one in the Fisher deal) because they figured their own pick would be somewhere in the early to mid-20s, as they currently have the sixth-best record in the league, and they wouldn't be able to get a player of Sessions' caliber that late even in what's considered to be a stocked draft. As for the Dallas pick, it was top-20 protected and there are currently 11 teams with better records than the Mavs, so L.A. might not have been able to even use it this year. Rather than wait to find out it possibly have to save the pick for the future, the Lakers decided they weren't going to wait any longer in getting younger and quicker at the point guard position.

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.

In theory, a matchup against the 10-win New Orleans Hornets shouldn't be much of a challenge. The Hornets no longer have Chris Paul (as you may have heard) have lost Eric Gordon for most of the season, are missing Emeka Okafor, and could be without Carl Landry as well. While that leaves a few decent players, they sorely lack any high end talent. In short, New Orleans is awful, evidenced by a 73-71 loss to Charlotte Monday night.

Then again, as a road team the Lakers are a very poor 8-14, even with Tuesday's hard fought double OT win in Memphis. They lost last week in Detroit and Washington, and barely scraped by a Minnesota team missing Kevin Love.

In short, no game away from Staples Center is ever in the can, particularly given the energy L.A. expended last night. So to get a feel for what the Lakers face against Monty Williams' crew, we hit up Joe Gerrity of Hornets 24/7 with some questions.

1. Not exactly game related, but a couple months later, Eric Gordon has been hurt all year and is unsigned, Al-Farouq Aminu has a PER of 9.1, and even after the Ricky Rubio injury, the Minnesota pick won't be as good as many thought. What do Hornets fans think of the CP3 transaction now?

For the most part Hornets Nation is remaining optimistic about it. Doubts have certainly started creeping in thanks to Eric Gordon's knee, and there's skepticism about resigning him too, but that's a near certainty since he's restricted. Honestly it will be a few more seasons before we can truly grade the deal fairly, and I think a lot of Hornets fans know that.

2. Gustavo Ayon! Not exactly a household name, but explain his impact for the Hornets, and how he could influence Wednesday's game.

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ORLANDO, Fla. -- Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant have discussed playing together before.

While wearing the same colors at all-star games and for Team USA, they’d talk about how unstoppable they’d be if ever on the same team.

“We won’t lose,” Paul says.

They’ll get a chance to play on the same team on Sunday night at the NBA All-Star game as the Western Conference’s starting guards.

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It's always fun when friend-of-the-podKast, two-time Grammy winner and die hard Laker fan Ben Harper visits the studio. We sat down for an extended conversation about the state of the Los Angeles Lakers (Ben's a little worried) and, of course, music. The show was broken into two sections -- Part I and Part II can be heard in the entirety here -- and the breakdowns can be found below, with specific links to certain sections.

Part I

- (3:10): Ben expresses concerns about this team. For starters, Harper has concerns about the championship viability of a team featuring two seven foot players. As he notes, Mike Brown has talked about using Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum the way Tim Duncan and David Robinson were used in during the Spurs' title runs, but that's also the last time we've seen that work. Playing the averages, is this really a winning formula?

- (7:25): Ben's also concerned Brown's emphasis on hellbent-for-leather defense 48 minutes a game is inspirational in theory, but too draining in practice. Having said that, he's actually confident Kobe Bryant can maintain this pace and production over the next 47 games, despite this season's wrist injury and last season's knee/ankle problems. Watching him play like the dude wearing the #8 jersey has made the stretches of ugly offense a kick to watch.