NBA 2012 trade deadline: winners and losers

The NBA’s trade deadline came and went, scattering players across the league, and when the dust finally settled, Kobe Bryant stood alone. Derek Fisher, who came into the league with Bryant and won five championships alongside him, was cast off to the Houston Rockets. Of the core group that helped the Los Angeles Lakers win three consecutive titles from 2000 to 2002, only Bryant now remains with the franchise. Luke Walton, Bryant’s teammate for the past nine seasons, also was sent away on deadline day, shipped to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a package for Ramon Sessions. Yet if the Lakers cut through the nostalgia and block out the faded memories of those title runs – and that won’t be easy – they should like what they see. They’re a better team now than a week ago, not only for what they did at the trade deadline, but also what they didn’t: Pau Gasol still wears a Lakers uniform. So does Andrew Bynum. No, they didn’t land Dwight Howard, but no one else did, either. More than anything, the Lakers needed an upgrade at point guard. Sessions isn’t Chris Paul but he’s athletic, and that still counts for something in this league. He averaged 10.5 points, 5.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 24.3 minutes while backing up rookie Kyrie Irving this season with the Cavs. “I’m excited,” Lakers coach Mike Brown said. “He’s a young, athletic point guard who can play the pick-and-roll. He brings energy.” That’s not to say the Lakers won’t miss Fisher at times. He’s battle-tested and he’s a leader who always seemed to strike the right tone in the locker room. But with Sessions arriving, the Lakers also considered the 37-year-old Fisher something else: expendable. The Lakers, who gave up their own 2012 first-round pick in the Sessions trade, surrendered the first-rounder they received from the Dallas Mavericks in the Lamar Odom deal when they sent Fisher to the Rockets for forward Jordan Hill. Hill gives the Lakers some depth at the frontcourt positions.