Michael Ventre

Kobe Bryant just got a little happier. And the West got a little wilder.

The Los Angeles Lakers had hoped to placate Bryant after his spring tempest by convincing him they’re indeed building a championship team. But the construction project accelerated unexpectedly Friday with the news that the Lakers had pulled off a stunning trade, bringing forward/center Pau Gasol to L.A. in exchange for Kwame Brown, rookie Javaris Crittenton and two first-round draft picks.

What had been unfathomable a few short months ago is now real: The Lakers are championship caliber.

In Gasol, the Lakers obtained a versatile and gifted big man who can score in the low post and from the outside, as well as pass and rebound. With the 7-foot Spaniard in the fold, Kobe can relax a bit. He’ll have a reliable inside scorer to take some of the load off of him. With Gasol on the floor, defenses will be less inclined to swarm Bryant at crunch time and allow Lamar Odom to shoot air balls as time runs out, as was the case Thursday night in Detroit.

The Lakers had shown improvement this season, especially when young center Andrew Bynum — currently sidelined by a knee injury until mid-March at the earliest — was in the lineup. But at best, they figured to be sparring partners for conference heavyweights like the Spurs, Suns and Mavericks. Before this trade, they had an outstanding chance to finish as the fourth or fifth seed in the West and possibly advance to the conference semifinals before bowing out.

After that, conventional wisdom suggested, they would allow Brown’s contract to expire, thereby gaining his $9 million salary hole in order to pursue a quality free agent.

But general manager Mitch Kupchak meddled with that formula in a surprisingly successful way. Instead of waiting, he nailed Gasol while he could. There is never any guarantee a club will be able to secure the services of their desired free agent even if they have the money. Most of the top candidates wind up re-enlisting with their current teams. And because being a member of the Los Angeles Lakers doesn’t carry the same cachet it did in the Magic Era, players tend to go all over the map, wherever their best interests lead them.

So grabbing Gasol now was a brilliant bit of gamesmanship. Across the NBA landscape, the Jason Kidd potboiler had been getting most of the attention. But he’s a 34-year-old point guard with questionable knees who has been a problem everywhere he’s been. He’s a great player who will help a team in the short term, to be sure, but he doesn’t have much left.

Gasol is 27. Bryant is 29. Bynum is 20. That core could be together vying for championships for the next 10 years.

Video   Lakers excited to add Gasol Feb. 2: Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson says acquiring Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies greatly improves the Lakers.

When you add Jordan Farmar (21), Luke Walton (27), Ronny Turiaf (25), Sasha Vujacic (23) and Trevor Ariza (22), that is a team poised at that ideal juncture between eager and experienced.

And there are two other important cogs. One is Lamar Odom, also only 28, who has never been completely comfortable as the Second Option. Now with Gasol on the floor he can be the Third Option, a less pressurized role in which he is capable on any given night of contributing a triple-double.