How it affects LA Lakers:

The Lakers made two moves and both of them were great. The first move with Cleveland dumped the last year of Luke Walton’s contract on Cleveland for the price of their own 2012 1st rd pick. They also get a big PG in Ramon Sessions who also fills a big need since Derek Fisher’s only value is that Kobe likes him. Sessions is in the last year of his deal but at least they will be able to decide if he’s worth bringing back. The verdict on Walton was made years ago.

The second move was dumping the aforementioned Fisher and his 2012-13 player option on Houston (who must have thought they’d get veteran leadership, lol. Ask Utah about that…) for the cost of the 1st rd pick acquired from Dallas for Lamar Odom. While the deal doesn’t bring Odom back (watch for him to re-sign DIRT CHEAP with the Lakers this off-season), it does bring in some size in Jordan Hill and a nice bit of cap space after the year is over.

the Lakers were able to rid themselves of two really bad contracts and can still amnesty away Ron Artest after the year is over in order to tidy up the books nicely. Their three cornerstones still take up their entire cap but they should now have better flexibility if a move presents itself.

 How it affects Cleveland:

Cleveland traded a player that wasn’t part of the future for a 1st rd pick and they only had to take back one bad year (This is the new process for rebuilding as executed by OKC), so this move is a great one for them, provided they get a player who can play.

 How it affects Houston:

Much like Cleveland, they traded a player whom they didn’t want (They declined his fourth year option) for a 1st rd pick. Although they had to buy out Fisher and won’t get the pick this year since it was Top-20 protected and Dallas finished up as the Eight seed. Still, Houston’s front office historically does a good job of collecting/managing assets – they already have New York’s pick in addition to their own in 2012 – so add it to the future cache.