THE Los Angeles Lakers surprised everyone during the trade deadline, probably including themselves. Not exactly sure if these were all premeditated moves or if they just snowballed. For most fans, it's also an eye-opener on the limitations that general managers have to go through in building a team.

One tough fact is that you can't keep all the players that you 'discover.' Diamonds in the rough or players that you rehabilitated can play their way out of the salary you can offer. This is what happened with Thomas Bryant. Laker fans are aghast on why the rare success story on their team was traded.