After tonight’s unimpressive 100-91 loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings, it looks as though the Los Angeles Lakers do not have the kind of goods that will help them trade their troubles away.

In the first two games of the season, Pau Gasol looks lost on the court.  In retrospect, he looks pretty much the same way that he did in a four-game sweep by the Dallas Mavericks in last year’s Western Conference semi-finals.

Not much trade value there if the Lakers are hoping to bring in a superstar like Dwight Howard.  While Gasol had a decent 15 points and 9 rebounds, he was unable to put up much of a defense as the Kings dumped in 30 points in the paint.

Metta World Peace (the former Ron Artest) finally woke up from his lockout-long slumber and scored 19 points, but he also showed that he was far from the Defensive Player of the Year that he once was.  Although he was able to muscle his way on offense, his defensive movement was sluggish at best.

I think that can be said tonight for the Lakers overall defense – sluggish.

Of course Andrew Bynum has not played yet as he serves a four-game suspension for a flagrant foul in last year’s NBA semi-final loss to Dallas.  But it remains to be seen what his addition will mean to this lackadaisical Lakers offense and sluggish defense.

Bynum may be the only tradable asset on this team besides Kobe Bryant, who put up 29 points tonight to lead all scorers despite a severely injured wrist.  Of course, Bryant has a no-trade clause in his contract.  But give him another week or two of defeats like these first two, and he may beg to be traded just as Steven A. Smith has predicted.

The most glaring weakness on this year’s squad has to be the point guard spot.  It really looks as though Derek Fisher is ready to assume a coaching role somewhere in the NBA.  Some players like Steve Nash and Jason Kidd can excel in the point guard spot well into their 30’s.  Fisher is not one of those, and tonight it painfully showed.

There is a great crop of young players that will enter this year’s NBA draft.  The Lakers need to dismantle what they have on the floor right now and get rid of as many parts as possible in exchange for better draft choices.

The Lakers must clear cap space, acquire more trade exceptions like they did in the Lamar Odom deal with Dallas and grab a couple of lottery-type draft picks.  That means trades with teams like the Bobcats, the Kings, and the Timberwolves.

If Kobe Bryant complains, fine, put him on the trade block.  He is enough of a draw that certain teams would take on his huge salary because of what he can bring them at the gate and in local TV revenue.

If they cannot trade Bynum for Dwight Howard straight up along with the pick they got from Dallas, then they should keep Bynum and trade Gasol to a lottery team.  Most of the front runners have power forwards who can outplay Gasol, but lottery teams don’t.

It’s that simple.  While the Lakers cannot trade this year’s troubles away, they can make deals to rebuild for the future.