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Source: Ignore any and all trade talk about Pau Gasol because the Lakers landed Steve Nash by promising

him he would get to play with Gasol. Nash made it a prerequisite for passing on offers from Toronto and the Knicks that Pau would be around, the source said. Such prerequisites from an incoming star aren't that unusual -- Chris Paul made similar personnel demands as part of his agreement to be dealt to the Clippers. (In Paul's case, he wanted assurance that LAC would do whatever was necessary to retain restricted FA DeAndre Jordan.) Conceivably, once Nash gets back and actually plays with Gasol, the Lakers could continue to struggle and Nash re-thinks his position. But as of right now, one of the enticements that brought Nash to LA was the big Spaniard and the organization would have much bigger problems than they already have if they backtracked on their promise to keep Gasol in the fold.