I thought it would be cool to trace Lakers' trades from Shaq to Hill.

The Shaq trade in 2004: Shaq to Miami for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a first-round pick.

Shaq won a championship with the Heat before becoming an expensive and hefty (literally) rental for championship contenders. After unsuccessful stints with the Suns, Cavaliers, and Celtics, Shaq retired from basketball and became a mediocre NBA analyst and commentator.

Lamar turns into a key piece and sticks with LA, wins two championships, before whining his way out of town to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 for a draft pick and a trade exception. He's turned into a bit player for the Mavericks. Rumors abound that he won't return.

Caron turned into Kobe's best friend at the time but was traded in 2006 for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit. Laron Profit washed out. Kwame stuck with the team till the Gasol trade where the Lakers traded a whole bunch of draft picks, draft rights for Marc Gasol, and Kwame for Pau Gasol and a second-round pick who turned into Devin Ebanks.

Brian was released. The first-round pick turned into Jordan Farmar who became a bench contributor, and then wanted a starting role on the Nets. That turned out well for him.

The Lakers then took the Odom draft pick and Derek Fisher and turned them into Jordan Hill. Derek is probably getting bought out so it is practically a draft pick for Hill trade.

So, ignoring the boatload of draft picks in the Gasol trade, the effects of the Shaq trade are still being directly felt in three ways:

Pau Gasol and Devin Ebanks

The Lamar Odom TPE

Jordan Hill

There are plenty of indirect ways including the fact that the Lakers fell so hard after the Shaq trade that they managed to land a certain Andrew Bynum, who currently is rivaling Shaq's dominance.

What do you guys think of this angle?

NOTE: This was originally an article about how Sessions resulted from Shaq. But Ben R pointed out that the draft pick sent in the Sessions deal was the Lakers' own. I realised that the source I had used for my initial analysis was one from the instant reaction after the trade report was filed and it was inaccurate. After checking the facts, I corrected this article to explain how Jordan Hill was the result of the Shaq trade.