Before the Lakers took the floor in Chicago against the Bulls on Monday, Mike D’Antoni announced that Pau Gasol would be removed from the starting lineup in favor of going small, with Earl Clark getting the minutes at the starting power forward spot.

This decision, D’Antoni told reporters, was not just for one game, but a long-term solution to try to get his system more firmly in place. Efficiency statistics were cited that said when Gasol and Dwight Howard play together, the team ranks near the bottom of the league, but when just one plays, the team’s numbers are much improved.

It may turn out to be the right decision, and it may not. If Gasol plays with the rest of the starters in crunch time, as he did against the Heat when he played the entire fourth quarter after coming off the bench, then it’s not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of the team’s rotations.

Except for one thing: It is to Gasol.

He was extremely vocal and pointed in his remarks after that Miami game, saying he absolutely wanted to return to the starting lineup. Now that he’s been overridden in this request by the whims of his head coach, Gasol said he feels now more than ever that he may be a part of a deal that sends him out of town before the Feb. 21 trade deadline.

Craig Sager reported this early in Thursday night’s TNT telecast, as seen in the video clip above.

“Pau Gasol I talked to before the game,” Sager said. “He is not at all happy with the decision. He says I have never been a role player in my life. I don’t like it right now. I said, what about the possibility that maybe your time with the Lakers could be coming to an end at the All-Star break or the trade deadline? He said it certainly looks like a possibility to me.”

We’ll have to see how Gasol and the team react over the next few games to get a sense of whether or not this was in fact a good decision from a lineup standpoint, or if it was simply a desperate move by a head coach willing to try anything at this point, even if it means alienating one of his tram’s best players.

[Video clip via LakersNation]