Thread: Kobe: Hire West or trade me

Originally Posted by jbruin152

I was there too, so what?

According to ESPN.com's NBA site, Kobe said on the Dan Patrick Show he wants to stay a Laker.

Get Jermaine O'Neal into a Lakers jersey and we'll see Kobe smiling again.

I honestly believe Kobe's number one motivation is winning. He just can not win with this current "team" surrounding him. Putting out a starting five that consists of J. O'Neal and Bryant every night is good enough for 40 wins, easy. Add a couple roll players and we could be looking at a 50 win team.

The fate of this organization is in Kupchak's hands, now more than ever.

Originally Posted by Die Radio Die

Get Jermaine O'Neal into a Lakers jersey and we'll see Kobe smiling again.

Can he stay healthy? That's a pretty big $20m/yr risk.

Originally Posted by Die Radio Die

The fate of this organization is in Kupchak's hands, now more than ever.

God help us.

I can't wait to see who this "insider" is. He'll be hung from the top of Staples before the week is over.

Originally Posted by jbruin152

Can he stay healthy? That's a pretty big $20m/yr risk.

We've got a window of at the most another 3 years. I say take the shot while we've still got it.

Originally Posted by spi84ral

God help us.

Terrifying but true.

1) Kobe's made his own bed, and now he wants to blame the man who tucked him in.

Kobe got everything he wanted when his contract was up: new coach, Shaq was moved, and the slate was clean for him to be the "man", which is the exact reason he was considering leaving Los Angeles in the first place. He wanted to be the "man", and if Buss wouldn't give that opportunity, he was going to walk. If he truly wanted to stay in LA regardless of the Shaq and Phil Jackson departures, he would have signed that deal before he made damn well and sure that they were gone.

2) The most important thing is that the Lakers, nor any other team that acquires Kobe, will not be a championship caliber team. The two-guard position, along with the small forward, are the LEAST important positions in basketball.

With the obvious exception of Jordan's Bulls, I dare anyone to name one legitimate championship level team in the last 25 years that had a shooting guard as its best player. The only one that I can think of is Portland's Drexler-era. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Jordan's Bulls where going nowhere until Jordan learned to trust his teammates. It took several seasons worth of veteran pick-ups before the Bulls won a title. That was a different salary-cap era as well.

There are too many quality scoring guards to max out anyone of them, even if Bryant is clearly the most talented of the bunch. It is also far too easy to create a defensive scheme to slow these players. NEVER, NEVER MAX OUT A 2-GUARD, now matter how good he is. The most imprtant positions in basketball are in this order: center, point guard, power forward, shooting guard, swingman. The ratio of talent as compared to size and availability says that you should never build your team around any of the last two positions. Maybe LeBron is an exception because he is a distributor first, but I still don't think he will win a title in Cleveland.

You can always find a 2nd tier shooting guard who will provide maybe 10-15 fewer points per night than Kobe. Spend the money on the positions that build championships.

This is a great day for TRUE Laker fans. For Kobe fans, not so much...

Originally Posted by Die Radio Die

Get Jermaine O'Neal into a Lakers jersey and we'll see Kobe smiling again.

I honestly believe Kobe's number one motivation is winning. He just can not win with this current "team" surrounding him. Putting out a starting five that consists of J. O'Neal and Bryant every night is good enough for 40 wins, easy. Add a couple roll players and we could be looking at a 50 win team.

The fate of this organization is in Kupchak's hands, now more than ever.

Kobe wants to win only on his terms, this much is obvious.

There is no practical way to bring in O'Neal under the salary cap WITHOUT moving bryant. It just cannot be done - the numbers are impossible.

Originally Posted by Die Radio Die

Add a couple roll players and we could be looking at a 50 win team.

The fate of this organization is in Kupchak's hands, now more than ever.

Thing is, how do you get those guys? Where is the money at? It's not like you've got space under the cap. You make the trade for JO and you've got a starting five of:

Kobe
PG
Luke Walton (maybe)
Kwame (maybe)
JO

Your bench is:
Sasha
Vlad
Bench Scrub 1
Bench Scrub 2
Bench Scrub 3

That's pretty ugly right there. I don't see them being a 50+ win team. You really do?