BG7 those Kobe trades that you have offer are just pathetic your seeing Kobe like if he was nothing just another player his more than his a player that every team would love to have, a trade of Gordon and Nocioni and fillers for Kobe would be perfect but other than that no way were trading Kobe for a bunch of expiring contracts.No way thats happening.</p>
BG7 why would the Lakers trade Kobe for just expiring contracts when they can just let him walk in 2 years. The Lakers are better off keeping him for two years and watching him walk for nothing. They might as well cash in on Kobe.</p>
No way do I see Paxson dealing any two of Gordon, Deng, Hinrich, Thomas, Noah. Regardless of how good Kobe is.</p> The only knock I have on Kobe is that he can have pretty good teammates who'll stand around on offense to watch the Kobe show. Jordan had the same effect on his teammates. Odom seemed to play better with Kobe out, and Kobe played better with Odom out. The trick is to get them playing their best on the court at the same time.</p> You have to look at who's got leverage in the deal - it's the Bulls.</p> If the Bulls do nothing, they take their 49 win team from last year and add Joe Smith, Noah, Gray (who seems like a score of a 2nd round pick). Guys like Deng, Gordon, and Thomas are young enough that they should improve over last year. In theory, they should improve on their 49 wins, and time is still on their side (they're all young, except Wallace and Smith).</p> The Lakers? They can keep Kobe and finish with 40+ wins and ... anything can happen once they make the playoffs, but it's not very likely. They wait it out two years with picks like #19 in the draft, which doesn't make them much better. Kobe opts out and walks - who are you going to replace him with? If Kobe's arguably the best player in the game, whoever you sign can only be a downgrade. If they want to rebuild, they're going to start on that project two-plus years from now.</p> </p>
Paxson is an idiot and is overly afraid of making deals unless he thinks they are lopsided (i.e. makes a trade with Zeke). I don't see Kobe becoming a Bull, but it doesn't matter, as the Bulls fans are going to be disappointed by the playoffs trade or no trade.</p> </p> </p>
