I am more against talking crazy Knick trades than anyone else, but I am going to take a step back from that stance to entertain the notion of Kobe as a Knick (and to thrill/entertain Patrick). As much as I do NOT think there is any realistic chance at this happening, I think it's pretty interesting. As everyone knows Kobe is know supposedly back on the block. There are really only a couple teams who can even get close to fair compensation, and out of those, even fewer who could make a trade and have a competitive team to field around Kobe. Remember he has a no trade clause, so he's not gonna go to some team that wont have enough skill around him.Lets take a look at the Knicks. The center to any package would have to be Eddy. The idea of trading Eddy was inconceivable last year, but now with another dominant post player you could toy with the idea. Considering what the Knicks gave up to get Eddy, they would have to get something ridiculous back in exchange for him, and Kobe qualifies. The Knicks could build a trade that centers on Eddy, David Lee and then two of the following: Jamal, Nate, Ronaldo, Wilson Chandler. Ideally i would like it to be Nate instead of Jamal, but it would most likely have to be Jamal and Ronaldo. So then you're looking at a package of Eddy, D. Lee, Jamal and Ronaldo, for Kobe and one or two of their bad contracts. Not a bad trade for either side. The knicks would be left with a trio of Kobe, Steph, and Randolph. Although wildly unrealistic, I thought it would be interesting to look.
(Dont get me wrong, I have no realistic hope of this happening, not even really sure if i would want it to happen, i just think that's it's interesting. I also think the knicks can present a legitimate trade. it would be monumental and league transforming. hence adding to the unrealistic aspect of this trade)
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Glad someone put this up, shocked it was the Heb. First of all, Dr.Buss is an idiot. Let's start at the end of the 2006-07 NBA season-- Kobe and the Lake Show take a pretty pathetic 5 game loss to the Suns for the second season in a row. Lakers are clearly going no where- Andrew Bynum is exponentially overhyped, Odom is still quiet (passing on shots he should take and taking those he should swing to Kobe), Luke Walton is injured, Smush stinks, and so on. In the wake of this second consecutive 1st round bouncing, Kobe pouts a bit and sort of half-heartedly asks to be traded. Fast forward to shortly after draft night, Lakers make no moves, and Kobe demands his trade a bit more vociferously, with a guess appearance vote of support from Zen. Things die down a bit until Kobe plays alongside Lebron, Melo, Dwight Howard, etc. and more importantly Jason Kidd, whom the Lakers refused to acquire because it included parting with Bynum (go figure). Kobe and Kidd look like if they had played together they may well could have sleepwalked their way to the Western Conference finals, if not the championship. This compounds Kobe's frustration for a while until he finally seems to swallow the fact that he is the best player in the game and isn't going anywhere. Fine. He's quite for the rest of the summer/fall and seems all ready to suit up and grab November by the balls. So what does Buss do? 3 weeks before the season he puts Kobe back on the block. What? Seriously? Is he taking notes from Jimmy D? Naturally, this resurrects Kobe's hopes that maybe he will be traded, shifting his focus from giving the Lakers all he's got to giving all he's got to not be a Laker. This is a lose-lose situation for everyone-- Kobe, Buss, fans, Kobe's suitors, etc. It just doesn't make sense. So now were back to June, except that teams have begun to solidify their rosters, integrate their rookies/new acquisitions, build chemistry and so forth. And here is the fundamental issue with a Kobe trade that he doesn't seem to realize and no one speaks about. Kobe has a no-trade clause and wants to be traded to a good team. Do you see the problem? Has the lightbulb gone off yet? Any trade that would net Kobe would include shipping off the nucleus of your team and most likely mortgaging your future. A team trading for Kobe either has to ship the players that make them a contender, or they don't have the pieces and thus can't put together a package or Kobe would nix the trade.
Which, after a long preamble, brings us the Kobe and the Knicks. A Kobe trade would include, most likely, Eddy Curry, David Lee, Jamal Crawford, and probably one other player (Ro Show, Nate, Wilson, etc.). Which would leave our boys with something like Steph, Kobe, Q, Zach and Jared Jeffries. Bench would be Malik, Morris, Wilson,etc. Putting this down on paper actually looks better than I initially had envisioned, but still , I believe, inferior to what we currently boast. Say Steph leaves in a season, we're really depleted. The ideal situation would be to get Kobe and Eddy playing together, but that's really just not feesible. And this is the same problem any team entertaining a Kobe traded faces. Chicago could put together a package, but it would include some combination of Deng, Gordon, Noah, Nocioni, Thomas and others. Does Kobe, Ben Wallace, Kirk Heinrich, and change make the Baby Bulls, a very YOUNG frontrunner to win the East better? Does it give them an edge over the Spurs? I'm not so sure it does. And then there are teams that could trade for Kobe and not jeopardize their future or make them much worse. Those teams, however, are the Hawks and Grizz of the league, teams which Kobe would certainly veto a trade to. So where does this leave the NBA?-- with a disgruntled Kobe and a shitty Lakers team going nowhere fast. If you haven't put it together yet, if you are a fan of any team other than the Lakers, THIS IS A GOOD THING. Keep him pissy and isolated. I'm out.
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