Bill Simmons wants Kobe on the Suns

[Mike Olbinski]

If this trade does indeed happen will there be an ASFN celebration event of some sort?

Yes, we'll sponsor some kind of sick party.

 

[asudevil83]

Fails under the salary cap.

yeah, but i'm just looking at value here.

 

[slinslin]

The Lakers would probably love to dump Radmanovic and the Suns may even be interested thinking Radmanovic fits into this style perfectly and would do well.
A deal like that would probably mean Sarver has to pay some more than he originally wanted, but the franchise would probably make more money off of Kobe too to offset that a little and put them a lot closer to the title.

 

[D-Dogg]

Yes, we'll sponsor some kind of sick party.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I could not bring myself to root for Kobe. Yeah he's a great player but I just couldn't do it

Yankees fans got over Clemens, Damon, and Boggs coming from the Red Sox. Cowboys fans got over TO who defaced their beloved star, Lakers fans got over Karl Malone joining their squad for a championship run, Spurs fans got over Robert Horry killing them in the playoffs when with the Rockets ands Lakers when he went to San Antonio, DBacks fans got over Big Unit demanding a trade out of town when he returned, Dodgers fans got over Jeff Kent, Angels fans got over having Mike Scioscia as a manager, and the list goes on and on.

If Kobe came to the Suns with Amare and Nash there's no way that squad would not win a championship at some point in the next five years. Too bad though, there's no way the Lakers trade Kobe to the Suns (or any Western Conference team) without serious overpayment as we learned from the failed Shaq-Dallas trade.

 

[Gaddabout]

Don't worry, D, you'll be invited. I challenge you to game of darts on the Screamin' A Smith dart board. I'll bring you a Bitch Cup Check voodoo doll that you can poke through the night. I'm buyin.

 

[D-Dogg]

Don't worry, D, you'll be invited. I challenge you to game of darts on the Screamin' A Smith dart board. I'll bring you a Bitch Cup Check voodoo doll that you can poke through the night. I'm buyin.

Even all that, especially the last part, wouldn't give me the strength to watch some other team celebrate having my third or fourth favorite Laker ever and a guy who I jocked from draft day on.

I couldn't even muster up a fake smile for you guys.

 

[Furio]

Even all that, especially the last part, wouldn't give me the strength to watch some other team celebrate having my third or fourth favorite Laker ever and a guy who I jocked from draft day on.

I couldn't even muster up a fake smile for you guys.

 

[az1965]

I just don't see it happenning.

a) Lakers just won't be that dumb to trade him to a division rival. C'mon Cupcake is no Isiah!

b) What about the chemistry issues. I mean, you are talking about the ultimate selfish player...?

 

[slinslin]

I just don'T see the division argument.

If I am a GM, I do the trade that is best for my own team, simple as that. Especially when I go into rebuilding mode, I couldn't care less who is competing for the next 4 years.

 

[azirish]

Besides, Stern would prohibit it as not good for the league.

 

[Divide Et Impera]

The only trade Stern allows is Ginobili/Horry/Barry/Butler for Kobe....

 

[Nasser22]

I just don't see it happenning.

a) Lakers just won't be that dumb to trade him to a division rival. C'mon Cupcake is no Isiah!

b) What about the chemistry issues. I mean, you are talking about the ultimate selfish player...?

He averaged more assists than any other SG the last couple years I think and that's with one of the worst supporting casts. He's not selfish and on a team as talented as the Suns with a great chance to win it all, he won't play selfish.

 

[Nasser22]

Besides, Stern would prohibit it as not good for the league.

That's not funny...I could actually see it happening.

 

[Hat]

He averaged more assists than any other SG the last couple years I think and that's with one of the worst supporting casts. He's not selfish and on a team as talented as the Suns with a great chance to win it all, he won't play selfish.

Agreed. I think what he meant by selfish is you always see him with the ball at half-court, especially 2 seasons ago. But he had to carry the team to wins, they were pretty bad and just got the point where you give it to Kobe to win a game.

 

[devilalum]

The other thing he didn't mention is that there's no way Stoudemire can be swapped for Garnett without Phoenix including another massive salary.

Nash and Bryant would be fine together. It's Nash and Stoudemire that I'm worried about.

It's kind of funny how much Simmons overrates Marion and Diaw. I don't have an explanation for that, except that he generally likes the Suns.

Maybe he just understands the value of quality role players. Shawn Marion is the best role player on the planet, even if he can't except that fact.

 

[devilalum]

I'm a fan of winning a championship now...I'm done with loyalty for a bit

I've always thought that you do anything and everything if you truly believe you can win it all.

The only thing worse than being in the lotto is being mired in mediocrity for 8 years in a row.

 

[devilalum]

Kobe in Phoenix is utter fantasy.

Name one example of a team trading a legit Megastar to a division rival.

 

[az1965]

I just don'T see the division argument.

If I am a GM, I do the trade that is best for my own team, simple as that. Especially when I go into rebuilding mode, I couldn't care less who is competing for the next 4 years.

Its making your division rival stronger to compete for the division title. If you get the division title you still get one of the top 4 slots even if you just win 40 games. What's difficult to understand about it? No team expects to go into 4 years "rebuilding" mode unless they are morons. Especially in this case, they can get significant value in return for Kobe and perhaps high picks. Intelligent GM's can turn it around in couple of years.

 

[D-Dogg]

Intelligent GM's can turn it around in couple of years.

And Mitch is an average GM. And they haven't turned it around in three years, mostly because they can't bring in the right role players and a consistent second option.

 

[az1965]

And Mitch is an average GM. And they haven't turned it around in three years, mostly because they can't bring in the right role players and a consistent second option.

That's a good point... Although your homerism probably is giving him too much credit. Which goes back to my original comment... Cupcake may not be too far behind Isiah so we may pull it off.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Fails under the salary cap.

You sure?

 

[elindholm]

You sure?

At the very least, they'd have to renounce Sweetney and their MLE. So they might just barely squeeze it in, depending on where the cap line falls, but it probably wouldn't be worth it for them.

Edit: Hoopshype has the Bulls at $46.8 million for next season, not counting Sweetney, the MLE, or the #9 pick, which is around $2 million. So even if they renounce Sweetney and the MLE, the pick puts them at close to $49 million. With the cap set to come in at ballpark $55 million, that means they'd have to ship out around $13.5 million to take on Bryant.

So basically we're talking something like Thomas, Gordon, Deng, and Sefolosha. In other words, not happening.

 

[HooverDam]

Here's a fun trade possibility:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...~1966&teams=13~13~22~5~22~21~5~13~13~22~21~13

See if you can come up w. something stupider than that.

 

[Cheesebeef]

And Mitch is an average GM.

what's this based on? Inheriting the greatest player in the league, yet 2 out of 3 seasons his team has had first round exits, one season in the lotto, a lotto pick who has accomplished nothing, signing a FA who turned out to be a complete bust, trading an All-star (andone of Kobe's best friends) for Kwame Brown and trading Shaq for complete garbage?

If that's AVERAGE I'd hate to see what BAD is. Although, me thinks we'll see that within two years when the Lakers are Kobe-less as well.