What’s wrong with this picture? Everyone is coming up with speculative deals regarding Kobe Bryant and the Bulls — the Bulls and Lakers have not talked about any trade of Bryant — and I’m the one shooting them down. I will say this role is not nearly as much fun.
Still, if I were the Bulls, this is what I would do: Wait. Build. And then act, actually after the 2008-09 season, when Bryant becomes a free agent.
The Cavs were in the Finals. The Bulls as presently constituted, with the additions of another high draft pick and a decent free agent with the midlevel exception of about a $5 million starting salary, can compete with anyone in the East.
The Cavs have salary-cap issues and might be unable to re-sign Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic, two of their top six players. Don’t be surprised to see them offering Drew Gooden , and he could end up with the Bulls, reuniting with college teammate Kirk Hinrich. Gooden, not Nick Collison, is the fellow former Kansas player more likely to join Hinrich. The Heat’s lack of youth and athleticism has been exposed, and the Pistons clearly are in some form of transition, with general manager Joe Dumars saying he would address the apparent complacency of their players.
“We have to keep bringing in people who will challenge our core players,” Dumars said. “These guys can’t have such a comfort level where we can go out and play with a lack of urgency. We have to keep changing, keep challenging these guys with fresh talent, or complacency will continue to fester.
“We are looking for talent, obviously, but we are also looking for guys with a sense of urgency. You can’t beg guys to play with hunger. I have to find guys who automatically have that. That’s going to be the test for me. Either you are going to play with a sense of urgency, or you are not. And if you can’t, it’s time to fill that spot with somebody new who maybe hasn’t had all the success we’ve had.”
So there’s no reason the Bulls shouldn’t compete for the top of the East with what they have, including Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha with a year’s experience. It’s easy to look at the Cavs and say they made the Finals with LeBron James and teammates not better than the Bulls’ players. And Bryant is better than James. You figure that’s what helped Bryant make his latest trade demand to Lakers owner Jerry Buss. You know: “If LeBron can get there with that, imagine what I could do.”
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It probably will take another miserable, one-sided Finals or two for Commissioner David Stern to finally acknowledge the obvious and change the format of the postseason tournament.
So why not be patient instead of breaking up what you have? Is this really me?
The Lakers don’t intend to trade Bryant. That’s what they and everyone in the family say, even though Bryant posted on his Web site, kb24.com, Sunday: “The Lakers and me just have two different visions for the future. When you love something as much as I love the Lakers, it’s hard to even imagine thinking about being elsewhere. But the one thing I will never sacrifice when it comes to basketball is winning.”
Jeannie Buss, the team’s executive vice president of business operations, posted this on the team’s Web site last week: “While it is clear that I have no input into basketball decisions, I have expressed my opinion to everyone I work with in this organization that Kobe Bryant cannot now or ever be traded from the Lakers. Even thinking about it distresses me. My message is simple — he is not going anywhere. How can you trade Kobe when there is no equal to Kobe?”
Actually, Jeannie does sound like a general manager, because this is the word being passed to teams: If you are not trading us someone comparable, like James or Dwyane Wade (that would be funny), there is no one close to Bryant in talent. So we want your two best players — especially if one is a point guard — a young big man to go with Andrew Bynum and a draft pick.
Translated for the Bulls, that would be Hinrich, Luol Deng, Thomas and the No. 9 draft pick. So this is what you’d have: Ben Wallace at 33 and heading downhill, Ben Gordon at point guard, Andres Nocioni at small forward and Malik Allen, Michael Sweetney or P.J. Brown at power forward. And you’d be over the salary cap. And you’d have Bryant with an option to leave in two years.
I don’t see any way the Lakers trade him. In three-way deals being proposed involving the Bulls, the Lakers would get Paul Pierce, who hasn’t even made the playoffs for two years, or Gilbert Arenas, who is as unpredictable as they come. Such trades seem only to benefit the Bulls, which the Bulls appreciate.
There’s this notion that the Lakers have no leverage with Bryant, which is ludicrous. They have the league’s best coach in Phil Jackson, who embraces Bryant. Bryant cannot leave as a free agent for two years, and leaving would likely endanger all his endorsement deals, which he has worked so hard to retain since the Colorado criminal charges.
Plus, the Lakers don’t rebuild. They never have. It’s the ultimate star franchise, given their ticket prices, the highest in the NBA, and Hollywood crowd. They sell stardom more than any franchise. They traded for Wilt and Kareem and Kobe and stole Shaq. They’re not going to trade Bryant for Hinrich and Deng. No offense, of course.
The Bulls are some $20 million under the salary cap for the 2009-10 season, which is Wallace’s last. Perhaps they’ll deal his expiring contract by then. With some clever extensions, they could be in position to have a solid core and then add an unhappy Bryant, who’d be only 31, the same age as Tim Duncan is now.
Time to swipe Gasol?
The Celtics’ Chris Wallace, a knowledgeable personnel guy under Danny Ainge, will get the Grizzlies’ GM job this week, probably Monday. And he might be a better candidate to talk to about a trade. In the new-era media exclusive, Pau Gasol’s Web site, www.paugasol.com, scooped everyone with these comments: “If they really want to keep me, then they have to make the necessary effort to get players around me that can compete at the maximum level. I want to be on a winning team that has ambition and fights for everything with stronger players.”
Not likely with just the No. 4 draft pick and a team filled with youngsters. Gasol has made it clear he’s no fan of the city, either, so with a new coach and GM and declining attendance (they come to see Kobe in L.A.; they don’t come to see Pau in Memphis), it seems like it would be a perfect time for the Grizzlies to cash in.
And a perfect time for the Bulls to pull off that deal rumored at last season’s trade deadline.
Draft buzz
While Bryant wiped the draft out of the news for a few days, this is coming down to a nail-biter. It clearly begins with the Hawks at No. 3 after Greg Oden goes to the Trail Blazers and Kevin Durant to the Sonics.
The latest buzz has the Hawks trading out of the third spot or going for Florida power forward Al Horford, the most ready to play of the second tier of players. The buzz had been the Grizzlies aren’t enamored of North Carolina’s Brandan Wright, who was thought to be the consensus No. 4 pick, and like Joakim Noah, also more ready to play. But all this could change with a new general manager moving in this week.
The Celtics at No. 5 also are said to be most interested in trading down or in taking China’s Yi Jianlian or Georgetown’s Jeff Green, who played with coach Doc Rivers’ son and whom Rivers admires. That could have Wright or guard Mike Conley Jr. sliding to the Bucks at No. 6 for an all-Ohio State backcourt with Michael Redd. That makes sense because the Bucks could lose free-agent point guard Mo Williams. And it would open the No. 5 spot for a possible trade with teams like the Bulls, because if the Celtics really want Green, they could trade down.
Meanwhile, the latest dark horse moving up is Colorado State’s Jason Smith, an agile 7-footer who can shoot. He could be a prospect for which a team like the Bulls could trade down.
It’s setting up as a wild 10 days until the June 28 draft.
What to do with a dynasty
Spurs owner Peter Holt referenced the Bulls in talking to the San Antonio Express News about a two-year, $50 million extension for Duncan. “What I saw happen in Chicago taught me a lot of things,” Holt said. “Why do you dismantle a team? I don’t get it. It’s so hard.” The difference was Michael Jordan said at the time he was retiring again and Scottie Pippen asked to be traded and Jackson said he was two years past when he needed a sabbatical. … It looked like assistant Scott Brooks had a lock on the Kings job, but then Reggie Theus and Brian Shaw re-entered the picture and Larry Brown injected himself. … Former Suns and Sonics coach Paul Westphal is expected to join the Mavericks’ staff. … New Suns GM Steve Kerr is making it clear he won’t overhaul the team, which would negate any trade like one recently speculated with Boston for a high draft pick.
Layups
Plenty of Spurs what-ifs were revisited during the Finals, like what if Duncan had signed with the Magic in 2000, or what if the Spurs had signed Jason Kidd after winning their second title in 2003? But what if the Cavs had pulled the trigger on that Mike Bibby deal with the Kings in February, which supposedly was there for the taking? The Cavs probably will revisit it this summer. … One of the hottest free agents is Grant Hill, whom the Magic wants to keep. But he’s drawing interest from the Spurs, Lakers, Suns, Pistons, Raptors, Cavs and Mavericks, just to name a few. … That Buss family would make a heck of a reality show. Son Johnny, a freelance photographer, posted on his MySpace page: “If you’ve been following the Kobe drama, I want to let you know it’s not really drama. … Sometimes we all need to make a change in our lives, and that’s all it is. Popular or unpopular, when it’s time, it’s time. Good luck, Kobe, wherever you go!” Johnny later said the message was misunderstood and he had meant to praise Bryant.
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