Is it Time for the Los Angeles Lakers to Trade Kobe Bryant? A Kobe Fan Says Yes….

Yes, Kobe Bryant has played every game of his career with the purple and gold. Yes, he has won five world championships and seven Western Conference titles. Yes, he should have BOTH his #8 and #24 jerseys hanging from the rafters of the Staples Center (if you don’t believe me, just look at his accomplishments while wearing each number). Yes, he is the greatest player in Lakers history. And, yes, for both the Lakers sake and Kobe’s sake, it is time for the Black Mamaba aka Vino aka the second best shooting guard in NBA history to be traded, NOW!

After watching Carmelo Anthony re-sign with the New York Knicks and close friend Pau Gasol sign with the Chicago Bulls with the Lakers receiving NOTHING in return (ala the Dwight Howard debacle), the writing is on the wall; the Lakers are in full-blown rebuild mode. There will be no quick fix, no immediate retool, no realistic chance at winning another title before the 2016-17 season – the year AFTER Bryant’s current two year and $48,500,000 contract ends – the Lakers are in for a tough next two seasons. And, Kobe Bryant may only play two more seasons. Again, the writing is clearly on the wall for both Kobe himself and the Lakers franchise.

Kobe Bryant has made it clear that his desire is to play his entire career with the purple and gold and to retire a Laker. However, he has also made it clear that his greatest goal and the driving force behind his maniacal quest to return from a possibly career-ending Achilles injury at the end of the 2013 and suffering a fracture of the lateral tibial plateau of his knee last season, is to win a sixth ring, the same amount of rings the great Michael Jordan won while with the Chicago Bulls.

At this point, the question is simply, “Would Kobe Bryant rather retire a Laker with five rings or finish out his career in a different city and retire with six rings (or at least have a realistic shot at winning a sixth ring)?” Honestly, I believe the latter would be the correct answer.

Before I detail the ONLY realistic option regarding a Kobe Bryant trade, I will say that I have said for years and continue to maintain that I believe Kobe Bryant will play past the 2015-16 season. It would not shock me to see Kobe Bryant sign a one year contract at the vet minimum in the summer of 2016 if such would help the Lakers sign a marquee free agent like Kevin Durant and add him to a team that already has perhaps a Rajon Rondo (or even Goran Dragic) and Kevin Love who were acquired the summer before, with Bryant remaining the face of the franchise even if he will be viewed by the masses as more of a figurehead than the team’s actual best player.

While I could see Kobe biding his time for two more years, watching the Lakers sign Kevin Love to a max offer next summer and then agreeing to sign one final contract at an extreme hometown discount so that the Lakers can bring in a superstar like Kevin Durant, I’m not sure the man known as the Black Mamba and as the most competitive player since Michael Jordan himself will be patient enough to do so. I can just as easily see Kobe demanding a trade to a teamthat with the addition of himself becomes an instant title contender. And, if Bryant does so, the Lakers might actually be crazy not to oblige him and trade him ASAP. That is, unless of course they enjoy watching star players leave town while they receive nothing in return, and of course, that is exactly what happened with BOTH Dwight Howard in the summer of 2013 and Pau Gasol this summer.

All of the above said, there is ONLY ONE team in the league that would be a realistic trading partner for the Los Angeles Lakers in a ground-breaking Kobe Bryant trade. That’s right ONE.

where Kobe Bryant could be traded by the Lakers, and where Kobe himself would agree to be traded to. Those three options are: Indiana, Chicago and New York (i.e. the Knicks).

The New York Knicks are the only team in the NBA that not only has the assets necessary to entice the Los Angeles Lakers front office into trading the greatest player in team history, but to also intrigue Kobe Bryant himself and entice the Black Mamba into waiving his no-trade clause and agreeing to a trade that would send him from the City of Angels to the Mecca.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there may be other teams, such as the Indiana Pacers (with a package of Roy Hibbert and filler), New Orleans Pelicans (Eric Gordon and filler), Detroit Pistons (Josh Smith and filler), Brooklyn (Brook Lopez and filler) and others that would make an offer to the Lakers. However, not only would none of the packages be as enticing to the Lakers as what the Knicks could offer them, there is no way that Kobe Bryant would agree to waive his no trade clause to play for Detroit, New Orleans, etc. There are also other teams Kobe may be willing to play for, with the Chicago Bulls leading that list, but those teams simply cannot offer the enticing combination of assets the Knicks can and therefore it would be the Lakers front office that would nix such possibilities.

However, the New York can not only offer the best possible trade package to the Lakers, they can also offer Kobe Bryant the opportunity to play for old pals Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher, with superstar and friend Carmelo Anthony and in the Mecca of New York City. Simply put, Kobe Bryant to the New York Knicks makes way too much sense to ignore, period.
The Knicks could offer the Lakers a package built around the expiring contract of former All-Star Amare Stoudemire and any combination of extremely talented and inexpensive young players such as Iman Shumpert, Tim Hardaway Jr., Shane Larkin and Cleanthony Early.

Personally, I feel the Lakers front office would ultimately agree to trade Bryant for Amare Stoudemire, Tim Hardaway Jr., Iman Shumpert and Cleanthony Early. Early has the look of a long-time starting SF in the NBA and Hardaway Jr. is coming off a fantastic rookie campaign that saw him average nearly 18 points per 40 minutes and many times be the second best player on the court for the hapless Knicks, while Shumpert is known as a defensive dynamo. Even Amare Stoudemire – while little more than a shell of his former dominant self – had a very solid 2013-14 season and averaged 21.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per 40 minutes while shooting .557 from the floor.

By agreeing to this trade the Lakers could literally land a starting SG and SF for the next decade in Hardaway Jr. and Early, as well as a solid 6th man in Shumpert and a former All-Star and great first big off the bench to act as a mentor for rookie Julius Randle. That seems like a solid haul for a 36 year old shooting guard, even if his name is Kobe Bean Bryant.

As for the Knicks, if they could pull off such a trade they would have a starting five of Jose Calderon/Kobe Bryant/Carmelo Anthony/Andrea Bargnani/Samuel Dalembert with talented second year point guard Shane Larkin and super-sub J.R. Smith off the bench. And, while I don’t believe such is truly and immediately a title contending roster, it certainly could put a scare into Eastern Conference playoff teams and have an outside shot of winning the Eastern Conference as well, especially if Bryant returns to 2012-13 form and the team remains healthy.

All of the above said, if either Kobe Bryant demands to be traded or the Lakers front office decides it’s in the best interests of the franchise to explore the trade market for Bryant – and he agrees to waive his no-trade clause – the New York Knicks would be one and only realistic trade partner.

If Michael Jordan can retire as a Washington Wizard, Kobe Bryant could retire as a Knick, period.