The Los Angeles Lakers are doing their best to upgrade their roster to make sure they have the pieces in place to make another championship run. They already have a solid core of three in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, which should be more than enough to keep them in contention.
Right now the Lakers are looking for an upgrade at the point guard position in particular. They have made plenty of overtures to multiple points, but have yet to secure any deal. However, that isn't stopping a lot of pundits from making some pretty absurd suggestions.
So Ric Bucher made a really ridiculous suggestion: Trade Kobe.
Don't believe that he said it? Check out the video below.
Lakers Best Trade Move (via ESPN)
Okay, Ric. Trade Kobe for who? Ten draft picks? Dwight Howard? Deron Williams? No team is about to absorb Kobe's gargantuan contract and deal away their franchise player.
Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times lets you know why trading Bryant is an absurd notion.
The scenario is unrealistic since Bryant has a no-trade clause and he's not exactly going on a radio tour like he did five years ago demanding the Lakers ship him elsewhere. Regardless of whether he's in the tail-end of his career, Bryant's still averaging a league-leading 28.9 points while nursing a torn ligament in his right wrist, wearing a plastic mask to protect his tender nose and tolerating neck pain. And seriously, we're talking about Kobe Bryant. Unless the Lakers just want to start a riot in L.A. and become a punch line just for kicks, there's no reason to trade the franchise player.
Even packaging Bryant for another superstar wouldn't work. Bryant's $25.24 million salary exceeds other stars' pay, such as Dwight Howard ($17.88 million), Kevin Durant ($16.32 million) and LeBron James ($16.02 million). Teams with a younger superstar will want to keep them for the long-term investment. And shipping off Bryant would fundamentally change the Lakers so much that it would have to involve a multiple-player package that would become too complicated to execute.
I'm not sure what world Bucher is in, but trading Bryant is not in the cards for the Lakers, not now, not ever. Barring allegations of him killing hobos in his spare time, Kobe is finishing his career as a Laker.
To discuss Kobe and the Lakers, head on over to Silver Screen and Roll.