Lakers Trade Rumors

"A year ago, Kobe Bryant was ready to bolt. Now, he's prepared to stick with the Lakers for the rest of his NBA career. "I would like to, absolutely," Kobe Bryant said during a formal news conference Tuesday afternoon to announce his selection as the NBA's MVP...Bryant had made it clear he did not wish to leave the Lakers, ending a 12-month melodrama he initiated by asking for a trade after demanding the team upgrade its roster following its second consecutive first-round playoff ouster. "

"It took 12 seasons, but Kobe Bryant has finally been selected the NBA's most valuable player, The Times has learned. Sources familiar with the outcome who were not authorized to speak publicly about the award until the official announcement from the league said Commissioner David Stern will be in Los Angeles next week to present the trophy to Bryant."

"Bryant looked and sounded liked a contented man Monday afternoon, one day after the Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series. He smiled. He laughed. He joked. Above all, he spoke in the most emphatic terms about remaining with the Lakers for the rest of his career. He said he hasn't thought about terminating his contract with the team and opting to become a free agent after next season."

"If Walsh waits long enough, the field of qualified candidates could grow in the coming weeks as teams are eliminated from the playoffs. Dallas Coach Avery Johnson could be in jeopardy if the Mavericks lose their first-round series to the New Orleans Hornets. The same goes for Flip Saunders in Detroit and Sam Mitchell in Toronto... Walsh could reach out to three other assistant coaches who interviewed in Indiana last year: Brian Shaw of the Los Angeles Lakers, Chuck Person of the Sacramento Kings and Johnny Davis, a former Pacers assistant now with the Memphis Grizzlies."

"Still, Jefferson is an asset, and would inspire significant interest in trade talks. Teams from Phoenix to Toronto would love to have him. He can be moved to Utah for Andrei Kirilenko (and perhaps Paul Millsap) with one phone call. He can probably be moved to L.A. for Lamar Odom if the Lakers conclude that a 6-10 small forward isn't necessary with two 7-footers in the starting lineup."

"If the Lakers do that, Odom's future with the team is secure. But if they don't fare well in the playoffs, Odom could be one of the first to be traded in the off-season."

"All signs point to Bryant's staying with the Lakers despite the fact he can terminate his contract after next season. First, they're good. Very good."

"The Lakers are said to be looking hard for a more traditional small forward with shooting range. Perhaps the Wizards' Caron Butler, who was injured and couldn't play in Sunday's All-Star Game... The Spurs don't make many major moves, but they are looking to deal Francisco Elson. The SuperSonics have had enough of their French connection and are offering Johan Petro and Mickael Gelabale. Seattle also would like to move Wally Szczerbiak and Damien Wilkins... The Rockets would like to be rid of Bonzi Wells. The 76ers are offering Gordan Giricek... And Ben Gordon's nameis another that has made the rumor rounds. "

"What are your thoughts on a Tyrus Thomas for Brandan Wright trade with Golden State? ... In Portugal runs the rumor that T-Mac is going to our Bulls... Can't the Bulls this summer acquire Dwyane Wade from the Miami Heat with a trade? ... What if the Bulls take Lamar Odom and Chris Mihm for Luol Deng or Andres Nocioni? Lamar is no longer needed in LA, and the Lakers would now prefer a shooter to complement the post play with Kobe, "

"I say the Bulls trade Deng (and maybe Smith, Duhon, Khryapa to make the deal work). The Lakers would be an ideal situation for Deng: playing with three other guys that command a double team would allow him to be the mid-range and cutting type of player he's suited to be... Elton can opt out as a free agent, but I doubt he will. Being injured this season, I believe he stays (he is due $16.4 million next season) and then leaves as a free agent to go to Miami assuming they can find the money below the salary cap, which won't be easy."

"That makes Kidd a viable option to go to Dallas, which, despite denials from coach Avery Johnson, remains very much in the hunt. The Lakers also could work their way into the mix if they decide to make forward Lamar Odom available."

"The first week of the Jason Kidd Open Market has concluded, and so far, this is what the Nets have learned: In Denver, management types leaked word that the Nuggets are not going to get involved in any way. "

"The Lakers are not expected to be a player in a trade for New Jersey's Jason Kidd, a source said."

"There is no longer any doubt. Jason Kidd wants out. No extension, no infusion of talent, nothing will satisfy the Nets' star point guard, who yesterday acknowledged, 'It's time for us all to move on.' ... The Nets want Kidd in the West - his choice earlier this season was Dallas. The teams figuring to bid heavily are Dallas, Denver and Portland."

" Jason Kidd has finally owned up to a fact which everyone already knew two days ago: He wants out. Eschewing the coded messages and hollow pledges of allegiance he had used all season to define his displeasure with the team he put on the NBA map, Kidd admitted last night that the time has come to put New Jersey in his rearview mirror... Meanwhile, the Nets' trade offers remain unappealing, and they are likely to dry up a bit because the Lakers aren't interested in making any major changes, according to people familiar with Mitch Kupchak's thinking. That leaves Dallas, Cleveland and Denver as the most likely suitors for Kidd..."

"Kidd has never won a championship ring and likely won't this season unless he does so with another team. He was close to being traded last season to the Lakers but L.A. did not want to part with center Andrew Bynum."

"It was not too long ago, this off-season to be exact, when giving away every single Mav player, up to and possibly including Dirk, to add Kobe was seen as logical. Possibly necessary. The thinking was Kobe and four guys named Bob had a better chance of winning a championship than Dirk, Josh, Devin, et al."

"Chicago Tribune's Sam Smith suggested a new deal the other day in his NBA column, with the Lakers acquiring power forward Ben Wallace in exchange for center Kwame Brown and backup forward Vladimir Radmanovic. Smith's reasoning was sound, although he acknowledged it was not based on anything he has heard from the Bulls, Lakers or any other league sources. "

"Wallace makes sense for the Lakers with Andrew Bynum's injury, and they can give the Bulls enough to make sense of a deal. You take Kwame Brown's expiring contact of $9 million and add Vladimir Radmanovic at $5.6 million and it's a deal... The Grizzlies are now telling teams they are reassessing whether to deal Gasol."

"SO, VETERAN Chris Webber, currently a free agent, recently said to a Sacramento television station that he'd be back in the NBA in two weeks. This bit of news begs one question: Who cares? Based on reports, the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat are all interested in Webber."

"Quite Frankly, Lawrence, after last week's surrender to the Knicks New York Knicks , I've seen more than enough; you gotta go and that also goes for Jason Kidd Jason Kidd and Vince Carter Vince Carter and maybe Richard Jefferson, too."

"Phoenix has "had internal discussions about Utah's Andrei Kirilenko, the (Los Angeles) Lakers' Lamar Odom and Memphis' Pau Gasol, according to a source."

"The Lakers can't do much about their schedule, but it is possible they could acquire help to bolster their roster. Chris Webber has been looking for a job since last summer, but remains unsigned and unemployed."

"So Chris Webber says he's coming back to the NBA in two weeks, but the former Yellowjacket/Wolverine/Piston won't tell us where. We figure it could be the Pistons -- assuming Joe Dumars can find a taker for Flip Murray, freeing the necessary roster spot -- but more likely, C-Webb will join the Lakers."

" With Bynum out, the Lakers are in the market for another big man. Veteran P. J. Brown, a 6-foot-11 veteran who played for the Bulls last season, fits the bill, but his representative said that for the time being, Brown is content being out of basketball and not trying to return."

"So, you say the Lakers are trying to move clumsy Kwame (Brown) out, but instead, can't they just let Brown go at the end of the season, and try signing Maggette? ... Sam, how about this trade Thabo Sefolosha & Tyrus Thomas for Brandan Wright & Marco Belinelli? ... I know Riley thinks highly of Skiles and Skiles has proven himself a turnaround guy. Would it work with vets like Shaq and Wade? Riley keeps saying he'll go inside for his eventual successor, which could be by All-Star break."

"Thus, the Lakers are sifting through the free-agent bin and coming up with such names as Chris Webber, P.J. Brown and DJ Mbenga."

"Bynum had been on track to making the Lakers' offseason decision on a possible five-year, $75 million contract extension easy. The Lakers will still probably extend his deal, but now Brown will get a chance at increased playing time to earn a better contract, too."

"I'm still for Gasol, though I hear the Grizzlies have talked with a number of teams. The hangup with the Bulls appears to be the Grizzlies' interest in Andres Nocioni... Kobe isn't going anywhere and never was. He hates to admit it, but he's better off, and the talk is the Lakers are looking hard to move Kwame's expiring contract for another piece and make a serious championship run."

" Ariza has two years left on his contract that pays him $3.1 million per season. He has an opt-out clause after this season but sounds happy to be in LA."

"The Lakers are one of the NBA's biggest surprises, and Kobe Bryant, who demanded a trade during the summer, seems content. So does this mean Bryant will remain in Los Angeles for the rest of his contract, which runs through 2011?"

"There was reported interest from the Mavericks and Magic late in the summer and into camp. Rick Adelman's sagging Rockets need help, particularly at power forward, where 6-foot-6 Chuck Hayes starts but doesn't play half the game, essentially splitting time with rookie Luis Scola. Webber's interest in the Lakers might be back now that the Lakers are back, too, just as the Heat, his second choice a year ago, might have gone over a cliff."

"The trade deadline is almost two months away, but Coach Phil Jackson doesn't see Kobe Bryant going anywhere, the strongest such statement by a Lakers official that their top player will still be theirs at season's end."

"Bryant was there to talk about becoming the youngest player in NBA history to score 20,000 points in his career. The 29-year-old Bryant reached the milestone faster than Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan, but there weren't many questions about that."

"On the last stop of this four-game trip, the Kobe Bryant trade saga was revived yet again. Coach Phil Jackson had been quoted in Chicago as saying the book has not been closed on the Bryant story, so Jackson was asked to explain... The Lakers have made more overtures about acquiring Jason Kidd, but the Nets weren't interested in the offer, according to the New York Post."

"The Knicks held exploratory talks with the Lakers last summer, but Lakers coach Phil Jackson downplayed the Knicks as a destination for Bryant, citing that he wants to play for a championship contender and the Knicks don't have much to offer."

"It's a sucker's game that Kobe Bryant plays with the Knicks and their fans. I love you, I want you, you love me, you want me ... Nope, you can't have me."

"As hard a time as the Lakers had closing out a game yesterday against the directionless, superstar-starved, strategically challenged Knicks, there is something else far more annoying that they can't seem to close. No matter what the Lakers do, they can't put an end to the Kobe Bryant drama."

"After weeks of calm on the Kobe Bryant front, a few comments during the Lakers' recent road trip have led to questions about whether Bryant may still ask out of Los Angeles if the team doesn't continue to improve. But before yesterday's 95-90 victory over the Knicks, in which Bryant scored 39 points and became the youngest player to reach 20,000, Lakers coach Phil Jackson squashed the possibility of Bryant being traded, and suggested the only way he could leave L.A. is via free agency following next season. "

"Kobe, this could be your court. Knicks fans dreamt of landing record-setting superstar Kobe Bryant Sunday even as they watched him light up their woeful team at Madison Square Garden."

"The Lakers are interested in trading for New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd, according to a report in a New York tabloid that cited an unnamed source. The deal would require the Lakers to send a package of players to the Nets to acquire Kidd. "

"The Lakers are angling to shoplift Jason Kidd, a Western hearing aide claims, for a couple draft picks, Kwame Brown's expiring contract ($9M), Jordan Farmar ($1M) and Vladimir Radmanovic ($5.6M with an additional $19.2M over the next three seasons). Not unexpectedly, the Nets aren't interested in assuming Radmanovic's long-term guarantee... Another time-tested source believes the Cavaliers (Drew Gooden) and Mavericks (Erick Dampier) are in better position to provide the Nets with frontcourt help, but neither team nor the Lakers can offer more than the Nuggets - an almost-rehabbed Nene or Marcus Camby vs. Kenyon Martin."

"On the day before playing in perhaps the world's most famous basketball arena, and with a significant scoring milestone within sight, Kobe Bryant decided Saturday to be a little more talkative than usual. Bryant confirmed for the first time his four choices for a trade last summer were the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns. He would not say whether he still wished to be traded to the Knicks. "

"Kobe Bryant likes his teammates, loves his coach and thinks the vastly improved Lakers are one tough but makeable step away from joining the NBA's elite. Is that enough to draw an assumption that Bryant no longer wants to be traded?"

"Yes, the Knicks were on the list of four teams he asked to be traded to late last spring, Bryant acknowledged for the first time yesterday to a small group of reporters. And, he said, no teams have been taken off the list."

"Amid the darkness and hopelessness of the Knicks' season came a purple ray of light when Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant revealed yesterday New York's troubled franchise is on his four-team wish list he drafted this past summer."

" The most pointed question was when he was asked to address the perception that if the Lakers' play slips that he'll ask to be traded again. 'That's not true,' Bryant responded."

"But before the former Lower Merion High School star took the court against the Sixers on Friday night, the question had to be asked: Has Bryant ever given thought to playing for the Sixers? 'Sure, sure -- absolutely,' Bryant said."

"Now, it can be told: Kobe Bryant always dreamed about playing for the 76ers. That was back in high school, when Bryant left Lower Merion High, outside Philadelphia, in 1996 for the NBA, starting his illustrious career with the Los Angeles Lakers."

"Bryant, in Chicago to play the Bulls on Tuesday night, remains in the Lakers' purple and gold. And while almost everybody was figuring out trade scenarios for Bryant and the Bulls, the Lakers have quietly started to become one of the Western Conference's better teams... Though both teams continue to deny it vehemently, a rival general manager said last week he's still hearing talk of a Nets-Mavs deal involving Kidd."