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Kobe to Atlanta Speculation

Diesel

By Diesel
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Diesel Grand Master

Diesel

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The Kobe Bryant Solution: Enter the Atlanta Hawks

by Adam Duggan

It's time for the Hawks to make themselves relevant again.

It's time for the Hawks to trade for Kobe Bryant.

Impossible, you say? Not as impossible as you might think.

The Hawks have more young talent than any NBA team other than the Bulls, and are desperate to put themselves back on the basketball map.

Not to mention that the city of Atlanta needs something to feel good about after the Michael Vick disaster—and something tells me that Thrashers hockey isn't gonna do the trick.

It seems like a good match—if the Hawks could ever convince Kobe of that.

Admittedly, it's debatable whether acquiring Kobe could really be considered "something to feel good about." Bryant comes with considerable baggage, and based on his track record probably wouldn't even get along with himself...if he didn't think so highly of the man.

That said, there's no arguing that the deal makes sense.

Kobe wants out of L.A.—and the team he had his heart set on, the Bulls, thought higher of Luol Deng, whom they refused to include in any deal.

As it stands, the market for Kobe is shrinking by the day—and though I'm sure Isiah Thomas is at this very moment concocting a scheme to bring Bryant to New York (officially driving every female employee out of the Garden), nothing appears imminent.

Mitch Kupchak and Shaq can tell you that nobody wants the headache of an unhappy Kobe. David Stern would probably rather field questions about his most recent trip to Vegas than have to deal with the ongoing soap opera.

Enter the Hawks.

Atlanta has the right combination of young talent and veterans to make the deal work in terms of both personnel and salary numbers. The Hawks could presumably swing a trade without shortchanging the Lakers—and without gutting their own roster.

Kobe would enter Atlanta as the veteran leader of an up-and-coming young team. He'd be free to shape the Hawks in his image, and could lead them back to prominence without sacrificing his personal goals of chucking up 35 shots a night and only passing to his own reflection.

A potential deal: Speedy Claxton, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Sheldon Williams, and cash to the Lakers for Kobe—with the centerpiece being Marvin Williams, who's averaging 19 points and 5.5 boards in a crowded at Atlanta frontcout.

Sheldon Williams would provide the Lakers with a better interior option than Kwame Brown to play alongside Andrew Bynum, and Childress and Claxton are nice role players.

All told, a deal like this would give the Lakers young superstars and supporting vets to build around. Make no mistake: The deal wouldn't make the Lakers better—but it's a far better value than any of the possibilities floated so far.

A trade for Kobe would vault the Hawks to the upper-echelon of the Eastern Conference with the Celtics, Bulls, and Pistons—especially if they could swing it without giving up Josh Smith or Joe Johnson.

Pair those two with Kobe, and the Eastern Conference would have to start worrying about the Hawks again.

Now, if Kobe would just consider waving that pesky no-trade clause...

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Atlantaholic Grand Master

Atlantaholic

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The problem with having JJ and Kobe on the same team is that they are both the same type of player... I would never do this trade; sure, we would be relevant for the next three - four years if we did, but then we would be back to being cellar dwellers after Kobe retires. And in case people haven't noticed we have sold out our first two home games, and are ranked 13th in the ESPN power ranking and 8th in the Fox power ranking... we don't need Kobe to be relevant; we need to win games, and I think we can do that with the group we have right now.

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Plainview1981 Mentor

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The problem with having JJ and Kobe on the same team is that they are both the same type of player... I would never do this trade; sure, we would be relevant for the next three - four years if we did, but then we would be back to being cellar dwellers after Kobe retires.

The one problem is that the Hawks probably will not be able to keep all of these guys anyway. But that team wouldn't contend for a title.

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Atlantaholic Grand Master

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I don't know if it's impossible to keep Acie, Marv, Joe, Horf, and Smoove... honestly I don't think Acie will ever become an "elite" pg, and I don't see him asking for much money. (probably less than the contract we gave JT.) Marv, Smoove and Horf will probably command some serious dollar, but with Lorenzen, Speedy, Lue and AJ coming of the books, we may be able to free up enough cap to keep them all.

If Marv, Smoove, Acie, AND Horf all merit big deals two-three years from now, then that would mean we have been fielding a legitimate contender anyway... So even if we indeed can't keep them all, I stil like our chances with our current lineup over Kobe's

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Dragitoff Enthusiast

Dragitoff

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This guy's proposal would net us a starting lineup of:

Law

Kobe

JJ

Smoove

Horford

with a bench of:

Lue

AJ

Salim

Solo

Lo

ZaZa

West

Our depth would be seriously depleted and we'd have to go out and most likely sign some more players since we'd only have 12 under contract. My biggest concern is Kobe can opt out after this season. Would he? Right with that is would/could the Atlanta ownership allow us to go over the cap to extend JSmoove?

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Plastic Man Newbie

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This whole post is ludicrous. An LA market for the most famous franchise of all time is not gonna take trash (i.e. Shelden and Speedy) for one of the greatest players of all time.

Any Kobe deal would have to involve Joe + Marvin/Smoove, Childress, + more

Right on. The revenue factor is often overlooked.

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Swatguy Newbie

Swatguy

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This whole post is ludicrous. An LA market for the most famous franchise of all time is not gonna take trash (i.e. Shelden and Speedy) for one of the greatest players of all time.

Speedy is injured...but I could never consider Shelden as trash. That is a terrible choice of words.

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AHF Grand Master

AHF

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I agree with those who have posted that LA would never do this deal.

I would in a heartbeat, though.

Getting rid of Speedy would be a positive and landing Kobe for Marvin, Childress and Shelden would be fantastic. It would seriously deplete our depth but I am someone who will trade quantity for quality in the NBA.

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jerrywest Newbie

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I agree with those who have posted that LA would never do this deal.

I would in a heartbeat, though.

Getting rid of Speedy would be a positive and landing Kobe for Marvin, Childress and Shelden would be fantastic. It would seriously deplete our depth but I am someone who will trade quantity for quality in the NBA.

With so many high salaried free agents to sign in the near future, we need to start thinking about quality for quantity before we start losing them for peanuts or sign them for untradable contracts.

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AHF Grand Master

AHF

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But would you do:

Smoove, Marvin, Shelden, Lo & Lue for Kobe.

Law/Lue/AJ/*Speedy

JJ/Chill/Salim

Marvin/Chill/Smith

Smith/Horford/Sheldon

Horford/Zaza/Sheldon

v.

Law/AJ/*Speedy

Kobe/Chill/Salim

JJ/Chill/Salim

Horford/Solomon

Zaza/Solomon

No. I wouldn't do that deal because of how shallow we would be in the frontcourt. Josh Smith as a SF/PF is much more valuable to this team than SG/SF Childress (especially given that Smoove is significantly better than Chill anyway).

The other deal is such a steal for us that I would definitely do it. This one is more fair in terms of talent and would do a lot more to deplete our frontcourt.

I would still have to think about the JSmoove deal, though.

The starting lineup looks like a bigtime winner in the East.

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