Lakers must make a move



It's time for Jerry Buss and the Los Angeles Lakers to take a deep breath, close their eyes ... and pull the trigger on that blockbuster trade.

Not of Kobe Bryant.

Of Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum.

Those two appear to be the asking price for any player of sufficient stature - say, Pacers center Jermaine O'Neal - to bring Kobe in off the ledge.

The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to add a star without subtracting Odom and Andrew Bynum, and it seems increasingly unlikely they can do that.

The Los Angeles Lakers, meanwhile, are being backed into a corner by Kobe Bryant, who on Friday told Buss to his face that he still wants a trade. And also by Kobe's fans, who are Kobe Bryant fans first and Los Angeles Lakers fans second.

Trading Kobe Bryant isn't a viable option.

Without Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers are an expansion franchise. Without Kobe Bryant, they are the Clippers, except with 10-15 more defeats. Without Kobe Bryant, those $2,300 courtside seats become available and the days of 18,997 in Staples Center are over.

This is the Los Angeles Lakers' situation, 11 days ahead of the NBA draft:

The Los Angeles Lakers cannot get equal value for Kobe Bryant. How do you get equal value for the most entertaining player in the league?

(Kobe Bryant for LeBron James, maybe, but Kobe Bryant
would block a trade to Cleveland, and the Cavaliers never would trade 22-year-old LeBron for 28-year-old Kobe Bryant.)

With Kobe Bryant on the roster, the Los Angeles Lakers never will be bad enough to get a star out of the draft.

Kobe Bryant seems unlikely to be satisfied with a second-tier move, somebody like Chauncey Billups or Vince Carter or the troubled Zach Randolph.

They need to be looking at O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Mike Bibby, maybe Jason Kidd. Guys like that.

Kobe Bryant certainly is.

Keeping Kobe Bryant and not making "The Big Deal" risks Kobe Bryant cruising through the season and leaving the club with less trade leverage a year from now, when Kobe Bryant will be one season away from being able to opt out of the final two years of his Los Angeles Lakers contract.

Kobe Bryant knows time is running out on him. He already has 915 games on his odometer, which puts him past the point where players historically begin breaking down.

He can't afford another three years - probably not even one - waiting for the club to make a major move.

Odom is handy, and Andrew Bynum could be Jermaine O'Neal a few years from now (Andrew Bynum's second-year stats were far better than O'Neal's fourth-year stats) ... but Kobe Bryant (thus, the Los Angeles Lakers) can't wait.

Odom doesn't sell tickets and doesn't perform consistently. Andrew Bynum is a project.

So, Doc Buss, do it. Deal Odom and Andrew Bynum to get a guy who gives Kobe Bryant hope.

O'Neal makes the most sense. It's not a salary cap disaster (O'Neal is owed $19.7 million next year, Odom and Andrew Bynum $15.7 million). It puts Andrew Bynum in the other conference and makes him less likely to haunt the Los Angeles Lakers in years to come.

If the Pacers will take Kwame Brown (and the final $9 million on his contract), throw him in there, too. For Troy Murphy, or whoever.

Maybe you can sign a point guard to the veteran's exception, like a Steve Blake or a Chucky Atkins. And then you have a team of Kobe Bryant, Jermaine, Luke Walton, Maurice Evans, Vlad Radmanovich, Ronny Turiaf, Brian Cook, Jordan Farmar and whichever veteran point guard you can scrounge up.

Yes, the Los Angeles Lakers run the risk of mortgaging their future. But their bigger risk is the here and now - throwing away their present and alienating their meal ticket.

A seething Kobe Bryant means unhappy fans, and unhappy fans hurt the Buss family's bottom line.

Something has to give, and if it's the Los Angeles Lakers giving up their second-best player and star of the future ... well, squeeze your eyes tight, Jerry, and just do it.

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