Kevin Garnett Wanted To Team Up w/ Kobe Before Going To The Celtics

[eliteballer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niMe_M-QC48



https://www.nba.com/lakers/sites/lakers/files/ezgif-1-e7f34ff65c.gif

[Jay-B]

I remember that summer when the Lakers almost got Garnett the Lakers would of took over the league for a very long time. Btw still can’t believe Kobe is gone

[tpols]

jesus christ can you imagine?

that combo wouldve been deadlier than kobe & shaq.

[ShawkFactory]

jesus christ can you imagine?

that combo wouldve been deadlier than kobe & shaq.

Absolutely not.

[tpols]

Absolutely not.

kg and kobe wouldnt have any offensive discord.

They would be like basketball ying and yang, perfect chemistry for longer.

b2b with pau wouldve been childs play, and a 3peat a minimum.

[Smoke117]

Colluding losers. :facepalm

[Uncle Drew]

jesus christ can you imagine?

that combo wouldve been deadlier than kobe & shaq.
:roll:

Clown.

[FultzNationRISE]

kg and kobe wouldnt have any offensive discord.

They would be like basketball ying and yang, perfect chemistry for longer.

b2b with pau wouldve been childs play, and a 3peat a minimum.


That combo would have been less deadly than just Shaq by himself :lol

[ShawkFactory]

kg and kobe wouldnt have any offensive discord.

They would be like basketball ying and yang, perfect chemistry for longer.

b2b with pau wouldve been childs play, and a 3peat a minimum.

Are we talking 8 or 24?

24 Kobe and peak Shaq win 5 in a row. Shaq was smarter than people give him credit for and had no offensive weakness other than FTs obviously.

8 Kobe and Garnett butt heads too.

[guy]

Crazy thing is the KG deal would’ve been for Bynum and Odom. That means the Pau deal for Kwame and Marc could’ve and I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t have still happened.

With that said, KG got old and got injured. So i don’t think we should assume that changes in 09. They probably win in 08 and 10 but they’re probably screwed in 09. That would mean no KG and no Odom + Bynum. I assume they’d beat Detroit in 08, lose to Denver in 09, and beat Cleveland in 10.

[FireDavidKahn]

Easy to say this stuff after the fact but back then Garnett literally had to be talked into accepting a trade to another team. He was that loyal to 'sota that even after Glen Taylor accused him of tanking the last few games of the season he still didn't *want* out.

Too bad Glen Taylor is a ****ing moron and even worse as an owner then Sterling was (except he isn't a racist). There will never be a player that is as fiercely loyal to a team that continuously ****ed him over time after time yet he never really complained or caused any issues.

What's even sadder is that he loathes Glen Taylor so much that he refuses to have his number retired here *just* because Glen Taylor is the owner. He still owns a home here and loves the state and fans but downright hates Glen with all his soul. Back when Flip Saunders was still alive he traded for KG and was forming a plan for KG to get a minority stake in the Wolves and everyone was on board. When Flip died then Glen suddenly changed his mind and that was the straw that broke the camels back.

I really don't think people realize how good Garnett was in his prime because he played in his market and because of how much Glen ****ed this team over...for crying out loud Glen lost 4 first round picks for the Joe Smith fiasco.

Remember his MVP 03-04 year? Everything was going except Sam Cassell injured himself doing his god damn big ball dance which screwed this team.

Hey remember when we traded Ray Allen for Marbury? Oops! Can you guys even imagine a prime Garnett and prime Allen? Good lord that duo would rank right up there and have won multiple championships. If Marbury never left? We possibly would have won a title before Marbury became crazy. Lose of 4 first round picks? Definitely couldn't have used those. Remember how the Wolves were thisssssssssssssssssssss close to trading for AI? Yep that fell through at the last minute.

I hate that I am a diehard Wolves fan.

[bladefd]

I remember that summer when the Lakers almost got Garnett the Lakers would of took over the league for a very long time. Btw still can’t believe Kobe is gone

I actually created a Kobe/KG team in nba live 08 or w/e the game was called. It was a joy playing with that squad lol

[bladefd]

jesus christ can you imagine?

that combo wouldve been deadlier than kobe & shaq.

Nah, not quite. KG was awesome but at the end of his prime and never as unstoppable/godlike as Shaq was in his Laker days.

Lakers would have won 3 with KG only because Celtics would not have been built if KG went to Lakers. Other limitation would have been KG/Odom fitting together as seamlessly as Pau/Odom. Yea, Odom was off the bench with Bynum starting but Lakers usually closed with Pau at 5 and Odom at 4. KG was probably bit undersized to play center against some of the Western teams in 2000s.

[Smoke117]

I remember that summer when the Lakers almost got Garnett the Lakers would of took over the league for a very long time. Btw still can’t believe Kobe is gone

Not really. Garnett was pretty much at the tail end of being a star player in 08. He really only had that one legitimate star season with the Celtics. He was still a very good player, but age caught up to him quickly in his early 30s. He wasn't close to the player the Lakers battled in 2004 anymore.

[bladefd]

Crazy thing is the KG deal would’ve been for Bynum and Odom. That means the Pau deal for Kwame and Marc could’ve and I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t have still happened.

With that said, KG got old and got injured. So i don’t think we should assume that changes in 09. They probably win in 08 and 10 but they’re probably screwed in 09. That would mean no KG and no Odom + Bynum. I assume they’d beat Detroit in 08, lose to Denver in 09, and beat Cleveland in 10.

Kobe always tore apart Denver. If you could somehow get Pau and lose KG for year, I think Kobe+Pau would still reach the finals.

Unfortunately, I don't see Lakers having assets to acquire both KG and Pau. Remember, Lakers traded picks to land Pau. KG trade in previous summer would have prevented the assets/picks Pau trade would require. However can you imagine Marc Gasol+KG+Kobe?? Hoooly crap lol

[Kiddlovesnets]

KG was the better player but, if the history would repeat itself, he wouldnt help the Lakers win more titles than Gasol. Remember he had a season-ending injury in 2009, he was nowhere near his old self since then, and Gasol was already better than him in 2010.

[brownmamba00]

What about 2012 tho? We could've used KG instead of a demotivated soft blunder that was Pau Gasol at that time. He was gettin turned out by that OKC team.



We won two with Pau which is fine. But no doubt KG coulda brought in more. He'd have Dwight on ten toes if he was here.

[Smoke117]

Lakers aren't beating the Thunder if you swap Gasol and KG either so it doesn't matter. You go on about Gasol, but it's not like Kobe was lighting the world on fire in either the regular season or post season. He was chucking up a lot of shots to get his points.

[brownmamba00]

That okc series was a lot closer than what you might think. Kobe was still giving em buckets in 12 and 13.

[LAL]

That okc series was a lot closer than what you might think. Kobe was still giving em buckets in 12 and 13.

They don't know

[Kblaze8855]

Lakers aren't beating the Thunder if you swap Gasol and KG either so it doesn't matter. You go on about Gasol, but it's not like Kobe was lighting the world on fire in either the regular season or post season. He was chucking up a lot of shots to get his points.


Before everyone started playing for 3s and jumping into people to pad foul shots....who wasnt?

Seriously. Who was scoring 28-30 a game before the 3 point chucking days and wasnt shooting a lot? A couple centers maybe?

Second 3peat MJ took 23 shots a game for 29-30 points. Even in the 80s when guys shot better from the field the big scorers took a lot of shots. Bernard King was taking like 24 shots a game when he was scoring 30 and he was shooting 55ish percent from the field. Tmac 23-24 a game for his 28+ a game seasons. Even Kareem in his last 30ppg season took 24 shots a game. Guys like Alex English shot 50+ from the field but still took 22-24 shots a game to score 27-30.

Kobe was at 23 a game in 12 for 28ppg. I feel like thats pretty normal for such a high scorer before the 3, layup, or try to create a foul era. Isnt it?

There are exceptions but not that many.

[FultzNationRISE]

Before everyone started playing for 3s and jumping into people to pad foul shots....who wasnt?

Seriously. Who was scoring 28-30 a game before the 3 point chucking days and wasnt shooting a lot? A couple centers maybe?

Second 3peat MJ took 23 shots a game for 29-30 points. Even in the 80s when guys shot better from the field the big scorers took a lot of shots. Bernard King was taking like 24 shots a game when he was scoring 30 and he was shooting 55ish percent from the field. Tmac 23-24 a game for his 28+ a game seasons. Even Kareem in his last 30ppg season took 24 shots a game. Guys like Alex English shot 50+ from the field but still took 22-24 shots a game to score 27-30.

Kobe was at 23 a game in 12 for 28ppg. I feel like thats pretty normal for such a high scorer before the 3, layup, or try to create a foul era. Isnt it?

There are exceptions but not that many.



You know who.

[Smoke117]

Before everyone started playing for 3s and jumping into people to pad foul shots....who wasnt?

Seriously. Who was scoring 28-30 a game before the 3 point chucking days and wasnt shooting a lot? A couple centers maybe?

Second 3peat MJ took 23 shots a game for 29-30 points. Even in the 80s when guys shot better from the field the big scorers took a lot of shots. Bernard King was taking like 24 shots a game when he was scoring 30 and he was shooting 55ish percent from the field. Tmac 23-24 a game for his 28+ a game seasons. Even Kareem in his last 30ppg season took 24 shots a game. Guys like Alex English shot 50+ from the field but still took 22-24 shots a game to score 27-30.

Kobe was at 23 a game in 12 for 28ppg. I feel like thats pretty normal for such a high scorer before the 3, layup, or try to create a foul era. Isnt it?

There are exceptions but not that many.

My point was that compared to previous seasons 2012 was a very mediocre season for him. His efficiency took quite a hit that season. He was taking 23 shots to score 27.9 ppg. In 2007 he was taking 22.8 to score 31.6. Big difference. It goes back to my point of even if you swapped Pau with KG the 2012 Lakers weren’t accomplishing anything against the likes of the Thunder, Spurs, and Heat.

[Kblaze8855]

I don’t know if 2006 and 2007 should be used to make points about too many other seasons. Those were among the clearest outlier years for swingmen ever. Generally speaking a guy scoring 28ish a game is gonna take 21+ shots a game I think....and 2012 Kobe probably would have scored more in 06 or 07 on the same attempts too.

That said I don’t disagree that a 2012 Kg and 2012 Pau swap wouldn’t make much difference. The real Kevin Garnett either never played on Boston or only played a year and change.

[Haymaker]

Even if they missed Pau, they still had Marc in there. Sure, they had no idea he would be that good, but no doubt he would've been developed properly in LA.


Crazy thing is the KG deal would’ve been for Bynum and Odom. That means the Pau deal for Kwame and Marc could’ve and I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t have still happened.

With that said, KG got old and got injured. So i don’t think we should assume that changes in 09. They probably win in 08 and 10 but they’re probably screwed in 09. That would mean no KG and no Odom + Bynum. I assume they’d beat Detroit in 08, lose to Denver in 09, and beat Cleveland in 10.

[ArbitraryWater]

And this ****er has a hard on for LeBron and how he teamed up with Wade.

Anyway, Lakers would have been worse off.

They lucked out, like they did with the Paul for Gasol/Bynum deal.

[ArbitraryWater]

Even if they missed Pau, they still had Marc in there. Sure, they had no idea he would be that good, but no doubt he would've been developed properly in LA.


Lol, by the time Marc would have developed, KG was semi-retired.

[guy]

Kobe always tore apart Denver. If you could somehow get Pau and lose KG for year, I think Kobe+Pau would still reach the finals.

Unfortunately, I don't see Lakers having assets to acquire both KG and Pau. Remember, Lakers traded picks to land Pau. KG trade in previous summer would have prevented the assets/picks Pau trade would require. However can you imagine Marc Gasol+KG+Kobe?? Hoooly crap lol

Fair point. All the rumors at the time didn’t mention a pick in the deal but hard to imagine that the Wolves wouldn’t have expected that and that the Lakers would’ve played hardball over it. I’m assuming they would’ve still worked something out for Pau but who knows.

If they can’t get Pau, the Lakers were probably better off with what actually happened. From the time KG went down in 09, Pau was the better player. You’d basically be swapping Pau/Odom/Bynum for KG/Marc/Kwame - and KG got hurt in 09, Marc Gasol didn’t play in the 08 season at all, and Kwame sucked.

[FKAri]

kg and kobe wouldnt have any offensive discord.

They would be like basketball ying and yang, perfect chemistry for longer.

b2b with pau wouldve been childs play, and a 3peat a minimum.

3peat? They probably win 1 ring in 2008 and that's it.

[Phoenix]

A 2008 Lakers squad with Kobe and KG would have been epic.