Lakers Trade Rumors: Stephen A. Smith Predicts Kobe Bryant Will Demand a Trade

As I mentioned yesterday, you don't want to make Kobe Bryant frustrated at the way the organization is being run. That's exactly what is going on in Lakerland right now.

Stephen A. Smith is predicting that long-time Laker shooting guard, five-time champion and MVP Kobe Bryant may go about demanding a trade out of Los Angeles. Smith contends that he's "known Kobe too long" and that he is reportedly "ticked off" at the way Jim Buss is currently running things.

It's tough to argue against those points since Buss and the Lakers are going in the completely opposite direction as we anticipate the decline of Bryant's career. With the team failing to get Chris Paul and allowing Lamar Odom to walk to Dallas for a few draft picks in return, Bryant has grown frustrated with the way things have transpired over the past few weeks and could now be asking to be moved.

Ric Bucher also states the same sentiments, saying Bryant would be set to demand a trade within the month.

To be fair, Bryant would be right to demand a trade. He's 33 years old and recognizes that he doesn't have much time left to perform at a high enough level to go out and win championships.

It's not fair to him that he's going to have to most likely shoulder the majority of the workload on offense and defense of an old team that just lost possibly their most significant player—as well as one of the most multi-dimensional players—for only a few draft picks in return.

If you've been watching basketball over the 2000s, you also happen to know that it wouldn't be the first time that Bryant has grown frustrated with management and demanded a trade. In 2007, Bryant grew disgruntled that the team had yet to give him a big man to replace Shaquille O'Neal and responded by demanding a trade out of Los Angeles.

The Chicago Bulls were going to be his suitors and the deal was all set up before it eventually fell through due to the team's unwillingness to give up a few specific pieces. A few weeks later, the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol and the Lakers went on to make it to the next three NBA Finals, winning two.

Bryant and Gasol have combined to form one of the league's top duos, but it was a troubling sight to see Pau regress to passiveness during the postseason last year.

Speaking of the playoffs, last year's exit wasn't helping Bryant's intentions of staying. It was the first time since 1999 that a Laker team with Bryant on it was swept. It wasn't even close, as the Dallas Mavericks bench outscored the entire Lakers team on their way to a near 40-point win in the deciding Game 4 to close out the sweep.

The Mavericks were good last season, but they weren't that good to beat the defending back-to-back champions in a sweep. Dallas had more trouble going against Portland in their previous series than the Lakers.

The problem with L.A. was the fact that Gasol wasn't producing and the scoring load was left on Bryant, who can't take over a game as well as he used to when he was scoring 81 points and averaging 35 points for a season.

The postseason was a clear realization that the team needed help. Aside from Bryant and Odom, there wasn't any offensive consistency. Derek Fisher provides little to nothing, Metta World Peace can hit from the perimeter from time to time and defend well and Andrew Bynum is still apparently shaping up to be the 20-point, 10-rebound player that the Lakers organization predicts him to be.

Newsflash: Bynum isn't going to be that player. His offensive game is weak, he's injured every season and he has attitude problems. He's a strong defender and rebounder and not much else. There's no reason why the Lakers should continue to invest in a player that's not going to be healthy and is going to throw elbows when the going gets tough.

By investing over $15 million a year into him, the Lakers have no leverage to spend.

And that goes for Gasol too, who is currently eating up nearly $20 million per season.

Back to Bryant. He's doing the smart thing by taking a step back, looking at the pieces around him and seeing that the roster he's surrounded by is not a championship team in the slightest. With Odom gone, the team has no consistency on offense outside of Kobe unless Gasol begins to become that aggressive player that we have come to know him as since joining the Lakers.

Even with Gasol, what's there to look forward to? The best players on the bench are Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, the one young player with potential in Derek Caracter is going to be out six weeks, and the rest of the roster being composed of unproven rookies and second-year players and veterans that are set to provide little to nothing, such as Luke Walton and Jason Kapono.

With Bryant seeing the regression of his team and the improvement of the Clippers, as well as many other teams in the Pacific Division, a trade demand could be imminent.

The Lakers organization is going to have make sure that Bryant stays satisfied, or else we could see him finishing out a storied career in a location not in Los Angeles.