Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Blockbuster NBA Deal Waiting to Happen?

The Los Angeles Lakers have a pouting All-Star who is requesting a trade because the team isn’t doing enough to improve. The Minnesota Timberwolves have an aging All-Star who they owe a ton of cash to. The Indiana Pacers just need players!

All of this makes for some great rumors and potentially the biggest trade in the NBA since Shaq went to the Miami Heat. Reportedly the original deal included the Boston Celtics as well but has fallen through because the Celtics backed out not liking what their end of the deal was going to be. My opinion is that Boston problem was just sour grapes because they wanted Garnett. Now they may possibly have more issues because it looks like Paul Pierce is taking the Kobe approach by telling team management to either get better or trade him.

Trade discussions initially involved the Lakers, Wolves, Pacers and the Celtics. Boston would have gotten Jermaine O'Neal from the Pacers and sent young players to the Wolves. The Lakers would have gotten Garnett, while the Pacers would have landed Los Angeles forward Lamar Odom and center Andrew Bynum. Minnesota would also have acquired at least one of the teams' draft picks, possibly Boston's No. 5 in Thursday's draft.

With Boston out of the mix the Lakers are trying to broker a two team deal with Minnesota but the Timberwolves reportedly aren’t interested in Odom and Bynum meaning that most likely a fourth team needs to emerge for this deal to work.

With the draft just over a 48 hours away a deal is going to have to happen quickly if it is going to happen at all.