Before the Los Angeles Lakers embarked on their season-long six-game road trip last week, center Andrew Bynum said the team needed to "prove that we're able to win, or else they're going to start doing things." After the Lakers lost to Philadelphia on Monday to fall to 1-2 to start the trip, forward Pau Gasol said, "There's always a sense that if something was going to happen before, something might still happen," referring to the failed three-team trade that would have sent him out of town and landed Chris Paul as a Laker.
Now all of the Lakers' Big Three have spoken on the trade speculation surrounding the Lakers, who at 14-11 have just the fifth best record in the Western Conference, after Kobe Bryant joined 710 ESPN's "Max & Marcellus Show" on Wednesday.
"I'm sure they'll do something," Bryant said. "They'll tweak something. I don't know what. But I'm sure they'll do something."
While Bryant reiterated at Lakers practice Wednesday at the TD Garden that his only motivation as a 16-year veteran is to win another ring and he is "obsessed" with the pursuit of a sixth championship, he made it clear the Lakers organization will do everything possible to make it happen despite the team's mediocre start to the season.
"Here's the distinct difference between what's going on now and what went on in '06-07: Back then, I didn't think they were willing to spend the money to have us have a successful team," Bryant said, referring to his infamous trade demand when he said he'd rather "play on Pluto" than return to the purple and gold.
"I just thought they were going to sit on their hands and have me go out there and score all these points and generate revenue and just not spend any dollars," Bryant continued. "So, that was the issue that I had and I said if that's the case and that's what your philosophy is right now, just let me go. Let me go play someplace else then if that's what you want to do, because I didn't want to be a part of it.
"Now, I don't think that's the case. They obviously tried to pull the trigger on a trade that they thought was going to improve our team with CP and it just didn't happen. But, that shows me that they're thinking in the right direction in terms of doing things to improve our ballclub. So that's why I'm not really tripping on it. We have to be patient and we have to make the right moves and I'm sure we will."
Bryant balked at the chance to address specifically what roster moves would be necessary to fortify the Lakers' championship aspirations, but he supported the approach made by Lakers' management to improve the team.
The motivation is for us to build a contender," Bryant said. "It's not to just kind of sit around and see what falls in our lap. That's not the impression that I get from management at all, so I think that allows me to be patient. You can't just rush into things and then you make bad decisions, you make bad choices, you're locked into bad contracts. So, it's important to be patient, make right choices and we'll be fine."
: Well I like them better than the Miami Heat.