Carmelo Anthony Looking To Sign With The Lakers? [VIDEO]

Sports | hiphopucit | February 8, 2011 at 3:30 pm

Remember the recent gossip that the L.A. Lakers might trade Ron Artest? Deny it all you want, but there are new rumors that the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets are kicking around the idea of making small forward Carmelo Anthony(notes) Lakers material. That being said, a potential Lakers-Nuggets trade would come with a fairly sizable set of barbs and hooks.

Citing “sources,” ESPN reports that for a Carmelo Anthony/Lakers trade to go forward, the Los Angeles team has to part with someone other than Artest. If the unnamed sources are to be believed, Lamar Odom(notes) is safe, too, from having to take off the Lakers jersey and moving to Denver. The same cannot be said about Andrew Bynum(notes). If the Lakers and Nuggets continue in their discussions, making Carmelo Anthony a Lakers player might come about only with Bynum’s loss.

Anthony signed an $80 million contract with the Nuggets that is due to expire this year. At signing time in 2006 he proclaimed that Denver was where he wanted to be; that “the whole state has embraced me.” This love fest appears to have grown cold in the Mile High City but the City of Angels is not necessarily the final destination for this player. Thus far New York was thought to have held the greatest appeal for Anthony.

Should the Lakers go forward and consider trading Bynum? Sure, he gets hurt a lot and Anthony’s stats look better on paper, but what about team chemistry? What about Pau Gasol(notes) (whose most recent lackluster performance has put him in the cross-hairs of armchair hoopsters across the Golden State)?

The deciding factor – although anyone considering a Lakers trade won’t say it out loud – is Kobe Bryant(notes). It is safe to say that the Black Mamba is virtually untouchable when it comes to roster changes. Any Lakers trade must jell with the personality and playing style of Bryant.

From my point of view, is Carmelo Anthony Lakers material? Uhm, no. Anthony might be a highly aggressive player (hence his stats) but so is Bryant. Putting two aggressive alpha males on a team is likely to lead to locker room brawls and courtside feuds, making Anthony the mongoose to Bryant’s mamba. It would be anyone’s guess where this type of Lakers trade would take the team.