In 2007, Garnett almost went to the Lakers...

On May 22, 2007, with the end of the lottery draw for the draft, a trading storm was gathering energy at a geometric level. However, on a messy chip table, the two storm cores Garnett and Kobe are slowly approaching. At this time, a hypothesis appeared:

If Garnett and Kobe can get together in one team...

This shows that It's a crazy idea. In the nearly 60 years of history in the NBA, it's hard to find a pair of superstar combinations that match them like this: they are almost the same age, have similar backgrounds (high school students), and have MVP-level skills, and more importantly, their styles are complementary: one is a legendary super scorer + single-player defense expert, and the other is an organizational forward who doesn't care about the right to take action and a master of assisting defense... Their styles of playing are perfectly matched on both offense and defense ends.

However, at that time, there were not many teams who had the conditions to make such a shocking move. The NBA in the summer of 2007 was like a barrel of explosives: except for KG and Kobe, a large number of stars who were difficult to make breakthroughs in the team were waiting to move. Considering the possible bargaining chips, it can be said that more than 2 of the top 40 players in the league were involved in trading rumors to varying degrees, and any small transaction could become the fuse for the league's complete reshuffle.

What fans expected later was that the first transaction target was excluded by the Wolves was actually the Celtics. For the Celtics at that time, although selling the No. 5 draw was a foregone conclusion, such chips did not move the Wolves. Moreover, when Pierce was uncertain (he also made a joking bet with Kobe at that time to see who would be traded first), KG made it clear that if I had to trade me, I would not be happy to go to Boston, so the Celtics were eliminated first.

At this time, the closest to getting KG was the Suns, and their core chips were Marion, Dior and Barbosa. In order to meet the Timberwolves' requirements for draft picks, they found the Hawks as a third party. The Hawks had two first-round picks at the 2007 draft at the time, plus the Suns' 24th pick, as long as the combination is reasonable, the Suns can provide a very generous menu.

The deal heated up very quickly, and the three parties quickly finalized a basic framework, but because of the rapid deterioration of Kobe's relationship with the Lakers, the Suns had some hesitation before making the decision. At that time, some Suns management believed that they had the opportunity to use a framework similar to trading KG to get Kobe first, and then use Stodmeier as the core chip to discuss trading Garnett with the Wolves, in order to form Nash Kobe Garnett's diamond-level trident against the Spurs.

However, it is a bad thing when hesitation. The Hawks were the most chaotic team in the NBA at that time. Two years ago, because of talking about whether Joe Johnson should be snatched from the Suns, the team's board of directors broke down. The major shareholder made a decision and was driven away by the small shareholders... This time was no exception. During the break of the Suns' hesitation, the small shareholders of the Hawks immediately rejected the previous trading framework, and the Lions spoke out that they hoped to get Stoudemire as compensation in the transaction.

This unexpected blow disrupted the Suns' plan, and the three-party transaction was quickly left unresolved. In order to make up for the mistake, the Suns found the Celtics who had been eliminated before and proposed a new three-party framework, intending to send out Marion and other players in exchange for KG. The Wolves got the Celtics' No. 5 pick and other players, and the Celtics won Marion.

But this deal was resisted by Marion. As the team's most conscientious defensive core, Marion had already complained about the team's plan to trade himself. Therefore, Marion notified the Celtics and the Suns that if the Celtics did not intend to renew their contract with him for maximum salary, he would jump out of the contract after the transaction, leaving Celtics with both wealth and wealth - Danny Angie immediately expressed that she could not accept this condition and immediately withdrew from the transaction.

In this way, the leading Suns were in vain, and their trade status was a big loser, and they broke up with Marion and caused their trading status to take a sharp turn. Finally, after a summer of nothing, they sent Marion to the Heat in the season, and exchanged them for O'Neal, who was far inferior to before, becoming a victim of KG and KB bidding in the summer. The situation of the Suns also illustrates a problem. In the game of players' trading, the identity of hunters and prey is easily interchanged, especially when competitors are fierce. In the summer of that year, another team trying to build a KG+KB team also paid a huge price, and they are the Bulls.

The Bulls have been coveting KG for a long time, but they are very cautious in their operations. Considering that the team's framework is fine, the power forwards are slightly insufficient, they initially only put their main trading targets on Paul Gasol of the Grizzlies - but because the Wolves have always had a strong desire to retain KG, KG is unwilling to leave the Timberwolves, so the Bulls' price question for KG is kept to the level of casual questions.

Of course, the Bulls have not been serious. In 2006, they had saved enough chips and wanted to trade KG with the second pick (can choose Aldridge) + Roll Deng + Chandler, but the Wolves were still not determined to send Garnett away, so the transaction had to fail.

By 2007, as the news that KG would be traded and left the team was basically confirmed, the Bulls also planned to make a move again, but the Bulls made the same mistake as the Suns at that time. After Kobe and the Lakers started to fight, they were eager to grab Kobe first, so they suspended negotiations with the Wolves and instead actively contacted the Lakers.

However, bad things are bad things in greed. In the negotiations with the Lakers, in order to retain the chips to chase KG after getting KB, the Bulls insisted on not joining Roll Deng in the transaction (even Ben Gordon wanted to stay). Kobe stayed with the Lakers after a summer of turmoil. Half a year later, he received a dramatic help from Gasol and completed a major career reversal. Then he met KG twice in the finals in three years, and the two won one game each.

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(text/josh Nihil)