What if Kobe Bryant Went to the Memphis Grizzlies?

What if Kobe Bryant got traded to the Memphis Grizzlies? How would a Kobe Bryant-led Grizzlies team compare to the early Memphis era?

In 2003, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were in strife, Kobe’s jersey number was 8, Jerry West was the general manager for the Memphis Grizzlies and there was speculation about the possibility of Kobe getting traded to Memphis.

The common 2003 NBA fan would question why on earth a superstar like Kobe Bryant would want to go to the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that had just relocated and had always been infamous for losing. However, the scenario somewhat made sense.

Laker great (and the man who engineered the genius draft day trade for him) West was the general manager for the Grizzlies and Memphis was building a new arena for their team. Adding an icon like Kobe Bryant would have generated a buzz in Memphis that would make fans genuinely excited for the future of their basketball team. While breaking down this hypothetical situation, let’s take a look at a trade package that could have worked.

Lakers Receive:

Shane Battier
Stromile Swift
Jason Williams
Two first-round picks

While this package does not sound good in 2016, in 2013, this was a somewhat intriguing deal.

Battier was a third-year player who had led Duke to a national championship. Adding a system player such as Battier as their future small forward would have been beneficial for the triangle offense.

Swift would have been a 23-year old human pogo stick who was the No. 2 pick in the 2000 NBA draft. Year-by-year, everybody seemed to wait on Swift to blossom into a dominant power forward; however, his lack of a motor ruined his career. Furthermore, because he was only 23 at the time, the Lakers would probably bank on Stro-Show to become their cornerstone power forward for the future.

Williams was a human highlight reel. Before he came to Memphis, he was dazzling fans with his streetball-like passing and ball-handling in Sacramento. Adding a dynamic guard like J-Will would have given the Lakers a point guard to move past Derek Fisher. With his flair and pizzazz on and off the court, he could have brought Showtime back to Los Angeles.

Finally, in every blockbuster deal, you always throw in two future first-round picks as a sweetener.

Grizzlies Receive:

Kobe Bryant

Adding Bryant in the 2003-04 era of Memphis Grizzlies basketball would be a perfect transition for a team that was notorious for losing. West would be pairing a superstar like Bryant, who was entering his prime and just came off a three-peat, with a rising young Pau Gasol, three-point sharpshooter Mike Miller, 3-and-D glue guy James Posey and enforcer (the late) Lorenzen Wright with Hubie Brown as the head coach.

While there would have been a gaping hole in the point guard position with incumbent Earl Watson, it would not have been an issue with Kobe more than likely dominating the ball. How would this Memphis team fare in the West around this time?

For starters, the Grizzlies would have not gone 0-12 in their first three seasons making the playoffs. With a young Bryant leading the way, you can’t doubt that he would have led a young Grizzlies team to at least the Western Conference semifinals. Heck, maybe even the conference finals!

If Kobe could lead a team with a supporting cast of Smush Parker, Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm to a seven-game series defeat at the hands of the offensive juggernaut that was the Phoenix Suns, he could probably lead a supporting cast of Pau, Miller and Posey deep into the postseason.

While it is so easy to discuss what could have been, you have to bring up what happens after the Kobe trade. Maybe an All-Star point guard like Jason Kidd or Steve Nash is intrigued to come to a new basketball city with a fresh new arena and a young superstar. The Grizzlies could have tried to form a trade with its remaining assets to pick up an All-Star point guard or center.

However, that would have left them very depleted depth-wise. With the cap space being so small then compared to now, filling out a deep, competitive team would be hard with two stars and a young Pau, needing a new contract soon, already on the books.

Would Bryant have brought a championship parade to Beale Street? Possibly. Even a team with a starting five of Watson/Kobe/Posey/Pau/Wright with Miller off the bench would have their hands full with teams like San Antonio and Dallas in their primes and a Nash-led Phoenix team.

Granted, Kobe’s fiery, intense competitiveness could have rubbed on then-young players Gasol, Miller and Posey. In doing so, he could have maximized their potentials at a much earlier stage of their careers. However, it would all depend on if West had gone after an All-Star point guard or filled out a deeper team with remaining scraps of money.

Every fan can harp on the “what ifs” of their favorite sports teams. Even though he never wore the blue and gold, Bryant provided Memphis with entertainment and memorable moments. Since we are sulking over the fact that this rumor did not come true, let’s just watch some videos of all the times Bryant dominated the Grizzlies.

Thank you, Kobe, for providing us with those legendary memories.