The Lakers made it pretty clear that they are rebuilding and aiming for the best draft pick possible when they traded Steve Blake to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday for Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks.
Blake wasn’t with the Lakers long enough to really become a total fan favorite, but his departure didn’t sit well with Kobe Bryant, who tweeted the following on Thursday:
Not cool with @SteveBlake5 being gone AT ALL One of my closest teammates and psycho competitor GS picked up gem #smartmove
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 20, 2014
Blake’s tenure with the Lakers was marred by several injuries, but he was making nearly two 3-pointers per game for the Lakers and has been a good outside shooter for the team.
How can you really fault the Lakers for making the trade? The only thing that surprises me is that they didn’t deal Jordan Hill too. Kobe might not be cool with the deal, but he’ll probably be more cool with Mitch Kupchak improving the team instead of allowing them to remain a middling contender. You can’t have it both ways, though I understand why it might be hard for Kobe to lose a friend on the team.
