Near the tail end of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant allegedly attempted to bring former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade to Los Angeles.
“Still, Bryant had tried to cajole the Lakers into fielding better teams around him in his final few seasons in L.A., recruiting free agent forward LaMarcus Aldridge, Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, and encouraging a trade for Sacramento Kings star DeMarcus Cousins, sources said,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne wrote.
If the Lakers had managed to pair Wade with Bryant, perhaps the latter wouldn’t have had to endure so many losses in the seasons leading up to his retirement.
Wade probably wasn’t in his prime near the end of Bryant’s career, but he was still one of the top players at his position in the game. For example, in Bryant’s final season in the pros, the 2015-16 season, Wade averaged 19.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game and earned an All-Star nod.
Earlier in his career, Bryant won a whole lot with the Lakers. He won five NBA titles — the first three of which came when he was teammates with Shaquille O’Neal — and a pair of Finals MVP awards in 2009 and 2010. But Los Angeles didn’t win more than 27 games in any of Bryant’s final three seasons with the Lakers.
Moreover, the 2015-16 iteration of the Lakers was arguably the worst NBA team that Bryant ever played for.
In his last NBA season, Los Angeles won only 17 of its 82 regular-season games. Bryant led the team in scoring with 17.6 points per game, but he converted only 35.8 percent of his shots from the floor. Outside of Bryant, Jordan Clarkson (15.5 points per contest) and Lou Williams (15.3) carried much of the scoring load for the Lakers.
Unfortunately, Bryant had to cap his iconic career off with a Los Angeles squad that was one of the worst teams in the NBA. The Lakers ended up with the worst record in the Western Conference and the second-worst in the league behind only the Philadelphia 76ers, who went 10-72.
While it doesn’t seem likely that Bryant would have won another ring during his final years with the Lakers even if the team somehow managed to acquire Wade, the pairing would have seemingly made Los Angeles a more competitive team during that time.
