Kobe and Lakers

[jterrell]

Surprised there wasnt already a thread about this.

48.5m for 2 years. Yikes.
Good for Kobe, bad for Lakers fans.

Thoughts Lakers sign a max player are delusional.
Larry Coon is a Lakers homer but does a fair job of handling the numbers.

Key thing is Lakers would need to disassociate from the entire roster (other than Kobe and Nash) to make a Carmelo type deal.
Not happening.
Sure they can amnesty Nash but it buys all of 6m in space and creates yet another hole.

 

[Tabascocat]

All about the $$$$ and Kobe brings in more than his contract.

 

[BAZ]

The money is crazy for a player his age. But it's the timing that really confuses me. Why not wait to see what kind of player he is returning from injury before paying him?

 

[Future]

If the Lakers are serious about winning a championship, then bringing in Melo is a mistake. He and Kobe would make an awful pair. Maybe it could work with Lebron, but Kobe and Melo are the same type of player. Just like Melo and Amare didn't work, it won't with Kobe either.

Having said that, I love Melo, but I dont think he's ever going to win a championship.

 

[Rockport]

No one comes back from an achilles injury and is ever the same player again so basically this is the Lakers saying thanks to Kobe for the past championships. I'm not a Lakers fan, but you can't deny how great of a player he was. I think it's commendable of the organization for doing the extension.

 

[jterrell]

various:

Lakers aren't getting Melo or any other max player now. They don't have the money. Not in any realistic sense.
They aren't going to release rights of all their players and rebuild with just Kobe and a max guy.
And no max guy is taking that situation anyway.

Paying Kobe would have been fine. But paying him big money early was silly.
Want to reward him? Let him hit free agency then guarantee him 5 years at 12-20m (escalating) a year.
He'd make more in the end and the team could put together a solid squad around him to send him off with playoff appearances.

Melo and Kobe most definitely wouldn't work for winning.
That would be the NBA's worst defensive 2/3 combo. And both players are volume scorers, not efficiency machines so they'd detract from each other offensively.

LeBron? ROFL. LeBron isn't leaving Miami for that train wreck in LA. Maybe to the Clippers if they could trade for him but no way Lakers are a consideration.

Kobe is right that this is a bad CBA and the owners win regardless but his taking huge dollars just insures he also wins at the bank and ignores the floor product.
LeBron, Duncan and Dirk all took less money to try and win. For LeBron and Duncan that's worked as well as possible and advanced their legacies and their brand far beyond any loss of dollars in the contract.