Kobe signs extension with Lakers

Blacken

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Enough room for one other max contract and then about $20m (maybe?) to fill out the roster.

This is going to be hilarious.
 

Tony C

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This is so Kobe...more important that he be the highest paid than that he win.
 

nighthob

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Blacken said:
Enough room for one other max contract and then about $20m (maybe?) to fill out the roster.

This is going to be hilarious.
 
Not unless they move Nash for an expiring deal. There's Boston's opening to poach that #1.
 

The Social Chair

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I love the Jim Buss era!
 
Enjoyed this part from Lowe's piece
 
 
There are other ways to handle business, even the business of a legend. Those ways are probably smarter than the route the Lakers took today. The Celtics are now the envy of every front-office executive who craves a rebuilding challenge, provided the challenge comes with some nice resources. The Lakers are an expensive mediocrity overpaying a franchise star in decline.

That's fine, if that's what you want. But let's not pretend anything else is going on here.
 
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Lol.  They are so fucked.
 
The one way you might be able to rationalize this move is that the front office knows they're screwed anyway, knows that Lebron is never going there, and didn't actually want to be in a position where there is a huge amount of fan sentiment/pressure to sign Carmelo this summer, as he's neither young nor good enough to build the next great Lakers team around.  So they've tied their own hands and chosen to be mediocre but profitable for a few years as Kobe rides into the sunset, with the longer term plan being a reboot in 2016 and forward, when all their salaries will clear and they might have a better shot at luring some true building block superstars to come to LA via free agency.
 

Devizier

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Boy, if there's ever a time to revisit the idea of moving Hump's expiring for Nash and a first rounder, now would be it, right?
 

Cellar-Door

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Devizier said:
Boy, if there's ever a time to revisit the idea of moving Hump's expiring for Nash and a first rounder, now would be it, right?
How much value do we put on a 2019 1st though? especially since Nash probably wins us 8-10 more games.
 

Devizier

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Cellar-Door said:
How much value do we put on a 2019 1st though? especially since Nash probably wins us 8-10 more games.
 
No way that present day Nash wins the Celtics any more games. He may be completely done as a player. With any luck, he might retire if he's traded to the Celtics.
 

nighthob

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Cellar-Door said:
How much value do we put on a 2019 1st though? especially since Nash probably wins us 8-10 more games.
 
I think the idea is the swap of Boston's other #1 for LA's 2014 #1. But Boston wouldn't do it until closer to the trade deadline.
 

Tony C

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
You guys realize that this doesn't really have much to do with basketball. He's the one that sells the tickets and the jerseys. 
 
It has a lot to do with basketball -- it removes cap room for the Lakers. And Kobe had nowhere to go. No team in their right mind is going to pay him $24 million per, not even close. The Lakers could have had their Kobe brand (you're right, it does sell -- but no one who is commenting cares about if this makes sense in terms of the Lakers' bottom-line) and saved a ton of money cap space, but instead overpaid dramatically. This epitomizes a weak-minded organization that didn't have the balls to wait out Kobe. Kobe is their alpha dog and that's really all he cares about.
 

Cellar-Door

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
You guys realize that this doesn't really have much to do with basketball. He's the one that sells the tickets and the jerseys. 
Tickets matter a little, but good teams sell  more tickets than bad ones even if the bad ones have the corpse of a once star player on them.
Jerseys don't matter at all, merchandising revenue is shared among the teams.
 
Edit- of course the bigger criticism is this: no other team was giving him anywhere near that much money if he hit the market, LA could likely have had him for half that without much problem.
 

moly99

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Cellar-Door said:
Edit- of course the bigger criticism is this: no other team was giving him anywhere near that much money if he hit the market, LA could likely have had him for half that without much problem.
 
My guess is that this scenario plays out this way:
 
1) Lakers refuse to give Kobe a huge extension.
2) Kobe's ego is injured and he angrily signs with some other team to get revenge on the Laker's front office.
3) Kobe fans burn down the houses of front office people who let Kobe go.
 
Methinks Jimmy Buss did this move as a way of buying fan support. Most fans don't understand cap space.
 

ishmael

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You really think Kobe would tarnish his own legacy in LA if the Lakers offered him something fair like 2 years, $30 million? Who are the teams with cap space that would match that contract?
 
Gotta agree with Tony C. This is classic Kobe bullying the Lakers front office to get what he wants, even if it hurts the franchise.
 

wutang112878

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This is a risk, but I think they are making it for some risky somewhat thought out basketball reasons.  Next year they have $13M on the books, plus Kobes $25M plus $3.5M in empty roster cap holds and they are at ~$40M which gives them room to sign a max guy and while Nash's corpse isnt exciting to play with getting to play with Kobe for 2 years is.  Assuming they signed a max guy, then they could try to use Nash's expiring to take on the next version of Lamar Odom the overpriced but helpful player.  Then if Kobe retires after this 2nd year they can rebuild this team around the max guy they signed.
 
Its a risky strategy but really what other option do they have?  They were stupid and traded away all their first rounders so they cant rebuild through the draft so why not rebuild via free agency.  You can make the case that Kobe is overpaid, but he is pretty consistently in the top 10 in win shares so its probably just a slight overpay assuming he continues this level of play.  Now considering he somehow is defying the aging process that might be a reasonable assumption to make
 

Devizier

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Yep, without the draft picks, the Lakers are locked into free agency. That's why unloading Nash for an expiring is so essential for their short-and-intermediate term success.
 
I like the pick swap, but the 2019 pick wouldn't be so bad either. Not a bad idea to strip them of second rounders, too.
 

Gunfighter 09

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They only have $11M non Kobe on the books next year- Nash's expiring, Sacre's rookie deal and mighty Nick Young. I think they know that either A. Nash is retiring or B. it will be easy to trade Nash's expiring deal.
 
They also still have their amnesty provision, so they could trade Nash + garbage for something like Amare' + picks and then amnesty him. 
 
 
As others have pointed out above, Kobe means more to the Lakers in terms of dollars and fan support that likely any other athlete in pro sports. There are many, many, many Laker fans who love Kobe more than the laundry. 
 

Brickowski

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It's probably what Auerbach would have done if he were running the Lakers. But I like to think that Red would not have made the foolish trade for Howard.
 
And it's similar to what the Yankkes recently did with Jeter-- another icon whose box office power far exceeds his baseball value at this stage of his career.
 

moly99

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ishmael said:
You really think Kobe would tarnish his own legacy in LA if the Lakers offered him something fair like 2 years, $30 million? Who are the teams with cap space that would match that contract?.
 
Professional athletes do this all the time. Even the "normal" guys -not the insane competitors like Kobe- get offended when their teams offer them less than what they feel they deserve.
 
Just look at happened to Brian Urlacher last offseason. He thought the Bears owed him a big extension due to his past service, was enraged when they offered a low value deal, left for free agency, and then ended up retiring while complaining that the Bears screwed him over and may have tricked him into leaving as a way of forcing him to retire.
 

Tony C

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NYCSox said:
And they'll miss the playoffs and somehow magically wind up with the top pick in the draft.
 
I think this improves their chances for the playoffs. D'Antoni is a great match for a star-less club. Don't think he can ever win a championship, but he whipped the Kobe-less Lakers into a fun, entertaining, and decent team. They were worse with Kobe and while that may have been a getting re-acquainted period, I sort of doubt it -- Kobe wasn't a good mesh with the sort of movement they had going. The West is tough, but the Lakers have a shot at the 8 seed, I think (though losing Blake is a blow).
 
Once D'Antoni is fired, he'd be an excellent coach for a team in a place like Sacramento that just wants to be decent and entertaining.