Lakers: Kobe Bryant Agrees to 2-year Extension

[whitemamba]

Like 5 pages of that is CapriSON

Lol mad spur posts tbh

[RsxPiimp]

@BuddMignon nailed it, I was going to post this earlier but the move was to satisfy the corporate office at TWC which committed billions to the Lakers. Unless the Lakers can guarantee bringing a household name, they're not going to take risks and let Kobe walk out. Kobe is essential to their marketing brand until 2016 brings in another marquee talent. As it stands, there is simply no FA in 2014 that can continue this tradition.


There's not much value in Kobe as a player but he's still the most marketable athlete in the league. Everybody wins, but the fans.

[benefactor]

Everybody wins, but the fans.

The whole situation in a nuts .

[Koolaid_Man]

See, there are still moments where you realize underneath the terrible personality and nurato loving, that Buddy still has it in him (no pun intended) to be a serviceable member of the board. A glimmer of hope on an otherwise bleak day in LA LA land.

I'm torn on what LA should do. They have committed to Kobe for 2 years, so they should do everything they can to win now IMO. Do anything you can to nab a Melo type guy & make a trade for another good, but overpaid player that a team is willing to salary dump.

I don't think that, given the cir stances, that they should spread their money out evenly and sign 3 7M type players. They should at least go as star heavy as they can, swing for the fences and not mess up any cap space for 2 years down the road. Going to be tough because they don't have many trade assets (outside of expiring contracts) and they will still rely on a max type player to take less than Kobe which obviously is difficult.

just because the man is torn over Buss's decision is no valid reason for you to start rotating his balls and putting them on your chin

[KaiRMD1]

Dumbest contract

[LkrFan]

damn, first time I haven't heard you something. Don't get too down scro. Least you get to see your favorite player remain with the Lakers and not go to another team.

I actually don't mind this deal. Sure it wasn't smart, but Kobe has brought that team lots of exposure and money, it's a loyalty contract and Spurs did something similar with Manu. Granted, the money is not the same but Lakers like to spend more and Kirby is beloved in La La Land.

He is absolutely worth the money for reasons you stated above. I just wish the contract was smaller so that they could (conceivably) acquire more pieces.

I had no thoughts of him playing for another team. I just thought that a year to year (smaller) contract would have made more business sense. He could see what pieces the FO would acquire, then they decide what's a good figure to sign him for. Win-win for both sides.

It's a gamble signing him for 2 years at $24M/per. The Lakers are known to gamble. The injury he suffered, with all the mileage he has on his body already, his age, etc., will no doubt have an affect on his game/effectiveness. We'll see how it shakes out. They still have some cap room to sign players. I expect to see a few of the players on this year's squad resigned as well (hopefully JHill). Pau may also come back at a reduced price. Interesting offseason coming up for my boys tbh.

[Kool Bob Love]

[Mugen]

He is absolutely worth the money for reasons you stated above. I just wish the contract was smaller so that they could (conceivably) acquire more pieces.

I had no thoughts of him playing for another team. I just thought that a year to year (smaller) contract would have made more business sense. He could see what pieces the FO would acquire, then they decide what's a good figure to sign him for. Win-win for both sides.

It's a gamble signing him for 2 years at $24M/per. The Lakers are known to gamble. The injury he suffered, with all the mileage he has on his body already, his age, etct., will no doubt have an affect on his game/effectiveness. We'll see how it shakes out. They still have some cap room to sign players. I expect to see a few of the players on this year's squad resigned as well (hopefully JHill). Pau may also come back at a reduced price. Interesting offseason coming up for my boys tbh.

Not really a "gamble" as much as a business/PR move tbh. If Mitch/Fredo are really "gambling" that Kirby is going to be worth that contract in basketball terms then they're just flat out re ed tbh. You can argue that he's worth that contract financially become of his appeal to Lakerfan and I wouldn't argue but to call that contract anything else would be asinine tbh.

[ElNono]

Wow, was a busy day at the office and I'm just catching up.... the initial reaction is...



after a while, it sinks in and...

[DMC]

LG.com melting down over this. lol

[lefty]

Now it reads "#stayD12"

[DMC]

He is absolutely worth the money for reasons you stated above. I just wish the contract was smaller so that they could (conceivably) acquire more pieces.

I had no thoughts of him playing for another team. I just thought that a year to year (smaller) contract would have made more business sense. He could see what pieces the FO would acquire, then they decide what's a good figure to sign him for. Win-win for both sides.

It's a gamble signing him for 2 years at $24M/per. The Lakers are known to gamble. The injury he suffered, with all the mileage he has on his body already, his age, etc., will no doubt have an affect on his game/effectiveness. We'll see how it shakes out. They still have some cap room to sign players. I expect to see a few of the players on this year's squad resigned as well (hopefully JHill). Pau may also come back at a reduced price. Interesting offseason coming up for my boys tbh.

You've been allotted only like 62m. You cannot say 1 player who's coming off an Achilles injury and is on his way down the other side of the retirement hill is worth almost half of that. You have to consider your budget, and then you can consider what a player is worth with respect to that. I'd say Kobe is worth maybe 15 - 18m a year and even that's reaching. Sure the business side dictates he's a cash cow, but the compe ion side says you're playing NY Knick ball now and favoring your TV contracts over winning basketball.

[jeebus]

dats my lefty

[DPG21920]

He is absolutely worth the money for reasons you stated above. I just wish the contract was smaller so that they could (conceivably) acquire more pieces.

I had no thoughts of him playing for another team. I just thought that a year to year (smaller) contract would have made more business sense. He could see what pieces the FO would acquire, then they decide what's a good figure to sign him for. Win-win for both sides.

It's a gamble signing him for 2 years at $24M/per. The Lakers are known to gamble. The injury he suffered, with all the mileage he has on his body already, his age, etc., will no doubt have an affect on his game/effectiveness. We'll see how it shakes out. They still have some cap room to sign players. I expect to see a few of the players on this year's squad resigned as well (hopefully JHill). Pau may also come back at a reduced price. Interesting offseason coming up for my boys tbh.

That is the catch 22 and the reason why Kobe's contract is so brutal. They have ~29M in cap space conceivably but only 3 guys under contract (Kobe/Sacre/ Swaggy P). Those players that are cheap now and haven't had pay days yet, will command money (Hill). That eats away at that cap space.

[DPG21920]

Ya - you can just take the "worth it basketball wise" out of the equation. Not only is he not from a budget perspective, but if you factor in a more simple question: Is he the best player in the league even if healthy? - then it's clear that is a resounding no. Yet he will be the league's highest paid player.

[LkrFan]

Not really a "gamble" as much as a business/PR move tbh. If Mitch/Fredo are really "gambling" that Kirby is going to be worth that contract in basketball terms then they're just flat out re ed tbh. You can argue that he's worth that contract financially become of his appeal to Lakerfan and I wouldn't argue but to call that contract anything else would be asinine tbh.

It's a gamble. A huge one. He hasn't proven jack in a real game post Achilees rupture. If something goes wrong at anytime within the next 3 years, we're ed. The Buss Family are loyal to a fault, but at some point you have to look out for the business side going forward. I know what Kobe has meant to that franchise, but eventually they have to move forward.

Who knows, maybe he has shown them enough during his rehab and at practice that convinced him that this is a gamble worth taking. My thoughts are, why now? If he played X amount of games and seemed to be back to his old self, then I say go for it. But to do so now just didn't make any sense to me. They could have had plenty of time to make the same decision later. Kind of reminds me how they hastily made the decision to hire Pringles over PJ. SMH

[LkrFan]

You've been allotted only like 62m. You cannot say 1 player who's coming off an Achilles injury and is on his way down the other side of the retirement hill is worth almost half of that. You have to consider your budget, and then you can consider what a player is worth with respect to that. I'd say Kobe is worth maybe 15 - 18m a year and even that's reaching. Sure the business side dictates he's a cash cow, but the compe ion side says you're playing NY Knick ball now and favoring your TV contracts over winning basketball.

My thoughts are that they are going to do whatever it takes to field a winner for Kobe within these last 3 years. That being said, I think their thoughts are cap be damned, because we've seen that if they think a player is worth it, they will go over the cap in a heartbeat.

I thought Kobe should get around $12-$15M/per. That isn't a reach considering all of the revenue he has brought to the Lakers over the years. $24M was too much though in my opinion, strictly due to the new CBA being so restricting. We'll see what happens, but if there is a loop, I expect MK to find it. They have $5B TWC contract that will help them absorb paying luxury taxes.

[LkrFan]

That is the catch 22 and the reason why Kobe's contract is so brutal. They have ~29M in cap space conceivably but only 3 guys under contract (Kobe/Sacre/ Swaggy P). Those players that are cheap now and haven't had pay days yet, will command money (Hill). That eats away at that cap space.

Yeah, I'm hoping that MK can find a loophole or two in the CBA to make this work. While spending years as an apprentice of the Logo, he made his reputation initially as a cap guru. Crunching numbers are his thang.

JHill is playing his way out of LA - Earl Clark style.

[ace3g]

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA
Kobe Bryant tells Yahoo Sports: "This wasn't a negotiation." Column: yhoo.it/IeitEq

[da_suns_fan]

Mitch had no leverage....theres no way he could lose Kobe after the D12 debacle.

He didnt have the backbone to stand up to Kobe.

[DPG21920]

Woj has a good point, but NFL players get crapped on worse. NBA players, despite having a ceiling, have a very high ceiling with fully guaranteed deals.

[NRHector]

And the worst thing is that not even Stern can help the Lakers fix this , they're ed

[Mugen]

Who knows, maybe he has shown them enough during his rehab and at practice that convinced him that this is a gamble worth taking. SMH

Even if Kirby comes back and plays at 2013 level (huge IF btw), there's no way in he's worth 2yr/48mil from a basketball perspective. He shouldn't be the highest paid player in the league when he won't sniff the Top 5 even he comes back well from the injury tbh.

[DAF86]

Any player with any kind of leverage will never take a mammoth paycut. We us fans think in terms of the team but they have to think in terms of their lifestyle. They are used to spend, invest and save "X" amount of money. I know it sounds silly when talking about millions and millions of dolars but it really isn't. Imagine how your life would change if your salary gets cut in half from one year to the next, of course that NBA stars don't feel the change as much as us but still it does produce a change. Speaking of which:

at folks getting mad after Manu cut his salary in half.

[BatManu20]

Loooollll