Context: As we all know, the Lakers and Kobe Bryant recently agreed on a contract extension worth $48.5-million dollars over the next two years. At the announcement of Kobe’s new deal, there was a lot of controversy surrounding whether Bryant was selfish in accepting such a lucrative offer from the Lakers front-office.
Kobe has always been known as a guy that will do “whatever it takes” to win, so to some, it seemed logical that if that this were true, he’d take a significant pay-cut in order to allow the Lakers to build a championship team in the 2014 off-season. Because that didn’t happen, a lot of critics questioned not only his championship aspirations, but whether or not his new contract is going to restrict the Lakers from bringing in some top tier talent.
This new extension has naturally brought up some issues that the Lakers are going to have to address. What are they going to do with Pau? What about Jordan Hill? Will they be able to bring in enough talent to bring in a championship caliber team?
Verdict:
We took this poll question to Twitter to get the fans take on the idea and where they stood on Kobe’s contract.
I presented the poll question:
Is Kobe’s contract going to restrict the Lakers from building a legitimate championship contender? #LakerDebate
— Ry (@JustRyCole) November 27, 2013
@JustRyCole i think we can. I put my trust in mitch kupchak and jim buss even though thats unpopular
— Teflon Casey (@MambaBlains) November 27, 2013
@JustRyCole same organization that turned aging Pau + Lamar to CP and “Glass Knee” Bynum to Dwight in the past couple yrs? Yeah I trust ’em
— Hamid Rahim (@hamidrahimm) November 27, 2013
@JustRyCole #LakersDebate Not necessarily, front office has to find a rotation player in the draft + find vets willing to sacrifice $
— aj taylor (@ajstarting5) November 27, 2013
@JustRyCole meant to say absolutely not! lol i dont think adding 1 max guy (melo) will do the trick. all depends on if Nash retires or not
— Arty Blackwell (@ArtybeingArty) November 27, 2013
The main topic of discussion that came about after Kobe signed his extension was the fact that the Lakers front-office had placed the franchise in a position where they can no longer bring in two max-level free agents in this upcoming off-season to play alongside Kobe Bryant.
While some Lakers fans were a bit disappointed by that, and Kobe received some backlash, I think the fact that the front-office committed that much money to him means that they believe he is still a superstar caliber talent in the NBA.
Personally, I think Lakers fans might be getting a bit selfish. Expecting the Lakers to bring in two max-level guys (like Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James ) is a tall order. Kobe is a great start, and they’ll have enough flexibility to either bring in another star, or a few good complimentary pieces.
They’ll have between $20-$28 million dollars in cap room. That’s more than enough money to get the job done.
What do you think?
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Kobe Bryant, Mitch Kupchak, Jim Buss Speak Out After Contract Extension