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Kobe Bryant, currently recovering from an Achilles injury, just signed a 2 year contract extension with the Lakers, reportedly worth around 48.5 million $. The Black Mamba will make 23.5 million in the first contract year and 25 million in the second, thus remaining the best paid player in the league. The contract extension was and is widely discussed in the media and in the basketball world in general, with the slight majority considering that Kobe should have taken less money in order to allow the franchise to have more cap space so they can attract high caliber free agents in the next two years – with the likes of Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony (2014) or Kevin Love (2015) on the verge of ending their contracts.

The numbers

Kobe`s deal at the moment is making for about 36% of the total cap space the Lakers will have next season. In the summer, Lakers would only have about 23 million available in cap space – and that would presume they do not re-sign Pau Gasol, Jordan Hill or any other players with expiring contracts. The illustration below better shows which are the players that the Lakers have under contract for the 2014-2015 season and the salary cap below:

Basically, the Lakers will be left with Kobe, a broken-down Nash, a couple of role players and about 23 million to build the squad (with about 1 million going to a draft pick, so more like 22 million). Gasol and Hill will probably demand this money by themselves if the Lakers wants to keep them. There are a few tweaks and tricks which could be done here and there to expand the cap space (like using a stretch provision on Nash – which would keep him a Laker and take about 5 million off the books this year), but the Lakers basically have two options:

1. Keeping (pretty-much) the same roster as this year with 1-2 quality role players added (but even that would imply Gasol taking a bit of a paycut).

2. Waiving Nash, hoping Gasol takes a big paycut, hoping Hill would accept a lower deal than he deserves and then going for a max. free agent like Carmelo or 1-2 solid guys like Monroe, Bledsoe or Hayward.

Kobe

The answer to the punctual question in the title is “NO!”. Kobe clearly stated that he accepted the first offer the Lakers presented him. So what is he going to do, say “no, this doesn`t work, give me less money please”? And people are fast to disregard the fact that Kobe DID take something close to a 7 million per year paycut. Very importantly, I can sense a tendency of clearly underestimating The Black Mamba lately. Last year he had better stats than the much hyped James Harden in almost every category. He deserves the money. Bryant aggressively defended the deal in the media and on his twitter account.

Lakers frontoffice

The money Kobe is getting is justified from a financial standpoint – even if he`s not the best player in the league anymore, he`s still the most marketed, draws the biggest crowds, and he was balling at the highest level prior to his injury. He`ll be making the Lakers much more money than they are paying him, and he did it for 17 years, despite the huge contract he was getting. In the end it`s all about money, and the Lakers booked a nice profit over Kobe for the next two years, while also scoring points with the LA fanbase, establishing Kobe`s legacy and their own.

On the other hand, taking all factors into account, the deal is bad. No doubt about that. With Kobe presenting little interest to other teams in the summer at this kind of price, and with him obviously wanting to retire a Laker, it`s mindblowing how the Lakers frontoffice decides to come up with this massive offer.  Should they have offered Kobe something in the 20 million region, I am pretty sure he would have said “Yes” without too much thought. Note that we`re talking about a 35 year old player coming back from one of the worst injuries in sports.

Bryant is a winner and he proved he is as tough as he gets, so he could well overcome this achilles injury even at his age. He`s still a top 10 player in the league, despite ESPN laughably ranking him 25 this year. Keeping Kobe was a must for the Lakers, and it would have been the smart move even at this 48.5 million contract, but ONLY IF he had similar offers on the table and LA risked losing him via free agency. But that was not going to happen, as even between the few teams able to offer him a salary like this, there was none which would have given him this kind of money.

• Skip Bayless, ESPN: “Was Jimm Buss negotiating against himself?”

The Lakers should have made a lower offer, in the 15-20 million range, which Bryant would have likely accepted. That was if the whole organization was keen on winning a title in the next 2 years. All in all, except for some vintage Lakers “off-season magic”, LA seems to have forfeited their chances for another championship anytime soon. And with Jimm Buss running the show now, that kind of magic is unlikely to happen again – despite Mitch Kupchak being a top class GM. Likely scenario? The Lakers keep the loyal Gasol (who takes a big paycut), Nash (stretch provision), Hill (maybe, maybe not) and get a mid-level guy like Greg Monroe or Brendan Hayward, along with re-signing or acquiring a couple of role players with minimum salaries. That would make for a good team, but not really championship – caliber. They could also maybe try and go for Kevin Love in the 2015 free agency. And who knows, maybe Kobe will show us one last drop of greatness to lead this team to the Finals. I`m a Lakers and Kobe fan, but taking everything into account, this contract does not make much sense, and the Lakers frontoffice is the only one to blame.

Betdistrict verdict: Bad Deal.

Tipsters’ input: what do our NBA tipsters think?

QUIDPROQUO (Serbia): Possibly one of the worst contract decisions in NBA history. I honestly can’t believe what Jim Buss did here. You give up 40% of your salary cap to a 35 year old guard with a busted achilles. Really? Lakers just gave up a chance to be great team 5 years from now. They did earn the right to keep one of the greatest players of all-time and struggle to make play-offs year after year. In my opinion the only move they had was to trade Kobe to the 76ers for a first round pick, so he goes back home and plays with young players. But he obviously wouldn’t do that and probably has veto clause in contract that would prevent a trade.

INCONTROL (Romania): He`s old, so you can`t expect him to play better, but steadily decline. Lakers with their aging roster could well miss the playoffs – see how the Nets are doing. He`s coming after the worst injury in his career, there is no telling how he will respond. The risk of another injury is also pretty high at his age. Lakers might think they`ll sell T-Shirts, but I think they`ll miss the playoffs and it will be bad business. The Heat are winning titles because Lebron and D-Wade took less money. The Lakers should have waited more – nobody in the league would have gave Kobe this much money. Very bad deal considering the current cap space rules.

AAAZ (Bulgaria): A team of the Lakers’ caliber needs a name like Kobe. Too much money, yes, but this season and last year showed that without Bryant the Lakers’ lack personality and do not perform. Bottom line, Kobe is a cash machine and deserves the money.

UMICUMA (Serbia): In order to mount a championship challenge every big star needs support from the players around him, otherwise it is very hard. The best example was LeBron in Clevleand. In the past Kobe had Shaq and coach Phil Jackson behind. Now, the roster is very thin and D’Antoni is quality coach, but still not a champion caliber one. Lakers have extremely slim chances to win with Kobe’s current contract.

PLAYSAFE (Romania): I believe that Kobe is getting old (for NBA at top level) and I believe he also realizes this. So in order to have a happy retirement he signed this two year contract to make some good money and as a bonus he will finish his career as a Laker. I don’t think the Lakers would have offered him less money, but in case that would have happened I believe he would have accepted even a lesser salary. As for a Lakers championship-caliber team, this is fictional both for this season and for the next. In my humble opinion, this season they won’t even reach the playoffs.

SHAK (Romania): I`m not Kobe`s biggest fan, but the truth is that the Lakers depend on him. How much of a difference would have made if he took 4 million less? Gasol has 19. I think there`s too much fuss about Bryant`s contract, let`s not forget that guys like Joe Johnson or Amare Stoudemire are making 21 + millions per year. I think Kobe is well worth at least 20 million, and the team wouldn`t have got a superstar in the free agency anyway, so all in all I think it`s an ok and realistic deal.