re: The Lakers will have $76M in cap space when the Kobe Era ends

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he never wanted to be in LA

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No. He never wanted to be in LA with Kobe holding onto the reigns as the #1 who gave him no respect.

The whole idea of bringing him to the Lakers was they were going to have him take over as the new #1 and a torch would be passed. But that couldn't happen because Kobe wanted no part of that scenario.

I'm not going to say Howard is any more sympathetic than Kobe since both are probably not very nice people to co-exist with... but if you wanted to make a play for the future then you go with Howard.

Links to the same effect:

kobe wouldn't pass torch, Lakers reneg on promise

howard wouldn't sign if kobe were going to be extended

Without Kobe they would have signed Howard and might have picked up Chris Paul from free agency. Paul was interested in being in Los Angeles and without Kobe he'd have a big man to pair with on the most appealing franchise in the NBA.

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funny how apparently no one wants to play with kobe when that never seemed to be that big of an issue before. i wonder whats different

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he's old, broken down, obstinate, and unwilling to step aside to let a younger player lead.

it happens to some of the best in the game unfortunately. Jordan being an easy example.

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if you actually think we would have given kobe more than two years then i dont know what to tell you

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what defense does Lakers management have against an assumption they would? there was no reason to give him as much money as they did.

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is it kobes contract that is fricking the lakers or is it kobe?

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both. until he is gone or massively changes his entire attitude. it is jordan on the wizards behavior and sad to see for an all time great player... but he's not alone.

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what defense does Lakers management have against an assumption they would? there was no reason to give him as much money as they did.

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weve been eyeing these next two free agency cycles since the whole dwight howard situation went down. thats why we are basically free of all salary obligations this upcoming offseason. we will have like four or five players on the books after this season. even if we could, we wouldnt have fricked that up by giving kobe a long term deal

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that dislike was obviously two way. and the thing to do with that situation is to keep the more valuable player with productive time left in his career.

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which makes sense if he wanted to be here, he didnt, he made that clear, he would have stayed if the nba didnt veto the chris paul trade, or if we got rid of kobe and then turned around and signed lebron or carmelo except that wasnt going to happen

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the only important reason with respect to this point is kobe's contract made it a mathematical impossibility.

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and that only matters if it actually takes away a realistic situation. but it didnt. and it wont next year. except we are fricked then also because then, its an issue of kobe himself and not the contract right?

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like it or not that player was howard. he lacks the mythology or achievements of kobe but at their respective stages of their careers this is a no brainer.

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thank god we didnt. these last two years have sucked, but we are in a good position to have a solid young corps in okafor/kat, jordan clarkson, and julius randle to build around solid free agency signings like tobias harris or khris middleton and then pair with a major free agency signing like russell westbrook or kevin durant or possibly jimmy butler if he somehow doesnt receive a max contract from chicago which is unlikely

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it certainly did. none of the recently available all pros were going to the Lakers with the Kobe contract/attitude

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we can just keep saying this over and over, or we can recognize that no one was signing with the Lakers because the lakers were going to be bad these next two years and nothing could have changed that. Even with Dwight, we weren't signing anything these last two offseasons. I don't see how this is so hard to understand

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without kobe it easily could have been paul and howard leading the lakers into the playoffs

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Howard and paul were apparently talking and potentially interested in pairing up in L.A.

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you mean the rumor that was thrown around prior to the fricking lockout? You do know there were also those rumors about them playing for the knicks and the nets right?

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JMO but Kobe wouldn't have been willing to pass the reigns on to even Lebron and I don't think that's a controversial opinion

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and that's stupid since he has never been given a real opportunity to do so. Especially now when he is starting to say he wants what the spurs have had. You can keep saying that Dwight was his chance to do so, but Dwight never wanted to be there and the current kobe is not the same as 2012/2013 kobe

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if they were playing together next year? yea i can see it. he knows this is it for him

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well, we fundamentally disagree then. I don't think he would take a back seat under any circumstances and I don't think there's any good evidence to point to any flexibility on this point.

I don't think the Lakers really want to build, they'd rather trade their young guys & buy established talent. I think Kevin Love would like to start over, and maybe the Lakers could go after DeAndre Jordan to mess with the Clips.

The Buss Family has run the Lakers franchise into the ground

Bingo.