in these, the waning days of stern: 2013-2014 NBA regular season thread (part 1)

kobe has it wrong--players take less not to "help owners" but because the cap places very real restrictions on how much talent a team can bring in from the outside. and good lord do the lakers need some talent from the outside.

This was a smart move for management and an outstanding move for Kobe

Lakers are the second most valuable team in the league but are also gonna take the biggest hit in the next few years due to revenue sharing

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/01/23/billion-dollar-knicks-and-lakers-top-list-of-nbas-most-valuable-teams/

This allows them to keep their revenue up via jersey sales and sellout games etc.

The alternative is to try and build a championship contending team in the Lebron era

Haha yeah right, worked great last year

Or they could have blown it up and tried to rebuild?

But why do that when you can still make buckets of money off of Kobe for next two years

http://www.forbes.com/nba-valuations/

Also this is why we're going to see 15 more years of Dolan. Knicks are the most profitable team in the league and will continue to remain so

Former NBA players' union executive director Billy Hunter has claimed that Lakers star Kobe Bryant and agent Rob Pelinka, acting on behalf of union president Derek Fisher, meddled with his efforts to end the 2011 lockout.

In a Los Angeles Superior Court filing Thursday that is part of his wrongful-termination lawsuit, Hunter stated that he received a call from Bryant and Pelinka the night before he was scheduled to meet with league officials in October 2011. According to Hunter, the player and his agent told him to agree to a 50-50 split of basketball-related income.

"On the phone call, Bryant told me to agree to the new CBA [collective bargaining agreement] at a 50-50 share of BRI, saying, ‘I know that tomorrow is a big day. You can put this thing to bed. Do the deal,’ and also telling me, ‘I got your back,’ " Hunter said in the court filing. "What Bryant and Pelinka were telling me is that a 50-50 deal had already been completed behind my back.”

Hunter said he then confronted Fisher, who was then Bryant's teammate, about whether negotiations had circumvented Hunter.

“I asked him whether he had been secretly negotiating directly with the owners. ... Fisher did not deny the existence of the secret negotiations with NBA owners, but denied having had a role in them," Hunter said. "Fisher said that it was Bryant and Pelinka who had engaged in secret negotiations with NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, adding that they had ‘thrown [Fisher] under the bus.’ ”

yeah i actually agree that it's not a terrible move from a business standpoint -- a bit myopic maybe, but the lakers were not just going to not re-sign him. again i'm glad that lots of people are writing about this angle because it's true: kobe is a business partner with the lakers, and to say he's team-first would be a lie

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10024119

Terribly misleading headline

http://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAL.html

Even with Kobe signed they're still gonna have tons of caproom in 2014-15 and 15-16

If LBJ exercises his ETO the Lakers would still be very competitive even with this contract on the books

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/83785/the-true-hollywood-story-of-kobes-crippling-contract

if kobe comes back and sucks which is pretty likely i dont think hes gonna help the lakers sell that many tickets or jerseys, all it does is push back their rebuilding

and as far the tons of cap room theyll have thats cause they dont have anyone signed, theyve got to field a whole team, theres no magic tons of cap room, overpaying a player by that much just creates big problems

i mean by that logic it would also make sense to have kobe be the highest paid player when hes 40 or 50 or 60

Even with a shitty team Lakers still brought in tons of money last year

I would wanna see how the franchise did in the lean years before Gasol. But I'm betting they probably were still very profitable

Lakers may have already resigned themselves to not being able to sign LBJ

But this puts them in a good position for the Durant sweepstakes

I mean there's no doubt in my mind that this represents a decision by the owners to not be competitive for the next two years and to make money off of the % of 13 million LA citizens who would still pay money to watch a cooked Bean play

You may think that your average Laker fan is not that stupid

But that's being generous

Even with a shitty team Lakers still brought in tons of money last year

― 乒乓, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:41 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they made the playoffs, and no doubt theyre also bringing in tons of money this year without kobe, the lakers will make tons of money, if the lakers win theyll make more money, this deal extends the no winning era in favor of a washed up former superstar era, not very wise imho

Nah man the fallback position for the Lakers is to be the West Coast Knicks, no winning + superstar to draw the crowds

non contending teams just do not draw crowds, watch what happens if the knicks continue to suck

the lakers for all we know may be an exception to that rule and always sell out no matter what, but that still doesnt make the kobe deal a good one

It's a terrible decision if your only metric is W/L

But I still think it's a savvy business decision

I think the numbers here are really interesting

http://www.forbes.com/nba-valuations/

Thunder brought in 127 mil in revenue

Other teams that broke the 120 mil mark: Suns, Magic, Cavs, Pistons, Warriors

Generally the 'elite' teams bring in 130 mil or more, e.g. the Heat brought in 150

Lakers and Knicks brought in 197 and 243, respectively

i wouldn't exactly say it's "savvy." the savvy business decision would be to figure out how to make tons of money and still put your team in a place to win games.

It's a terrible decision if your only metric is W/L

But I still think it's a savvy business decision

― 乒乓, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:52 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its shitty from both points of view, which are highly correlated, quite obviously too

giving kobe a hilarious contract was kind of the default move right? i mean who really expected kobe to be playing for anyone besides LA next year?

they couldve paid him less and still retained him because no one was gonna give him nearly that much

i dunno i think kobe had the leverage actually

really tell me whos gonna sign kobe to that kind of money

nyets wd find a way

Forcing him to take less money would be an implicit acknowledgment that management believes he's cooked (which doesn't look good for either side) unless Kobe made a statement that he was 'taking less money so that we can be competitive in the free agent market'

Think how likely it would be for Kobe to admit that

really tell me whos gonna sign kobe to that kind of money

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 11:00 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

if i'm arguing this from kobe's side i say "look, someone will definitely pay kobe 2/35. are you prepared to tell your fans that you let the most beloved player of the last 30 years walk over $13 million?"

i wouldn't exactly say it's "savvy." the savvy business decision would be to figure out how to make tons of money and still put your team in a place to win games.

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:56 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

Can you think of a way though. I mean let's say you force Kobe to a under 20 million contract (unlikely) or just let Kobe walk (extremely unlikely). What are your other options for next season. Who are the big FA's on the market?

that zach lowe column spells it out nicely

they probably will not be able to sign kevin love, for instance

my guess is that the lakers are banking on being able to do some Crazy Laker Shit because a superstar wants to force a trade there in the next few years

I think Lowe's column assumes they won't be willing to take luxury tax hits

its free agents for the next TWO offseasons youre wiffing on fwiw, kevin love la native who doesnt like his team comes to mind

the lakers did this deal because they are kobes bitch is what it comes down to m/l

Who's gonna sign Love to a 22 million a year contract?

what do they do after this contract is up, is kobe going to retire, not if he can still walk, shd they sign him to the biggest contract in the league then too

what do they do after this contract is up, is kobe going to retire, not if he can still walk, shd they sign him to the biggest contract in the league then too

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 11:09 AM (17 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah this is kinda the more interesting question

retires and becomes the coach like j kidd

They'll cross that road when they get there

Who's the big FA coming up in 15-16? LBJ if he doesn't take his player option. Who else?

why does dayo write like bill plaschke now

lol

yeah this is kinda the more interesting question

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 27, 2013 11:09 AM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its not the more interesting question, its exactly the same question, i assume if you guys are in favor of wildly overpaying kobe now then youre also in favor of doing it in two years too

By the end of this contract we'll have a lot of data on how good Kobe is after coming back from injury. If he stinks, giving him a more reasonable contract will be more justifiable from everybody's perspective

You could argue why didn't the Lakers just do that this year. True, but probably the longer you wait the more pissed off you'll make Kobe. And he runs that town

Who's gonna sign Love to a 22 million a year contract?

― 乒乓, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 11:08 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

anyone with $22m

lakers despite their ability to attract any and all free agents are cooked im guessing, their management is just too incompetent now

the knicks west

why does dayo write like bill plaschke now

Who is bill plaschke

I blame my iPhone

lakers were dumb to do this move, p sure fans in LA wd get over any affront to kobe once they started winning again

like kobe get that paper dude, but lakers are like....punting here