[GlenTaylorSucksParticipant]

I know Kobe and Mark Cuban got into a little spat about this a few months ago, but now we have to consider the reality. Kobe is gonna be out roughly 6-9 months, putting his return somewhere in the middle of next season. He has one more year on his deal, but he’s being paid 30 million, which will make their lux tax number skyrocket, especially considering they’ll push hard to resign D12.

I think now you have to seriously consider: Do you amnesty Kobe Bryant? If I were Kupchak, I would. I’m sure you could make it abundantly clear to Kobe that it would be purely for financial reasons, and that it in no way means that the Lakers want to get rid of him. Waive him, resign him to a small deal. This means the Lakers could pursue other talent to give them depth, sign Dwight, and get Kobe back in the middle of the season at a discount so he can heal better.

What do y’all think?

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

The near exact number of luxury tax is $50 million.

To keep Kobe, they would need to pay a total of $80million.

Mind-boggling, especially for a player that might not even play

[XYRYXParticipant]

If the Lakers amnesty him they can’t resign him. Teams aren’t allowed to do this.

Another scenario could be to amnesty him and he has to be picked up by another team and beeing traded to the Lakers after that. I’m not sure if a team is allowed to trade a player who just has been signed but basically a team like NOH can sign him immedialy once he is amnestied by the Lakers and make a trade when he is healthy and the team is allowed to trade him.

But honestly VERY unlikely to happen and if they amnesty him just to get rid of him would kill all the respect I have for the Lakers organisation. No way Kupchack can do this now.

Still the biggest summer for the Lakers since they traded Shaq. It all depends on what Dwight wants. Best case to me would be a sign and trade with the Rockets for the young guns and Asik.

Poor Kobe

[MinnesotanoParticipant]

The marketing is an enough reason to keep Kobe. Even if he is not going to play, he is going to be the one that sell more Lakers jerseys, he’s still going to be the face of the franchise.

[RafterParticipant]

Nailed it, Kobe is a superstar and has value off the hardwood.

[HitsterParticipant]

The D12 scenario could possibly affect what they do with Kobe if Dwight had strong views one way or another. I’d also possibly wonder if Kobe might have some sort of clause hidden in his contract as regards any possible amnesty clauses.

Also could you imagine the backlash from the Lakers fans if they did it especially after Dr Buss’ recent passing. I could never have seen Jerry Buss agreeing to a Kobe amnesty however much financial sense it could make.

The Amnesty deadline was mid July last year so I’d guess it would be similar this year, by then the Lakers will probably know if D12 has resigned with them and maybe have a better idea when Kobe may return. They could also easily amnesty MWP, that would save maybe $10 million in luxury tax or even throw a curve ball and amnesty Pau Gasol on the likelihood that he’d be snapped up quickly for a fairly decent salary so they save a huge amount of luxury tax and on the balance of his salary. Plus Kobe’s salary would be covered by insurance if he was out whilst Gasol’s would not be.

[IknoBall12Participant]

Kobe gets amnestied. I mean there is no other way he wears another color in the NBA than laker purple and gold. All these theories sound good and all but they are mostly nonsense

[SDEParticipant]

If they did amnesty Kobe what team would he sign with?
I think probably either Clippers or Knicks. Clippers cause close to home Knicks cause he said he love playing at MSG

[doubledribblerParticipant]

Remember, when teams use the amnesty, teams under the salary cap get first dibs. It doesn’t turn into straight out free agency. I think quite a few teams would take the chance on him because they would only be paying a portion of his salary. That ends up making a ton of sense for a team just wanting to make money off jersey sales even if he can’t play.

[Ahkasi ClayParticipant]

Amnesty window will be from july 10 – 18
if amnestied kobe could not resign with the lakers for the length of his contract, but apparently after the current contract ends, could return, but the lakers would lose his Bird Rights!

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

So they wouldn’t have to pay the whole amount so most of his salary would be offset. They could dump Gasol for nothing on a team and then amnesty Metta, let Kobe sit and the insurance pay his salary.

[llperez]

Kobe says he isn’t retiring period. And if kupchak forced him out of la to play out the remainder of his career for another team, the backlash would be worth more then the 50 mill tax hit assuming that’s what it is. If anyone should be amnestied, it’s Nash. He has 16 mill left and just doesn’t play any defense, so if they are that worried about money I would start elsewhere.

[mini_marzParticipant]

Pau metta or Nash would get amnestied before they even think about Kobe the backlash would be too big. I’m really curious to see how things go with Dwight wether or not if he stays or not because now more then ever he is in position to be the man on this team like he was in Orlando and there is no telling how good Kobe will be when he comes back so they will have to be more dependent on Howard. Lakers have had a long line of great centers is Howard going to become one? I think now is that time to see if he will become a great laker center or just leave and become d coward

[T-Dot-BallerParticipant]

First of all….the lakers organization is not gonna amnesty Kobe. If they do, it would be the most classless gesture towards a player whos given you 5 championships and generated so much revenue. This is just a stupid discussion

[Ahkasi ClayParticipant]

Shaq gave the lakers 3 rings. And kobe would not have won the other 2 without Gasol. And yes we think that the lakers are çlassless enough to amnesty kobe

[PurpleMonkeyDishwasherParticipant]

If it was any player other than Kobe the Lakers would’ve had to seriously consider amnesty for Kobe prior to his injury… that being said with the death Jerry Buss the Lakers don’t have the same deep pockets as before since there will be inheritance taxes for the kids making it very difficult for the Lakers to not amnesty Bryant.

Jerry’s kids can’t possibly be as good of owners as their father was and the fact that they weren’t a lock to
make the playoffs as constructed I’d say the Lakers for ther good of the future need to amnesty Bryant because there is no worse position for a team to be in then the 8th seed, old, injured and way over the cap.

[HitsterParticipant]

One team that could be in the mix if Kobe got amnestied and they had not used up their cap space is the Mavericks as playing alongside Dirk might appeal to Kobe and after Mark Cuban made the comment about amnestying Kobe, then Kobe may love to prove him wrong.

Personally I don’t think the Lakers would risk doing it but PurpleMonkey does make a very good point about the inheritence taxes that Jerry Buss’s kids may have to pay which coupled with the new luxury tax levels and maybe not very deep play off run may mean the Lakers cannot sustain a $95 to $100 million salary bill.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

Well it is a good point that there are taxes and the kids might not be as good an owner. But you can’t say the Lakers “cannot sustain” a big salary bill. Didn’t they just sign a billion dollar TV deal? I think the Lakers are supposed to make about $300 million a year. So even if their player salary is $150 million instead of $90 million, they are still going to be profitable. The new CBA basically insures profitability for the small market teams. For the biggest market teams it is literally a game they cannot lose. The Amnesty move may be the right financial move, but we need to understand that we are simply talking about the how much richer the Buss family gets next year. It is not a question of if they will get richer, it is a question of how much.

And for a family that is super rich, paying $50 million to avoid the public stain of the amnesty may be worth it.

[Ghost01Participant]

They aren’t going to amnesty him, because they think he’s going to be back by midseason.

I’m not sure if that’s true, and it still doesn’t make sense financially, but I just can’t see them amnestying him.

If he was definitely going to miss the whole season, maybe it’s a different story. But this Laker’s team isn’t going to be all that great in bryant’s absense, who knows what Dwight does this offseason, so yeah there are quite a few variables here.

I’ll be glad to see Kobe come back, but this whole thing is going to set the Lakers rebuilding back a year or two. They are paying too much money to older guys, and outside Dwight the rest of their team has no value 2-3 years down the road.

[Ahkasi ClayParticipant]

Dallas would make a claim just to mess with the lakers!

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