Kobe at 35: NBA Highest Paid Player

Kobe Bryant was a free agent after this season. While he's casually mentioned that he might retire before people think, there was little doubt he would continue to play past his current contract. There was also little doubt that he would remain a Laker and a Laker he shall remain as he signed a two-year $48.5 million extension.

In 2014 at age 35 Kobe will make $23.5million and in 2015 he will make $25 million. I don't blame Kobe for wanting to make as much money as he can and honestly I don't think he had to negotiate too much with the Lakers to be the highest paid player in the league. However, there is a salary cap in the NBA and Kobe's contract will certainly be prohibitive. With Kobe the Lakers can still sign another max level free agent but it would likely be easier to acquire a max level free agent, or free agents if Kobe was making a little less coin.

A 35 year old Tim Duncan was a free agent in the summer of 2012, coming off a solid Duncan season but certainly not his best. Still, he had a PER of 22.5 which is quite good. Duncan could command a lot of money but he resigned with the Spurs for a three-year $30 million extension with the last year being an option. The Spurs are paying Duncan half of what he could command but because of it Duncan's able to play with a better team.

Kobe Bryant's season last year was certainly better than Duncan's season before he resigned but Kobe's yet to even play this year as he's recovering from a torn Achilles. I don't doubt Kobe will return to an all-star level but I wonder if it would have been more optimal for the Lakers to wait and see how Kobe would play out this year, before making him the highest paid player in the NBA at age 35 and 36. I suppose Kobe can be trolling us all and he intends to play until he's 40, at which point he'll give the Lakers a discount, but I don't think that's necessarily likely.

Kobe and the Lakers, like any player and team, have their eyes on titles, but this recent extension isn't necessarily the best step towards that goal. Yes, Kobe will be a Laker for the next two years, which is a good thing, but was anybody doubting that?

The purpose of this isn't to put Duncan on a pedestal and blame Kobe but if championships are the main goal, there is something fishy and/or sub-optimal about the timing of this extension.  I think Kobe will still be a great player over the course of his extension but it also makes it a little harder to build around him. I don't expect Kobe to take a  pay cut, but if he did, clearly it would help the Lakers quest to get Kobe ring #6, although with this move, one can't help but doubt that ring #6 is necessarily the goal here.