Kobe Pay Cut? Maybe If He Owned The Team

Now that the Lakers are the 2009 NBA Champions, the talk has begun on how they could repeat their success next year.

Two of the major pieces to this championship run, namely Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza, are unrestricted free agents, but both have said that they want to come back to LA, and Odom will probably give the Lakers a hometown discount because he doesn't want to leave LA at this point in his career.

The Lakers are already on the books for about $74 million, which is already $3 million above the 2008-2009 salary cap, which is expected to decrease next year with the economic downturn.

This means that unless Mitch Kupchak can work some magic and decrease the Lakers' payroll, every dollar they pay Odom and Ariza will actually represent two dollars, with the extra dollar going to the league to be redistributed to teams under the salary cap.

Bringing back Odom and Ariza could prove to carry a hefty bill, and some people have proposed the idea of Kobe taking a pay cut to allow the team to sign both back while not exorbitantly exceeding the salary cap.

Now I don't think it is fair to ask Kobe to limit his earning potential significantly so the team can win a championship. It doesn't mean that he doesn't care about winning enough, it just means that he's not willing to stake his and his family's financial future on it. Winning always brings more fame and money, but there's always a risk in professional sports. You have to make the most money whenever you can, that's just the way the business works.

I realize Kobe is already immensely rich and after this championship will likely reign in endorsement after endorsement, but by this logic shouldn't players who are somewhat "riding" Kobe to championships also sacrifice. What about Vujacic who made $5 million this year without earning it? What about Bynum? Gasol?

I don't think all the weight can fall on one guy because everyone perceives his desire to win as so great that he should be willing to pay for it. If it were a collective effort by the team for the benefit of success that is fair, but asking one guy to shoulder the bill for 11 other players is asking a little more than just being a leader.

I know other pros have taken pay cuts before, and Kobe could take a small one like others have, but it likely won't do much in helping sign two relatively costly players back to the roster.

There are many other ways the Lakers can figure out to free up space, but there are two reasonable and fair ways I could see this playing out in terms of Kobe's contribution to the salary cap problem:

1) Kobe opts out of his current contract to sign a new contract for about five years, which he might already do, but he backloads the contract so that the major money in the contract comes in the later years. This might allow the Lakers to keep Ariza and Odom and stay closer to the salary cap in the short-run, and will get Kobe in his money he would get anyway, except in about five years when the Lakers will be rebuilding anyway. This could hamper their performance in the seasons four or five years out, where Kobe's salary would hamper their potential to pay players, but could prove successful for championships within the next three years.

This option is unlikely because teams are a business after all, and are unlikely to mortgage away a few years of their franchise for success now.

2) Kobe takes a pay cut in return for part ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers. I know this sounds ludicrous, but hear me out. Kobe could get part of the team for free in exchange for a pay cut, or for a discounted price. This seems highly unlikely, but Jerry Buss, the Lakers' owner, has made it a habit of keeping around great Laker players who want to stick around, almost as if the franchise were a family.

Jerry West was the GM for the team and brought Shaq and Kobe together. Mitch Kupchak, another ex-Laker, is the current general manager. Kurt Rambis, Brian Shaw, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, all ex-Laker players, are assistant coaches. Magic Johnson is a part owner of the team.

Unlike other franchises who don't keep around their greats who want to be involved in NBA management, like Jordan with the Bobcats instead of the Bulls, Larry with the Pacers instead of the Celtics, McHale with the Timberwolves instead of the Celtics, and Isiah with the Knicks instead of the Pistons, the Lakers like to keep give options to their ex-players who have desires to be NBA executives or coaches.

Now I know Buss nearly traded Kobe after his demands two years ago, but in all fairness, they were "rebuilding" instead of building for a championship around Kobe, which was his major gripe as he was promised a championship-contending team. Kobe didn't want to waste his prime on a non-championship contender. Of course Kobe could and should have handled that much better, but hey, in the end it did all work out and culminated in a championship in 2009.

If the two could put the past behind them, which I think they have after Kobe sat down with Buss in Europe in the summer of 2007, this idea might not seem so far-fetched. Buss assured Kobe they would get him some help, but was also close to trading the star because he didn't like dealing with divas who took private things public. Kupchak traded for Gasol in February 2008, right before the trade deadline, and the Lakers have since been to the Finals twice, with one championship in hand.

Kobe is now happy with his supporting cast, and Buss is happy he put up with and kept on to his brilliant star.

Odom and Ariza would both be happy to be re-signed under either of these scenarios where they wouldn't have to take massive paycuts, otherwise Buss would have to be willing to spend some serious money to keep this team together. One good thing is that all teams are struggling during this economic downturn and can't spend as much as usual, so the market price for free agents is lower than normal.

When you think about playoff and championship success and how much revenue it brings in for a team, the Lakers made about $48 million on its 12 home playoff games in 2009. This doesn't include championship apparel sales and a lot of other revenue items, but just using that number, if the Lakers were to re-sign Odom and Ariza at market value, they'd spend a third to a half of that on league luxury taxes.

The business comparison would have to be between how well the team would do and make if only one of the players were re-signed, versus if both were re-signed. If the amount of extra money the team can expect to make with getting both back eclipses the cost of one of those players, I'd say bring both back.

But again, a championship brings in huge amounts of money from all sorts of places, so looking at this years bottom line it might seem worthwhile to bring both back, but a semi-successful playoff run with just ticket revenue wouldn't seem as worthwhile.

A lot of it is guessing and hoping, because nobody will know until next May or June whether any decision was right or not.

The Lakers could remove a lot of the associated cost risk with going above the luxury tax if Buss is ready to trust part of his sacred franchise with Kobe, and that could and would provide a boost to Lakers' championship hopes in 2010 and the rest of Kobe's prime.

No Rebounds, No Rings

The Lakers dodged a bullet in Game 2, as they were one Courtney Lee layup away from heading to Orlando for 3 games without homecourt.

Many things went wrong for the Lakers; offensive flow, shooting, foul trouble, turnovers, closing out, and missed calls.

But many things also went right. They did a good job on Howard by crashing in and poking the ball away numerous times for 7 turnovers on the day for D12. Even though he got his numbers he had to work for them.

The Lakers also played the pick and roll pretty well for most of the game, and didn't allow too much penetration. Out of 79 shot attempts for Orlando, 30 of them were behind the arc. The guards for Orlando were a miserable 6-26 shooting. Closing out on shooters quicker is one noticeable thing the Lakers need to improve on for Game 3, as Rashard Lewis kept Orlando in the game by getting hot in the 2nd quarter and carrying that throughout the game.

As for the Lakers' offense, Kobe had too many mental errors (7 turnovers). Also, their offense wasn't as fresh and flowy as it usually is. Kobe, Gasol, and Odom carried most of the scoring load, and the 3rd biggest shooter of the night was Ariza, who went 3-13 for 8 points. The Lakers need more from starters Ariza and Bynum, and the bench, which other than Odom only provided 4 measly points.

The Lakers had 12 steals and 12 turnovers, while the Magic had only 5 steals while amassing 20 turnovers. The Lakers won the defensive battle this time around (41.8% shooting for ORL, still below their average significantly).

The Lakers can do better on a few things, but the list for the Magic seems a little bit longer. There was one reason the Lakers didn't win comfortably like they did in Game 1: Rebounding.

The Magic outrebounded the Lakers by 9, a 23 rebound net swing from Game 1. They also won the offensive rebounding battle 10 to 4. 4 is a disappointing number of offensive rebounds for an entire game in itself (with overtime), let alone with two 7-footers on the court at multiple times in a game. Pau and Bynum had zero offensive rebounds combined, and Pau is usually a good offensive rebounder. He has to get after it more on the offensive glass. A difference of 6 offensive rebounds is 6 more possessions in addition to a huge momentum boost every new opportunity.

The most disappointing stat of all:

Bynum: 16 minutes, 1 rebound.

That kind of production isn't worth $14 million a year, especially when only coupled with as many fouls as points (5).

Game 2 was close as the Magic won the rebounding battle but the Lakers won the steals/turnovers battle, and that will change at home for Orlando. One of the main reasons the Lakers won by 25 in Game 1 is that the Lakers had a good rebounding effort (+14), but if they carry their rebounding from Game 2 on to Orlando, their winning ways might not continue if the Magic take better care of the ball with their expected energy and shooting bump at home.

Cautious Confidence for the Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers have played three of their best 5 games of the playoffs in succession, which should give them confidence heading into game 2 (the other two IMO are Houston Game 5 win, Denver Game 6 win). However, members of Laker Nation, especially the ones outside Staples after Game 1, need to take a step back and consult the statistics and game trends before calling for the brooms.

The Lakers had over a 16% FG% differential over the Magic. The only other times in this postseason that kind of a differential has existed have been in games where one team shoots extremely well, like LA did in Game 6 against Denver shooting 57%. One team will shoot above 50% and another team will shoot near 40%. Shooting 30% is unheard of and the Magic will never come close to that again. The Lakers should take some confidence away from their defensive performance, because part of that 30% can be attributed to the Lakers defense. But, they amassed only 7 blocks, 1 less than the Magic did, so the numbers indicate that the Magic missed more than the Lakers made them miss.

Their offensive performance seemed stellar but they only shot a respectable 46%, and when you take away the garbage time from the 4th quarter the Lakers shot a hair over 50%, a far cry from the 57% they shot a game earlier. These statistics are skewed from the 4th quarter where the scrubs didn't play well at all and Kobe heaved up a bunch of shots just to get to 40 (for the first time in Finals), but they do tell a part of the story. Phil Jackson was asked in the postgame whether the Lakers can play better and he wavered around the question, but the truth is the Lakers can and will have to play better to beat a Magic team that even has an average shooting game.

If you up the Magic FG% to 40%, which is still low for an NBA team especially with a guy like Dwight who shoots over 60% usually, that equals 8 more made shots out of the 77 they took. If you assume 2 of those are 3's, that is 18 more points to add to their total. That makes this game look a lot closer than it really was. The media after the game would have you believe that the Lakers crushed the Magic in every way possible, but it might just come down to the Magic making shots post game 1 NBA Finals stage-fright.

A few individual points to note:

Pau Gasol had 8 rebounds in 37 minutes, and needs to do a better job rebounding. Lamar had 14 rebounds in 32, which accounts exactly for the 14 rebound difference in team totals. Early on in the 1st half the Magic seemed to be getting 2 or more looks on many occassions on offense, and when Gasol is out on the floor for 37 minutes he needs to make sure that happens less. Anything less than 10 rebounds means he isn't putting in the effort at 7 feet.

For as much as Bynum is getting lauded for a good defensive game, he only guarded Howard less than half the game (Lamar took a shot at him and Pau got the rest of the assignment). He collected four fouls and seemed to get discouraged when his offensive game was frustrating him (which is usually the case for players like him and Sasha in particular). The problem is, he was frustrated on offense, missing an easy layup and seeming to fumble the ball on multiple occasions. He finished 3-8 which is sub-par for a guy that is capable and has had games of 7-9 and 8-10 shooting.

Also, Howard struggled, but still went to the line 16 times, above his average for the regular season and the playoffs. Much is being made about him only making 1 field goal, but he still finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Most of the plays where he would have gotten layups or dunks we fouled him, so the 1-6 field goal line is a bit misleading. Without foul trouble Dwight would have had a 20/20 game.

While the Lakers did win by 25 points, cautious confidence, which Kobe emitted in full (if not in excess) during his postgame conference, should be the word around Staples before Game 2. Kobe Bryant was sensational in the 3rd quarter, and ended up having an average shooting night a little under 50%, but added 8 rebounds and assists a piece. After the game in a response to a philosophical question from a purple-and-gold clad wizard reporter, Kobe said "it's one game. It's no big deal. It's one game." Fans should adopt his face after the game, and share that focus.

Let's wait a few more games before we start calling for the brooms.