The Los Angeles Lakers know that Kobe Bryant is getting older and as the team heads into the season unsure of whether he will be back to normal or not, the 2014 free agent summer is shaping up to be a big one for the franchise, as they may chase LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Paul George.

The team sees those two as primary options for the summer, while George is getting fans to plead with him to sign. Bryant will be coming back from a serious Achilles injury this season and with Steve Nash, Nick Young and Robert Sacre remaining on the books through the following season, the team will have some cap room to play with-just not as much as everyone thought. Grantland.com put together some projections for the Lakers and the team guesses that they will have $62 million salary cap next summer if Nash and his $9.7 million, Sacre and his $900,000 and Nick Young and his $1.2 million option are still on the books.

There are plenty of other scenarios that could have more of less money added to the cap and that likely means that someone will have to go, presumably Pau Gasol. Gasol has been mentioned in trade rumors for years and while Bryant loves him, if he wants to sign one of the top stars, the team likely will have to part ways with the Spanish star. The math gives the team about $36 million in cap space if things fall into place and that might not be enough to sign one of both of the stars. The team obviously can make a number of moves to free up more space, but based on the projections, there is a small chance that the Lakers will be able to sway the stars.

Bryant and the Lakers are coming off of a tough season after dealing with the Dwight Howard saga and now they will move on after retooling with Young, Sacre, Wesley Johnson and Jordan Farmar and they will at least try their best to position themselves to be players in 2014. Both the Miami Heat and Knicks are expected to try and sign their stars to extensions, so that will be the next big hurdle as the team tries to make moves for 2014.

Gasol has been mentioned in trade talks this past offseason, but Bryant was happy to keep him and get rid of Dwight Howard, who never bought into the Lakers attitude and clearly was not a fit to play alongside Bryant. Many people see that the Lakers could be better without Howard, since he was such a whiner and now the team can fully invest in what Mike D'Antoni wants to do.