The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the few teams that will have an abundance of salary cap space to work with in 2015. A number of big contracts come off the books for the team and they are planning on chasing some of the bigger names in order to try and build around Kobe Bryant and potentially contend for a championship. However, Bryant is sounding more and more like a player ready to walk away from the game which could hurt the Lakers in free agency.
Bryant will have one more year on his contract after this season. The veteran has already noted to the media that at this point in the season, that final year of his contract will be his last. Bryant has suffered an array of injuries over the past two seasons that have kept him off the court and everything is catching up to him. With retirement inching into the picture, head coach Bryant Scott is downplaying things to potential free agents.
"I'm sure it's probably crossed his mind more than once, but we haven't talked about that one bit," Scott said, via ESPNLosAngeles.com "It's just game by game -- that's how we're going to approach it and then go from there. I think he'll probably tackle that issue once this season is all said and done. When it comes, we'll deal with that situation, but right now, he's still here and he still plays as hard as anybody and he can still deliver, so we'll just deal with it when it comes. It's a very hard decision to make."
Bryant is the recruiting tool for the Lakers. Los Angeles is hoping that players will flock to the team in order to play with Bryant for at least one more season if not more. Even with Rajon Rondo off the market, the Lakers are eyeing big names like Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Brook Lopez and Goran Dragic. They also have their sights set on Kevin Durant in 2016.
However, without Bryant, the Lakers are a little unattractive. The team has Nick Young and they will get back rookie Julius Randle. They will lose Carlos Boozer, Jeremy Lin and Steve Nash along with a number of short-term contracts along with them. With the Lakers having struggled over the past few seasons, can they still grab the big names?
