Why There’s No Easy Answer in LA Lakers’ Pau Gasol Conundrum

Answers are hard to come by for Pau Gasol and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant's return, preceded by a new contract, paved the way for broader speculation to take shape. At the forefront of said conjecture is Gasol, who will become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

The plan has always been for the Lakers to chase stars over the offseason to re-tool after losing Dwight Howard to free agency. That hasn't changed. New faces, stars or not, are on the way.

Sprinkled in with those newbies will be Kobe and some other familiar faces. Will one of them be Gasol, who is playing through his sixth full season in Los Angeles?

Not even the Lakers know.

 

Why It's a Problem



Kobe's extension provided answers to many pressing questions.

How much would the Lakers pay Mamba? How long would he sign for? How much money would the Lakers have available come summer? Would his extension have a death-stare bonus?

Save for the death-stare quandary, we're in the know. We know they paid Kobe $48.5 million through 2015-16, and we know how much cap space they'll have after this year. Which begs the equally important question: Who should they spend it on?

Making sense of the future—that's the new problem for Los Angeles.

Larry Coon, author of the CBA FAQ, provided some valuable financial context following Kobe's extension:

The salary cap next summer is projected to be $62.9 million. The Lakers will also have their own first round draft pick. Based on their current record, this pick would fall around #15, and would therefore count around $1.5 million against their cap.This would give them a total of about $37.66 million for six players. We need to add another six cap holds totaling $3.04 million, which brings the total to about $40.70 million.

When all is said and done, the Lakers could have upwards of $22 ...

About the Author