Lakers aware that the Kobe Bryant era is nearing its end
Here’s the Orange County Register reporting on a topic that will make us cry: That we don’t have a lot of time left to enjoy Kobe Bryant in the NBA. And the Lakers are very aware of this as they determine how to build their team for the future:
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The days of the Lakers building a roster to satisfy the needs, and complement the style, of Kobe Bryant are gone.
Just three years removed from the blockbuster summer that brought Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to Los Angeles, one of the Lakers’ top basketball executives said circumstances have dictated that the organization change course.
“This team primarily has been Kobe’s team now for almost 18 or 20 years,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said in a wide-ranging interview with media, “and we’re much closer to the end of those 18, 20 years than we are to the middle or the beginning. So at some point we have to start a new run.”
And while that will presumably include a 37-year-old Bryant next season, the Lakers are not simply planning on reloading this summer to make one more playoff push for the future Hall of Famer’s swan song.
