lakersrule
ANUSTART
I am under the impression that to go over the salary cap you need to use exemptions, such as Bird rights.
Salary Cap is at $58m for the 13-14 season with the Luxury thresh hold at $71m.
If the Salary Cap goes to $60m then Kobe's $24m is exactly 40% of the salary Cap.
Yes, if you have Bird rights on a player, you can resign them and go over the salary cap. I believe the salary cap for the 14/15 season will be $62.9 million (I seem to recall this number recently). With Kobe's $23.4 million salary, that's roughly 37% of the cap.
I think the Lakers want to stay below the luxury tax threshold next season in order to avoid the even stiffer repeater tax penalties.