Lakers GM Kupchak doesn't think Kobe plays beyond next year

Kobe Bryant has started lifting weights on his latest road to rehab, and Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, is basing that on a means to an end of his career. 

Kupchak said Thursday that he doesn't expect Bryant to play beyond next season, towing a popular line. "I have assumed that he has one year to go and is 36 now," Kupchak said, via Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. "That’s all I can plan on. That’s all he’s planning on. A year from now, maybe different."

For the second straight season the playoffs are Laker-free, and for the third straight year they are Kobe-free. Kupchak's job is to ensure that trend does not continue next season, but he understands that Bryant's view of things could change based on what happens with the Lakers in the offseason.

"The makeup of the team right now is just not clear enough for us to drop Kobe in and say, 'This is what we expect. Can you do it?'" Kupchak said. "We have to wait until the first couple weeks of July."

By then, the task at hand for Bryant will increase from physical rehab to free agent recruitment. Whether that involves names like Rajon Rondo and Kevin Love remains to be seen.

"We can get better quickly," Kupchak told ESPN's Baxter Holmes. "We can be in the hunt quickly. A lot depends on May 19 and how we end up with the lottery, the draft and the period leading up to the free-agent period, which is July 1."