Kobe probably isn’t the reason free agents aren’t coming to Lakers. If the Lakers were a better overall team players would come.
But, the fact Lakers aren’t good and Kobe is still there, free agents are just going elsewhere. It is more of Kobe’s presence on a bad team than Kobe himself.
Something Matt Barnes confirms in this quote to SI.
“The reason people don’t want to go to the Lakers is because of management,” Barnes tells SI.com. “Kobe can be the scapegoat all they want but if you play hard, Kobe likes you. And if you bulls— around, he doesn’t. It’s plain and simple. He’s not a vocal leader. He just expects you to play as hard as you can every minute on the court, like he does.”
Matt Barnes played with Kobe when he still in his prime and the Lakers were at least competitive, the same can’t be said today.