If it's any consolation to anyone I have spent some time watching the video of Kobe's injury and it does look like his injury is really low on his Achilles and close to the attachment point.
If so that would mean the surgeon can go in, remove a small amount of the torn ends (just to clean it up in there) and reattach at his heal. This usually is done by overlapping the ends of the tendon and sewing them together and in some situations the tear is low enough that the surgeon is able to attach directly over the existing attachment point so the scar tissue winds up encapsulating the tendon and the bone a bit.
* my tear was approx 3 inches above attachment point and is a much longer recovery process. But I don't play for the Lakers so it's all good. My career of being a dad isn't over. I will update Twitter soon, thanks for all the support*
His tendon will be a bit shorter for sure but the lower the injury occurs the better the recovery. Add in the wonders of science and I think you will see a good basketball player again.
I am making an attempt at an educated opinion here. It is just an opinion but I consulted with a NHL player and a national level high jumper in the past and now have my own issues so I have a bit of experience with the process.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall to see his recovery process. The blood plasma stuff that athletes are doing now alone could make a significant difference to his recovery. The biggest issue with the Achilles tendon is it has such a limited blood supply. After the first five to seven days of injury the blood supply starts dropping back to a normal level and that benefit to the healing process is gone. And then you have HGH and it's healing properties. I wish I could get my hands on some of that right now.
* my guess is that the NBA doesn't do any HGH testing until Kobe retires.
A full rupture of the achilles. He'll be back but he'll never be the Kobe we saw.
I honestly think that we may be about to see the best Achilles recovery in the history of the world.