Watching Bynum and Gasol in the playoffs, I don't blame Kobe for not trusting them.

Looks like I was a little optimistic. According to a quick analysis, if he:
takes 2 fewer threes and 3 fewer twos
gets his 3PT to 40% and 2PT to 50% (solid numbers for NBA guards)
his FTs consequently drop from 7.8 to 6 attempts per game
his scoring would drop from 27.8 to 23.7

That's a 4 point drop in scoring, which would have put him at 5th in the league in scoring, while probably making his team better.


If I'm bored this evening I'll do a more detailed analysis focused on points per possession, but I doubt I'll get around to it.

Ulrich you're spot on. Kobe has basically morphed into a taller Allen Iverson. I guy who throws up a ton of shots and doesn't do much else.

The Bulls should try to acquire Kobe. He would fit in well on that team. Lots of shots to go around since DRose is the only offense they have and he is out for a year.

You absolutely do not trade Kobe nor amnesty him. If he takes hard shots, its because everyone else can't make shots when it matters. The field goal percentage of both big men was below 50% for the OKC series. OKC's big men were nowhere near as talented as Gasol and Bynum but Gasol/Bynum were constantly being beaten to the offensive glass and were pushed around in the paint.

The guy has put up consistent numbers and is one of the smartest basketball minds in the game. But he can't play coach/motivator/shot clock beater all the game. At some point in the game, you need to have enough confidence to make sound decisions when the game is on the line (looking at you Gasol, Game 4). Game 2, Blake defers to Kobe at the corner of floor (which you're taught never to do because you essentially have 3 defenders) and throws the ball away.

[I think to myself this is Reason #1 as to why you shouldn't have let Fisher go. For that one possession where Blake threw the ball away trying to give it to Kobe. Fisher would have gone the other way and try to make something happen.]

For everyone who says that Metta is crazy. Hear his exit interview, the guy is right on about his comments that their teammates watch Kobe play instead of trying to help him. He's also right in saying that they'd be getting ready for Game 6 instead of being at home because they had 2 games in the bag.

The Lakers don't need to get rid of Kobe, they need to get tough minded professional players who are confident in their ability to make the right decisions when the game is on the line with or without Kobe.

I think Kobe has a big part in keeping these guys from exhibiting confidence. Gasol has been a top tier player in the league for several years now and was a vital part of two titles, but now all they run for him are pick and pops. Bynum has all the talent in the world, but shuts down when he doesn't get touches. Neither of them gets to touch the ball late in the game. Give these guys responsibility and they'll get their confidence back and make plays.

Unfortunately, Kobe would rather iso and clank a contested 3 from 4 feet behind the arc in the last minute than move the ball around to generate a good look. Of course everyone stands around and watches, what else can they do, go steal the ball from Kobe?

That team should be impossible to guard late, but they don't make anyone defend the whole court.

^
Agreed.

At the risk of sounding kind of preachy, it's management strategy. Managers that try to do everything themselves end up with poorly performing subordinates. The subordinates don't get any real responsibility so they end up watching instead of doing, don't learn new skills, lose confidence because they don't believe that their manager trusts them, and the manager spreads himself too thin so that he can't perform his job well. That's in a hundred books about management/leadership.

Kobe is not technically the "manager" of the team, but because of his talent and personality he fills that role on the court and is definitely the team leader. His leadership style is destructive in spite of his superior talent.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 5/23/2012 3:34p).]

If Kobe is so smart, and if he truly cared about only doing what gave his team the best chance of winning a championship, regardless of what it did to his numbers/image/legacy/etc., then he would have used the regular season to establish Gasol and Bynum as the primary guys on offense, get them 35-40 shots/game, and work off of them only getting around 15 higher quality shots/game for himself. He would have committed to pounding the ball down low in 4th quarters to get their confidence and reps up and played off of them and let Gasol/Bynum do the heavy lifting. That would have been great leadership and self-sacrifice for the good of the team, and it would have kept him fresher and extended his career like what Duncan has been doing.

But those are not qualities that Kobe possesses, and that's not what he did. Kobe spent the entire year jacking up shots trying to keep his numbers up and chase the scoring title and Kareem's record. He is like Iverson. Yeah he wants to win, but he wants to win his way. He wants to take the most shots and score all the points, because he's obsessed with trying to be like Jordan, and he's created his own self-fulfilling prophecy where I'm the Closer, I'm this generation's Jordan, so he goes into Hero Mode unnecessarily, destroys everyone's continuity and flow, hogs every 4th Q shot, shoots impossible fadeaways, then points the finger and blames everyone else when it doesn't work so that it fits the narrative that he wants people to write about him. He's not a leader, he doesn't inspire or make teammates better, and those are his biggest deficiencies and why the lakers are done contending for championships as long as he's suiting up. There's a reason Phil walked away from Kobe twice and wrote what he did in his book.

quote:

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Kobe has basically morphed into a taller Allen Iverson. I guy who throws up a ton of shots and doesn't do much else.

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I seriously, seriously question the amount of basketball you watch.

Is there a better pf/c combo in the nba then what kobe gets to play with?


Add in world peace, and it is easily one of the top frontlines that he is playing with.

quote:

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I seriously, seriously question the amount of basketball you watch.

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And I seriously question if you've watched an NBA game since 2008. Let's bring some facts to the table and take their per-game stats from their last 3 full seasons respectively and compare them. Maybe you can tell me what the difference is, because I can't see it:

Pts/Reb/Assists/FGA/FG%/3-PT%/FT%/ST

Player A: 26.6/5.3/4.8/21.3/44.7/31.9/82.7/1.32

Player B: 28.5/3.1/7.2/21.4/44.9/32.9/80.7/1.93

One of them is Kobe, the other is Iverson. Looks like the same player to me.

[This message has been edited by cdhaggie07 (edited 5/24/2012 7:42a).]

Yes, because stats are the end-all final determining factors on a player's worth and legacy.

Player A: 19.3 ppg, 7.6 apg, 3.0 rpg, 1.2 spg, .433 FG%, .325 3FG%, .784 FT%, started 816/846 career games

Player B: 16.8 ppg, 5.9 apg, 3.0 rpg, 1.0 spg, .492 FG%, .310 3FG%, .738 FT%, started 793/806 career games


Player B is Tony Parker.
Player A is Stephon Marbury.

Step away from Basketball-Reference.com and please watch some actual games. Oh yeah. GTFOH.

damn, i forgot how parker isnt that great of a foul shooter. let's hope okc notices that, too

[/random thought

Parker hit 80% for the year and is hitting 80% in the playoffs this year. He isn't Nash, but he is getting it done.

Since when is an 80% free throw shooter worth fouling?

It's worth it approximately 20% of the time

lots of words on this thread, but it all boils down to why there's such a gap between MJ and Kobe.

It's not about filling it up...it's about winning. MJ figured out a way to do it with scrubs like bill cartwright. Hilarious that Kobe can't get it done.

And Kobe won with scrubs like Shannon Brown

MJ is clearly better, but your choice of reason was odd.

[This message has been edited by BMX Bandit (edited 5/26/2012 7:14a).]

Guitar's post is spot on--it's not the years, it's the miles. And there's lots of miles on those legs. I'm not even sure if that includes Olympic minutes.

bmx, i'm too lazy to make a point well these days. i'm just trying to say mj consistently made his teammates better as he started to win...starting with the bill cartwrights of the world and on...

it's clear to me that when kobe "makes someone better", it's more of an excuse me assist than anything for the team. that whole mentality is why they are underperforming

Please

Jordan is the greatest player of all time, but not because he made his teammates better. He and Kobe are the same in that regard.

If you want a guy who made his teammates better, then Magic Johnson is your guy. Magic is the only player I've seen who could completely dominate a game without scoring a point.

It looks like Metta WP is making a statement about where he wants to play next year.




Probably had to be informed that there is now only 1 team in Canada.