LOS ANGELES — Here’s one thing Byron Scott has accomplished.
He has left no question about it, and it’s good to know: Kobe Bryant no longer can do everything and be everything for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Chalk it up to Bryant’s career mileage, sure, but consider this, too: Bryant never really had a chance to show if he still had it.
That might sound crazy considering Bryant’s league-high 35.8 usage percentage (Russell Westbrook's is higher, but he has barely played half of Oklahoma City’s games) and 37.2 shooting percentage.
Because of how his coach over-trusted and overused him, Bryant never got to ramp himself up for all to see what would’ve been his peak performance—and therefore the Lakers’ peak performance.
By building a team that was all about Bryant, asking him to do more than he was ready for, and casting him in the role of leading man based on past history instead of current reality, Scott guaranteed that Bryant would falter.
I mean, it's the point where the club knows the team not gonna reach the playoffs. this kid shown potential in training. tonight in the win against GS his shots werent falling but you could see he has game. and you could see in his eyes he is absorbing everything around him.
he is one of the players who will be here next year, so why not playing him more minutes. if Price and Elington are hot like tonight so it's ok, but i would like to see what this kid can do with CONFIDENCE.
