Kobe Bryant Discussion: Mamba Out!

This team is going to improve when he retires.

These retirement tours... My patience is waning with this crap.

Obviously 20 years in the making and we need to honor him, but he's just such a distraction at this point.

 

Guys it'll be sponsored by Nike and Gatorade.

 

And whoever makes chalk.

 

it's sad that I'm sick of watching Kobe go out there and play to the detriment of the team? To the detriment of the young players on our team?

I don't know the stats, but I'd guess that our most effective lineups all feature Randle/Russell and they're coming off the bench because of Kobe's farewell tour and Byron Scott.

 

Yeah it's nice to see, but I honestly don't care much anymore. Now we know basically that any time it's Kobe's last game in an arena, we're punting the game because it's all about Kobe's chance to do something and not the team's win. I'd much rather see him pass the ball to Julius or D'Angelo 100 times than see him shoot a contested jumper even if he makes it.

 

Although it's hard to say which lineups are the most effective, here are some stats with some random minimum requirements that I chose. Our best lineups in terms of +/-:

Code:

Bass,Brandon - Brown,Anthony - Clarkson,Jordan - Randle,Julius - Russell,D'Angelo        +3.4
Huertas,Marcelo - Randle,Julius - Russell,D'Angelo - Sacre,Robert - Young,Nick            +3.3
Bass,Brandon - Bryant,Kobe - Nance Jr.,Larry - Russell,D'Angelo - Williams,Lou            +3.2
Bass,Brandon - Randle,Julius - Russell,D'Angelo - Williams,Lou - Young,Nick                +2.7
Black,Tarik - Huertas,Marcelo - Nance Jr.,Larry - Williams,Lou - Young,Nick                +2.0

From that list, here is the tally:

Code:

D'Angelo Russell: 4

Brandon Bass:     3
Nick Young:       3
Julius Randle:    3
Lou Williams:     3

Larry Nance:      2
Marcelo Huertas:  2

Jordan Clarkson:  1
Anthony Brown:    1
Robert Sacre:     1
Tarik Black:      1
Kobe Bryant:      1

Basically, our best lineups frequently feature Russell. Bass, Young, Randle, and Lou also appear frequently. Kobe only appears once. Roy Hibbert is nowhere to be seen. Lol. I wish I could somehow ignore the last 3 minutes of the game because it's almost always garbage time for us, but not sure how to do that yet. Surprisingly, Clarkson only appeared once but...

Best on-court +/- for players that have at least played in 20+ games (half the season):

Code:

Marcelo Huertas     -1.7
Brandon Bass        -2.5
D'Angelo Russell    -8.9
Larry Nance         -9.1
Jordan Clarkson     -10.2
Julius Randle       -10.6
Lou Williams        -10.8
Nick Young          -11.2
Kobe Bryant         -13.1
Roy Hibbert         -13.4

Story is a little different here, but Kobe and Hibbert are still at the bottom. Russell is still at the top. Bass and is also impressive. Clarkson and Randle are basically average for this team.

 

The problem is that starting lineup which immediately puts us in a double-digit hole. That starting lineup of course features Kobe and Roy which is why their numbers are so similar. Huertas is only low because he only plays in garbage time when we either make up a little ground or play evenly for the last 12 minutes of the game.

In fact that last one tells me how effective Jordan REALLY is because he has to play with those starters and yet somehow comes out 3 points better than them.

 

Great video from West. I still miss him, come home Jerry.

 

This. Realdeal nailed it. The starting lineup has been garbage. Every single game we see the same thing - they go down by double digits every time. It's beyond annoying that Boron is stuck on it. I do like Kobe playing with the kids, Randle and Russell and Clarkson at times as well. Those are our best players and not surprisingly they look the best out their together. The guy who is really a question mark for me is Roy. He's just not pulling much weight out there at all. Both Bass and Black look better than he does.

 

I like Roy a lot, but boy he's been so disappointing. He's a cool guy and he's great with the kids, but he's just so ineffective I'm not sure it matters.