Kobe is our advertisement to the league as far as attracting players till he leaves. Playing him so recklessly and stupidly (outside of a team concept) makes him look done. He is not done, but as discussed his role as a 40 minute God who can come back from any adversity on a back to back is gone. Kobe needs hours to prepare for games, when he put 81 on the Raptors he just needed a pizza. When a free agent sees Kobe play they see missed game winners and no first step. They may not see the bigger pictures that fans who watch every game do. The message sent is that the coach will not trust you, and you will spend a couple of years not having the big moments chances you are capable of elsewhere. Why should an A player want a part of this? I know that Kobe would step aside for the correct player (but in his mind their may only be about 3-4 players in the league he trusts now to do this). In a perverse sense watching Kobe last night I felt the Kobe I was watching was the Kobe Dwight Howard saw in his mind. (and I hate Dwight) He saw a player just could not do it anymore who was taking opportunity from the team. Not that Kobe had that bad or selfish a game, but being forced to do too much is making him play far below what I think is a still valuable contribution to the team. Nobody would want to play with this Kobe, the Kobe Scott's minutes and lack of planning are forcing him into becoming. The pump fake Kobe. They may not see his great passes. Perception is reality, and I feel we are doing a lot of damage by not putting more emphasis on our team basketball. Kobe is no longer the universal remote that can stop, start, speed up and reverse any problem.
Kobe wants the ball in those situations. He's not going to play any differently because he sees himself as the closer. He always says it's his job to do that, which to me seems increasingly like an excuse. He's just not getting it done and it's painfully obvious against the current elite players.
I'd only trust Kobe in the last few minutes of the game too but he's not effective at that point now because Byron has played him into exhaustation the entire game already. If Kobe had more rest and less playing time then I firmly believe that he can still be effective in the clutch.
He's just shooting too poorly, often at the start of games too. If he can't get to the rim and at least draw fouls his clutch value is severely diminished. He's not explosive enough anymore. He's not going to consistently hit a jumper with one or two guys all over him and everyone knows where the ball is going in those situations. It's not like we can sit him more than a few minutes. If he needs to sit then he has to tell Byron... No shame at all. I honestly wonder in his own mind if he would even want to play if he feels like he can't do it in the clutch anymore. He made some comment a while back about not wanting to play if he could only score 19 a night (referring to paul pierce). Well he might be scoring more than that on average at the moment but I fear this level of play in the clutch isn't good enough for him.
^ I think Kobe's problems in the clutch are directly tied to him having to exert too much energy throughout the game. He's simply just exhausted after 48 minutes. It's been the same problem all season. We need to find a way to get him the ball in positions to exert less energy. At this point, I'm not sure we'll solve that this season.
Well the team looked pretty darn good against the Spurs and Thunder. Kobe offensively looked below average to poor in those two games. Rest of the guys were involved. Then against the Thunder Kobe got the ball in the last two mins, turned the ball over once, hit one difficult shot and missed the last. . So either you stick with what's working, including in the last two minutes or you let Kobe dominate the ball. It's not like Kobe's had a great career playing off the ball. If it were that simple, Byron would prob do it. But Kobe would have to be much more active off the ball. It seems that either he doesn't want to play that way or it's not that easy. I dunno. Wish they could figure it out.
This isn't how I want to see Kobe go out, shooting 38% overall, 27% from 3. I can't help but think he's being used so wrong. Guys don't forget how to shoot, Kobe can still shoot, might be time to try and get him easier shots if possible. I mean yeah, he gets his points, 25 tonight, but it shouldn't take 30 shots.
I think Nick Young needs to play more of Kobe's minutes simply because he's younger and has shown he can score, create for himself and hit timely shots. Kobe doesn't need to blow his legs out for this crap team.
Byron will soon "kill" Kobe, easy shots or not. On the other hand, Kobe has a "gift" in turning easy jumpshots into a fadeaway, pumpfake to death nightmare...
Haven't read anyone else yet and just finished the game on time shift. Please tell me I didn't see what I thought I saw .... a game in which Nick Young was again playing well and we were leading in the fourth quarter..... and Kobe came back in, lost his mind, played hero ball, lost the ball numerous times and lost the game. WTF?
Judging from everybody's reaction and not having watched the game, Kobe was awful tonight; oh, well. Keep chucking, Kobe. I'll just consider you jumping on Team Tank. Get us to Lotto Balls, Mamba!!
I love Kobe and have an incredible amount of respect for him. He has earned the right to shoot awful, even for an entire season or the rest of his career. There is no denying that he is good damn awful right now offensively. He can't hit the broadside of a barn right now. He would probably miss the sea if he jumps off of a bridge. The only thing that irritates me a little bit is why he continues to shoot 308769364 times a game if he realizes that his legs aren't responding. I'm just disappointed that he doesn't accept that he is not the same player anymore and needs to adjust. But its not like the Lakers are going anywhere, even if Kobe would be in the middle of his prime so at the end the pain is rather mild.
Just one word...painfull, that how i felt last night watching game... The higlight was kobe pumpfaking 5 times,geting blocked( i dont care if he was fouled,he shouldnt be taking those kind of shots,specialy after missing 10 shots in the row) and easy basket on other side,i blame kobe for same thing i blame wes,trying to do much more than he is capable,a thing i blame scott...he has no balls to bench kobe and give him some rest,or to make same plays,where kobe doesnt need to drag ball over whole court...he is terrible as mike brown,minute wise,plus kobe wasnt then coming of achilies injury...it just shows how weak coach he is,i am realy starting to feel he was only picked to be kobe buddy....
I don't know why anybody would be surprised ... stubborness becomes stupidity while getting older ... Kobe can't accept he's nowhere near the player he once was and he doesn't care about embarrassing himself because we ( others players , fans , journalists) are stupid and don't have 5 rings ...
e tan e epi tas! http://cdn1.shop.tactical****.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/i/with_20your_20shield_original.jpg
60% Byron's crappy coaching, offense and his need for Kobe to be on the floor at all times. 40% Kobe not knowing when to stop Can't argue with that as I felt the same way the last couple of games. Other team scores, Kobe gets ball, brings it up, iso, contested J, miss, other team scores, Kobe gets ball, brings it up, iso, contested J, miss.......
