"James Harden sucks" https://www.yahoo.com/sports/kobe-b...an-terms-winning-championships-024448005.html Kobe (probably) #amidoingitright?
Stephen A pointed out this morning that Kobe’s words were more of a criticism of ‘Antoni than Harden, because this is what ‘Antoni did to Kobe and ran him into the ground. Kobe is correct though, you can’t use one player like this and win titles. The Lakers traded for Pau and got s decent bench in 2008-2009 and Kobe was able to finally able to share the ball more and that led to us winning. Before that he was playing the Harden role (without the ref help) and it got us first round exits.
The Rockets tried to just let Harden set up in front of the defense the last year and run pick and rolls. It caused the Warriors some troubles due to their switch heavy defense, but eventually they countered it by developing the idea of scram switching. It's actually an "anti-D'Antoni" offense so to speak, and D'Antoni created the 21 series (essentially a modification of the Triangle) which most modern offenses (including GSW) are in some way based off. These types of offenses stress ball movement to create cracks in the defense that can be exploited. Kobe is speaking from experience. He tried to beat many teams like this back in the day and they just zoned up on him (Suns, C Bags, etc). He didn't quite benefit from the 5-out spacing Harden has today, but better teams can counter it if they know what's coming.
He did call out Bynum, “trade his a**”. Though Bynum did come back and showed leaps and bounds of improvement afterwards.
The biggest difference is Kobe would’ve went to these guy’s faces and said the following: Lonzo- “You can’t lead if you can’t shoot free throws. M_____r F_____r do better. And tell your daddy to stfu or I will.” Kuz- “You have a nice game, but your defense and rebounding is s__t.” Ingram- “Nobody is pounding the rock to close out the shot clock but me. M_____r F_____r move without the ball and I’ll find you.” Instead we’re stuck with a passive aggressive douche who smiles in their faces and pretends to be their buddy, all the while plotting against them behind their backs.