Byron Scott's Kobe Bryant Plan Leaving Los Angeles Lakers In Dangerous Position - Kevin Ding Article

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.

So the Lakers played at Staples Center on Tuesday night, and Bryant didn’t. Like an old uncle too tired to leave the house, Bryant stayed home, no helicopter powerful enough to lift those weary bones up.

Bryant has been so bad and slow recently that even Scott’s blind spot couldn’t miss it.

Scott said he will consider resting Bryant for more games—in addition to cutting back on his 35.4 minutes per game as “the next step.” After separate consultations with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and trainer Gary Vitti, Scott decided to give Bryant this break. The goal, Scott said, is not to "wear him completely out."

When Scott told Bryant about perhaps sitting him out, Bryant’s reply to Scott was: “Whatever you want to do.”

That’s a veritable cry for help from a control freak and achiever such as Bryant.

Scott got a graphic look at what it looks like to empower a whole team instead of a single superstar with the Lakers delivering intensity and teamwork en route to a season-high 22-point lead through three quarters against the previously 23-3 Golden State Warriors. (For the record, it was the second night of a back-to-back set and a look-ahead trap before Christmas for a Golden State team overdue for letdown without defensive anchor Andrew Bogut.)

Just one victory, but let's see if it moves Scott to build a team instead of a shrine to Kobe.

The Lakers actually had played similarly well with Bryant low on energy early in their last home game—before Bryant missed at the buzzer in a 104-103 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The share-the-wealth way is how teams should play at home—where role players feel more comfortable with all the fan support—but the Lakers have leaned on Bryant here, there and everywhere.

Yes, Lakers ownership paid Bryant a league-high wage, but everyone except Scott knew that was a business decision as much as a basketball one. Everyone except Scott suspected Bryant couldn’t be the same: The guy is not just 36, not just in his 19th NBA season, not just coming off two major injuries, he has played more than 55,000 combined regular-season and playoff minutes (fourth in league history).

Then again…when last we left Bryant in his fully healthy mode pre-Achilles rupture, he was playing 45 minutes for Mike D’Antoni against the Warriors—after playing 48, 41, 47, 43, 47 and 48 in the preceding games. The Lakers went 6-1 in a stretch that feels like forever ago but was actually only a little more than a year-and-a-half ago.

Bryant proved then in pushing the Lakers successfully to a playoff berth in their lone Dwight Howard season that Bryant could play outsized minutes, dominate the ball and win.

That was D’Antoni riding a style that he didn’t prefer but was winning. Scott invested in something from the start—and stuck with it, despite red flags that Bryant even uncharacteristically offered up himself—until Bryant wilted.

More than a month ago, I used the word “unhealthy” to describe what Scott had made his relationship with Bryant. He needs coaching; everybody does. Scott was coming in with a unique opportunity, a voice that Bryant inherently respected as a Lakers legend who was his mentor as a rookie.

But Scott didn’t come to Bryant now as his coach—with broader vision, honest dialogue or clear authority.

Without that assistance, Bryant tried and tried and tried.

And now we know he failed.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ving-los-angeles-lakers-in-dangerous-position

 

My avatar says it all. I am a Lakers fan forever but our superstars are what has made the "Lakers" what they are. That said I still can't believe what I saw Kobe do in the 4th quarter against Sacramento. Come back into a game we were winning in the 4th quarter and go out of his freaking gourd with hero ball at a time we certainly did not need it, especially with him bricking shots this past couple of weeks like never in his career, and lose that game for us. That was on Kobe, period, not Byron. Byron might have worn him out but gawdammit Kobe has to be smarter than that with a lot more self control.....

 

I was starting to think I was the only who though this. I like how the team played last night, but folks are getting more than a little bit carried away with this.

 

yeah, man...talk about letting management off the hook. I think management hired scott because they knew he wouldn't piss kobe off. and he hasn't, and they suck.

 

Fault trickles from management, to coaching, to players. Management should've known, Byron should've known, Kobe should know what his limitations are... He's not 25 anymore, he's a 36 year old who is being run to the ground. Management knew it, Byron knew it, Kobe knew it. Say something, do something, anything really.