Kobe Bryant is still leading in the All-Star voting, a distraction from the mess the Los Angeles Lakers still are.
Because fans are fans, Kobe Bryant has over 300,000 votes on Stephen Curry for this year’s All-Star Game, despite the fact he’s shooting 34.8 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from three-point range. This isn’t too surprising considering he’s made it the last two seasons despite playing a total of 41 games.
This in itself, isn’t a big deal, but it’s OK to point out he doesn’t deserve it either. Nor should anyone be talking about the “sanctity of the game” because of it. It is an exhibition game, and ultimately it doesn’t matter. Save the pitchforks and torches for if he makes an All-NBA Team.
But while that stretch of games where Kobe was actually playing well broke up the narrative of his final season just being a sad calamity, this season is still a sad calamity for the Los Angeles Lakers organization.
Kobe’s basically running the organization at the moment as there is no other explanation for why it seems developing young players has been sacrificed for a going away tour for the Lakers legend. Byron Scott may be the coach, but the whole season has been a weird game of chicken where management and he decide how badly he can run the team before one side admits their wrong and fires him.
Maybe it’s wrong to put it all on Scott, but one question that has dogged him all season is if he’s if he’s burying young players for the sake of it young players for the sake of it.
It is never good when a former player, in this case, Stephen Jackson, directly addresses your players and how they should deal with their coach.
"“D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle, do not pay attention to Byron Scott,” Jackson said. “I made the Rookie All-Star Game … and after the break he didn’t play me no more. He is the worst communicator for young guys. I would not advise a young player to even listen to Scott because he is the worst coach at communicating with young guys, and I’m living proof.”"
Jackson may not be the usual voice of reason, but still, when he says that and no one is really questioning it, you probably should be at least mildly concerned.
Here is a summary of the franchise the past few seasons, as everyone seems to be telling each other everything is OK and that the aura around the Lakers will shield them from long-term problems:
This would be great if this was some elaborate prank by the Buss family, fooling us all and saying “Did you really think we could drive this legendary franchise into the ground that badly?” But it seems they are.
Their first meeting with LaMarcus Aldridge played out like a bad joke, and they didn’t even seem to have a real chance to land Paul George when his last contract was running out. It was funny because those reports that PG didn’t want to be parented by Kobe prompted Jeanie Buss to give the following comment.
"“Any free agent that would be afraid to play with Kobe Bryant is probably a loser, and I’m glad they wouldn’t come to the team,” Buss said during a “SportsCenter” interview Thursday. Buss was responding to a story in ESPN The Magazine in which anonymous player agents and others said that the team failed to attract big-name free agents because they don’t want to play with Bryant."
One player not coming wouldn’t mean much, two isn’t the biggest deal, but it seems to be a trend right now and that’s because the Lakers are losers. Not losers in the petty Donald Trump insult sort of way, but in the literal sense they are 8-29 this season and haven’t won more than 30 games in the last two. They’ve put together a bad basketball team as of late, and though injuries haven’t helped, they’d likely be in a better spot if they had George or Aldridge, or had kept Dwight Howard around.
There are signs of hope here and there, like last night where some of the younger parts of the team helped rally back against the Sacramento Kings, but they ultimately fell 118-115.
The Lakers are bad right now, and Kobe’s retirement isn’t going to fix things entirely. There will be more money to spend, but until they get away from the way they are currently running the team they aren’t going to be that special team they think they are.
Gobert is Back
After missing the month of December, Rudy Gobert returned from his MCL injury to score six points on 3 of 4 shooting. He only played 15 minutes in the Utah Jazz’s 103-94 loss to the Houston Rockets, but having him back puts his team a step closer to sneaking into the playoffs in the West.
Maybe the return could have been perfect with a win, but James Harden dropping 33 points spoiled that idea.
Would A Timofey Mozgov Trade Open The Floodgates?
Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears is reporting that the rest of the NBA is interested in Cleveland Cavaliers center Timofey Mozgov after coach David Blatt has taken him out of the starting lineup in favor of Tristan Thompson.
A Mozgov trade might be the first domino needed to start what has been a quiet season for trades. There have only been two trades since opening night: Ish Smith from the Pelicans to the 76ers for draft picks and Mario Chalmers being traded to the Memphis Grizzles.
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While it seems more likely that the Cavaliers would want to hold on to Mozgov for injury concerns and the fact he’s still a great rim protector (opponents are shooting 45 percent), you can’t assume they wouldn’t trade him for the right package. The Cavaliers are only going to be judged by whether they win a championship or not, so it may be hard for them to stand pat with Mozgov’s expiring contract as a possible trade chip.