Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant Should Stay The Course
It seems that Byron Scott doesn’t know exactly what he wants from Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant these days. After sitting the 36 year-old to rest his weary legs — undoubtedly in part to his absolutely miserable 37.7 field goal percentage — Bryant responded by facilitating more and limiting his shot attempts. As a result, he saw his percentage rise in the subsequent three games after sitting out the three before that.
In the three games he played heading into the Indiana game (vs. Phoenix, at Denver, vs. Memphis) the Lakers‘ record was a mere 1-2, but Bryant was dishing; he had assist totals of seven, 11, and eight in those games, respectively.
Kobe Bryant’s team was definitely more competitive, and it’s certainly more conducive for your teammates’ engagement when you are passing rather than continuing to hoist field goal attempts at a historic rate with historically bad efficiency.
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Now, when the Lakers are arguably playing their best ball of the season, Byron Scott calls for Kobe Bryant to look for his shot more often.
As a disclaimer, Scott is not pleading for Kobe Bryant to fire up shots with the reckless abandon we saw earlier in the season. Rather, he wants him to look to score a bit more throughout the game, drawing more attention to him as a scoring threat and further opening up shots for his teammates.
This thought, at least in theory, should make defenses have to play Kobe Bryant more as a scorer than the facilitator he’s played like since sitting out that string of games.
In reality, Kobe Bryant shooting more just to shoot is not going to help anybody. (Duh.)
Scott is wanting Bryant to take advantage of possible scoring chances more often. The problem is that you don’t need to publicly encourage Kobe Bryant to do so. He’s one of the greatest scorers of all-time; this guy scored 81 points in a single contest. If at the age of 36, in his 18th year in the league, he’s playing to take what the defense gives him then bless his heart.
At this stage, it’s been clear that a failure to reinvent himself is going to make his next season and a half of playing in the NBA a living hell. Is a premier free agent more likely to sign with the Lakers featuring a Bryant that clearly can’t score like he used to every night unless he chucks up 25+ shots to the tune of 38 percent shooting? Or would they rather play with the aging veteran who can now better effect a game by picking his spots?
Even if the answer is neither, you’d be hard pressed to convince anybody that even the mid-tier free agents would be excited about teaming up with that first guy. What Bryant is doing right now is working, and he should not try to fix something that is not yet broken. When it becomes ineffective, or if he’s clearly not taking advantageous scoring opportunities, that’s when Scott should approach Kobe Bryant and coach him on it.
Instead, he gave the media a quote that has blown up more than it needed to be, even if the context has been misconstrued. Even Byron Scott knows that Kobe Bryant must stay the course for the betterment of both the Los Angeles Lakers and the remainder of Bryant’s career.