Los Angeles Lakers: This Summer Can’t Be About Kobe Bryant

The Evolving Role of Kobe Bryant

Let’s go ahead and assume that Kobe doesn’t suffer another major injury next season. What is his role on the 2015-16 Los Angeles Lakers?

He’s clearly not the same player he was before the Achilles tear; the 2014-15 season was one of Kobe’s worst from an efficiency perspective when considering his 37.3 percent field goal shooting on 20.4 shots per game. The simultaneously sobering and obvious news that Kobe Bryant can no longer carry the Lakers on his back should have settled in for everyone.

Count Jamaal Wilkes as one that sees Kobe’s role in question as the team moves forward, per The Sporting News.

"“It’s very different,” Wilkes told Sporting News. “He has very little help, and I’m sure he feels like it’s all on him because it has been for the last 18, 19 years. And I’m sure he doesn’t know what to expect from himself or what his body can give him now. But it’s clear that he’s near the end. He’s in the last year of his contract. But physically, he just can’t carry the group more.”"

The key in this quote is “he has very little help”. It sounds like Wilkes assumes that the Lakers should be building their offensive approach totally around Kobe Bryant.

Instead, Kobe should be the one focused on becoming that help — something that he’s shown that he’s capable of doing as recently as this season.

Kobe: The Facilitator can be just as fun as Kobe: The Scoring Champ. A Bryant that chooses to pick his spots and focus on being a passer could be an extremely useful piece on the 2015-16 Lakers — and beyond — an idea that was brought up earlier this week by Silver Screen and Roll’s Trevor Lane:

"While re-wiring his DNA from scorer into an assist machine would be an incredible challenge and unlikely to ever fully come to fruition, putting more of a focus on finding open teammates could conceivably put a little more sand in Kobe’s hour glass."

An idea that is intriguing is using Kobe a bit like the Spurs use Manu Ginobili. Zach Lowe mentioned this concept briefly on a recent podcast in a discussion to how the Heat will use Dwyane Wade next season, and I believe it can apply to the Lakers legend also.

Paul Pierce is another player that has given Kobe a blueprint into how to effectively go from star to high-quality role player. If he can make this sort of transition, he could see his career take an interesting new turn.

The Lakers would probably continue to start Bryant — knocking some of the Ginobili out of this type of plan — but it would be interesting to see the team use Kobe as a playmaking 2-guard with monitored minutes. Keeping Bryant fresh (and healthy) for the most crucial segments in games is the end goal for a strategy like this, even if it means playing 25-30 minutes a night.

The time has come for the Lakers to make decisions with the mentality that Kobe Bryant is a complimentary piece. While the statement sounds almost sacrilegious, it’s the truth about moving on, and the Lakers will need to build for the future with Kobe being year-to-year at best.

Understanding that Kobe Bryant is not going to carry this team any longer is an important step to making this summer an impactful one, allowing the team to make moves that would bring the most benefit over the long-haul.

Next: Surviving The Post-Kobe Landscape