Kobe Bryant has become guy Lakers count on for ball movement. Yikes.

http://nba.nbcsports.com/2015/11/22/kobe-bryant-has-become-guy-lakers-count-on-for-ball-movement-yikes/







Kobe Bryant has become guy Lakers count on for ball movement. Yikes.


By Kurt Helin

Nov 22, 2015, 9:30 PM EST




Kobe Bryant is a smart and gifted passer. When he wants to be. We certainly have seen “facilitator Kobe” but he often comes at the expense of “scoring Kobe.” We get both in the same game, but rarely both at the same time — he is either thinking pass or shot. Usually shot. This season the Lakers assist ratio is up very slightly when Kobe is on the court, but the Lakers have the third fewest assists in the league period.

The Lakers’ offense is a lot of isolation and stagnation. So what is coach Byron Scott’s plan to fix it? From Shahan Ahmed of NBCLA.com.


Shahan Ahmed @shahanLA
Byron says he wants to get the ball into Kobe's hands a little bit more & wants him to be a facilitator.
4:50 PM - 22 Nov 2015
 2 2 Retweets   2 2 likes


So to be clear, the Lakers are going to take the ball out of rookie D'Angelo Russell‘s hands (and second-year guy Jordan Clarkson) so Kobe can help the Lakers win more games? Interesting player development system.

Kobe himself touched on the Lakers’ offensive challenges recently, saying with a laugh that if he is the poster child for ball movement this team is in trouble. Via Baxter Holmes of ESPN.

“I’m just trying to help these young guys, honestly,” Bryant said Friday after the Lakers’ 102-91 loss to the Toronto Raptors…. “I feel good enough that I could go out there and score 25 or something like that, but what the hell is that going to do for these guys? It’s not going to do a damn thing…..

“When I’ve become the voice of ‘ball-movement reason,’ you know you have an issue,” Bryant said. “I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be the one preaching that stuff. That’s crazy.

He added, “I can’t believe I’m saying this s—. Are you kidding me? Like a kid that grows up and just starts sounding like his parents.”

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2015-16 Los Angeles Lakers.



bob
MY NOTE:  We can bitch about how David Lee is playing and not Jordan Mickey, we can bitch about how IT starts when Smart or Bradley is out instead of Rozier and we can bitch about how we think Hunter should be getting more of Turner's minutes but this is just plain nucking futs.  They drafted a point guard.  What's more, they took him with the #2 pick.  When they drafted that point guard instead of behemoth Jahlil Okafur it was because, in the opinion of Head Coach Byron Scott, he had "point guard instincts similar to Magic Johnson".  Now, Scott is benching Russell regularly in the 4th quarter and wants a player that is on his last legs, cannot play back-to-backs and has never had "pass first" instincts" to run a motion offense instead of the kid that needs to get broken into that position specifically and why not this year since they aren't going anywhere anyway?

Anytime you get frustrated at how Brad isn't playing so-and-so as much as you would like, re-read this article and thank God you're a Celtic fan.

Sorry, TJ, but this is a total head shaker to me.  You watch more Laker games than me, maybe you can explain it so it can make sense...


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