20 Pre-Season Questions: #18 – Does Kobe Really Have Too Much Mileage?

As we rev up for what is sure to be an exciting title defense season for the Los Angeles Lakers, there are still some questions that need answering before the season starts.  Time to play 20 questions with the Lakers and their pre-season prognosis for the 2009-2010 season.

Question #18: The Laker-hating media’s latest salvo against Kobe Bryant is that he is on the verge of a physical breakdown after playing so many games in his career.  Does that argument have any merit or is it just the latest false chink in Kobe’s armor his detractors have conjured up in hopes of finally seeing him fail?

Kobe tired?  Say it ain’t so!

Yes, it is true.  Kobe is now 31 years old and has played in 1123 NBA games, including the playoffs, as well as several dozen games worth of international competition.  That is a lot of miles for anyone player to rack no matter how gifted he is.  Even Kobe himself recently admitted that he very much needed to take it easy this summer just so he could get recharged for the coming season.

Though diehard Laker fans would certainly hate to admit it, there is actually some real merit to these concerns.  The numbers from Kobe’s 2008-2009 campaign certainly hint at a decline forthcoming.  His scoring average of 26.8 points per game is his lowest in five years and his 6.9 free-throws attempted per game was his lowest average this century.  Those stats certainly speak to a guy who either can’t get in the lane as easily anymore or perhaps is too scared to for fear of fatigue or injury.  While Kobe has always been in phenomenal shape, he isn’t exactly a big guy, by NBA standards.  He is listed at 6′6″ and 205 lbs and probably generously so on both counts.  That gives him a pretty slender frame that may not be able to take much more of a beating unlike LeBron James types who are built like tanks and can get hacked twenty times a game with few ill effects.

As Kobe’s body slowly decays he just isn’t going to be able to do all the amazing things he used to do.  Good thing for the Lakers that Kobe is too smart to let that get him down.  Ever the student of Michael Jordan, Kobe continues to refine his game every single year.  Instead of careening through the paint every possession, Kobe has mixed in a killer mid-range and short-range shooting game that has proven every bit as effective.  He even went so far as to take some tutoring sessions from Hakeem Olajuwon recently in order to add a post-up game to his already impressive repertoire of offensive skills.  This isn’t a guy who is just going to let Father Time ravage the end of his career.

Does this look like a washed up player to you?

Final Answer: A lot of “experts” are going to look pretty stupid for calling such an early demise to Kobe’s greatness when he once again is a top vote-getter for MVP, if he doesn’t just win the damn thing himself.  A very overlooked aspect of the Ron Artest signing is that Kobe will now have an elite defender next to him on the wing on a nightly basis who can handle more physical perimeter players, which wasn’t always the case with Trevor Ariza by his side.  Kobe’s reign of supremacy will come to an end someday, but the combination of his own smarts and all the help he has on the roster makes it incredibly unlikely that someday will come this year.

Tags: Analysis, Kobe Bryant, pre-season, Ron Artest