Kobe Needs to Spread the Wealth
December 15th, 2009 | by Garrett Wilson |Laker fans, listen up for a second. I need a volunteer. Who here wants to tell Kobe that he needs to hand over the keys to the Laker offense while his fractured finger heals up? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Alright, fine, I’ll do it.
If you’re hurting that bad, Kobe, it is time to ease off a little bit.
Kobe is one of the toughest customers the NBA has ever seen. But there is a big difference between being tough and being stupid. Tough is gutting out the next six weeks with a fractured finger on your shooting hand. Stupid is continuing to shoot at voluminous levels with said injury. Right now, Kobe is both tough and stupid and it cost them a game already this weekend (with an assist to the stomach flu). For as high a basketball IQ as Kobe has, he must know that he shouldn’t be taking more shots than any two other Lakers combined in any game while he deals with this finger problem. The Lakers have spent loads of money to surround Kobe Bryant with a wealth of talent and now it is time for Bryant to take full advantage of it.
This isn’t the Laker team from a few years ago that started Chris Mihm, Kwame Brown and Brian Cook 40+ games. This is the World Champion Lakers who have All-Star Pau Gasol, future All-Star Andrew Bynum and All-Star Ron Artest in the starting five. This is a defending championship roster that is so good that Lamar Odom has to come off the bench. Kobe may not want to hear this, but they don’t really need him to score 30+ points every game. This current roster actually has more scoring options than they know what to do with. Well, now it is time to figure that out.
On any other team, Pau Gasol wouldn’t just be a complementary piece, he’d probably be the whole damned offense. There are just a handful of players in the NBA that can score in the low post, the high post and with a mid-range jumper, not to mention pass the ball with such proficiency but Pau Gasol is one of those players and the Lakers are damned lucky to have him. While he was initially acquired to serve as the Robin to Kobe’s Batman, the Lakers need to recognize that the reason Batman ever hired Robin in the first place was to have his back if something went wrong. Kobe’s finger injury certainly falls under that category and the Lakers need to realize that and hand the Batmobile keys to Gasol for the next few weeks.
The Lakers need to look for a whole lot more of this.
It isn’t like Pau Gasol would be without assistance if he becomes the focal point of the offense for the next twenty or so games either. One of the overlooked aspects of Kobe’s offense is that he doesn’t just score, he also initiates the Laker offense a majority of the time. Replacing that would be hard for most teams, but the Lakers are lucky enough to have Lamar Odom. LO has already eschewed much of his scoring responsibilities this year in order to become the de facto point forward for the team. Where Kobe’s finger injury is really going to be a problem isn’t necessarily with his shot but rather his ability to control the ball while dribbling and trying to make crisp passes. Removing the point duties from Kobe’s long list of duties will allow him to focus on getting his scoring stroke on track and might even help his finger heal a little bit faster.
It would also server the Laker coaching staff well to remember why it is they upgraded from Trevor Ariza to Ron Artest. Not only is Ron-Ron a superior defender, but he is a more versatile offense threat. The Lakers simply haven’t asked him to do much on offense yet because they haven’t really needed it but it was always an option. Artest should now become the “in case of emergency, break glass” perimeter offense option for the Lakers. Kobe will probably look like his old self most nights, but as we have seen with his other finger injuries, they have a tendency to flare up. In the past, Kobe just had to suck it up and hope for the best but now he has the option of deferring Artest if it just isn’t working for him that night.
The trick now is just convincing Kobe to use all this wonderful talent around him. I suppose Phil Jackson could try asking him pretty please with cherries on top but a more direct approach is probably going to be needed. A boo-boo on his finger isn’t going to convince a rabid competitor like Kobe to step into the background for the next six weeks. In fact, it is probably only going to prompt him to dominate the ball even more just to prove how tough he is. As unpopular as it might be, if Kobe can’t step back on his own in the next two or three games and continues to disrupt the efficiency of the offense, Phil Jackson might have to break out the straight jacket and Hannibal Lecter mask and force Bryant to sit out a few games to both give his finger a chance to heal up and also prove to Kobe that the team can survive without him dominating at all times. It would certainly be an unpopular and controversial move but some lessons have to be learned the hard way. Just hope that Kobe’s stubbornness subsides and that it never has to come to that.
Tags: Analysis, Andrew Bynum, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest
By Nasim Azari on Dec 16, 2009
Kobe Deferring…….Really?
First of all, if Jackson or Kobe would have taken your advice tonight against the Chicago Bulls, they would have lost. Kobe came out tonight and made eight straight shots in the first quarter to keep the lackadaisical Lakers(including Mr. Robin Gasol) in the game against the struggling Bulls. Kobe had one really bad shooting night on Saturday against the Utah Jazz(7 – 24 from the field),however he is known to have bad shooting night’s broken finger or not. I agree the finger injury is hindering Bryant’s play a little. But to say Kobe should defer to his teammates because of his of bum finger, is ridiculous and unrealistic. The biggest part of Kobe’s greatness is his will to never back down and to always go in full attack mode when he’s out on the court. He’s not Randy Moss man, he’s the greatest competitor of all time! We all appreciate his greatness(last second fade away three against Dwayne Wade). So in turn we have to take his bad shooting nights or games of careless turnovers. In a time of lackluster players and guys who only perform well in contract years, I really appreciate Kobe’s will to compete every night despite how much pain he might be in. You think he should defer to Gasol because he is injured. That maybe, if he only has nine operating fingers he should become a facilitator to the other Laker stars. But that is not Kobe’s game, he’s a killer! He is not Lebron, he does not average 8.0 assists a game(He doesn’t dance on the sidelines or eat kid’s popcorn either, HAHA). Kobe Bryant is now third all time in having 40 point games, that’s just what he does man! It’s time to appreciate not hate. P.S. Gasol is not a great fourth quarter scorer, Kobe is and most of his shots the other night against the Jazz attempts to get the Lakers back in the game.
Thank you for your time.
By Garrett Wilson on Dec 16, 2009
Yeah, I admit, I missed the mark on this one. Kobe clearly isn’t as hurt as I thought he was. His struggles in Utah were evidently more due to his illness that game. I was never hating on Kobe, just hypothesizing that had Kobe actually been seriously affected by the finger injury that he would need to adjust his game for the good of the team rather than shoot them out of the game like he did in Utah. Quite clearly that won’t be necessary and I am exceedingly pleased that it isn’t. If it requires me to eat some crow, so be it.