Kobe Bryant is using a team-high 27.6 percent of the Los Angeles Lakers’ possessions. He leads the purple and gold in shots per-36 minutes with 18.5, and 45.1 percent of his field goal attempts have come from three-point range – an easy career-high mark. The future Hall of Famer has done little, if anything, to curb his ball-dominant ethos this season, basically, despite shooting statistics that make him one of the least efficient high-usage players in the league.
But don’t tell Bryant that. As the 37-year-old explained to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes following the Lakers’ loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, he’s making a concerted effort to hasten the development of youngsters like D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle by sharing the rock – though he knows he could put up huge numbers with ease.
“I’m just trying to help these young guys, honestly…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.”
[…]
“If I go off on [scoring] tangents individually, this whole thing is going to collapse more than it is, because you’re seeing signs of improvement throughout the course of the game, but I can’t go off on my own. I have to make sure I continue to teach, continue to talk to these guys and try to pull them along.”
Bryant’s 24-point season-high came during the opener on October 28th against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He shot 8-of-24 from the floor and 3-of-13 from three-point range in the loss to Sam Mitchell’s club, shooting struggles that would prove a harbinger of things to come over the first few weeks of 2015-16. The five-time champion has yet to make more than 46.7 percent of his shots in any game thus far, and has managed more points than field goal attempts on just three occasions.
Needless to say, Bryant doesn’t seem like a player capable of “going out there and scoring 25” – no matter that his incredible and unceasing confidence is telling him otherwise. But at least he’s not completely lacking self-awareness.
Can you remember the notoriously shot-happy superstar ever preaching ball movement? Bryant can’t either, and can’t believe he’s begun to do just that to his young Los Angeles teammates.
“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.”
Bryant’s performance this season hasn’t exactly been stellar. If this is his last NBA go around, his farewell tour certainly won’t be indicative of anything resembling his overall career. Well, except in terms of general playing style. Kobe is chucking just like always, whether he’s comfortable admitting it or not.
(Via ESPN)
