Very few bad teams have ever gotten as much attention as this year’s Lakers team has.
Then again, very few bad teams have ever been the Lakers.
The arguments over whether Kobe Bryant should shoot as much as he does have gotten so fierce that they’ve been the impetus for a Twitter user driving all the way to Temecula on Christmas to fight another Twitter user (who never showed).
Needless to say, there’s been criticism of both Kobe and coach Byron Scott since before the season began. But Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com has a different take: Scott is the coach getting the most out of Kobe:
After Phil Jackson committed to New York for five years, the list of potential candidates that fit the criteria was beyond paper-thin. It began and ended with Scott.
No other coach the Lakers could have hired would have pulled off the “experiment” Scott is currently orchestrating with Bryant. After telling Bryant to take a week off and miss three games last week, he has reduced Bryant’s minutes to about 32 per game and has told him to sit out of most practices and shootarounds.
In Friday’s 109-106 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Bryant played 33 minutes and put up 15 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. It was the third straight game since Bryant’s return in which he has been in triple-double territory. (He recorded a triple-double on Tuesday in Denver with 23 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds.) The Lakers have also been in position to win all three games in the end but are just 1-2 in since Bryant’s return.
The Lakers, however, have been a more competitive team since Bryant’s return, with the Lakers’ two losses coming late against current playoff teams. Bryant has been more efficient, as well.
“It’s working well,” Scott said. “He seems to be well-rested. He’s feeling good. His body is feeling better. We got the minutes down to about 32 and that’s been working pretty well, so we’re just going to stick to it and see how it goes, but right now we’re happy with it and happy with the way he’s playing.”
It’s an interesting thought, for sure, but I think it strongly implies that the thinking in the Lakers’ front office was that what’s best for Kobe is best for the Lakers. Which, quite honestly, might be true, but there’s no other NBA team that could get away with it.
The rest of the latest news from around the NBA:
KOBE BLASTS AAU BALL
He’s far from the first, and he won’t be the last, but he’s one of the most prominent to claim that AAU ball is ruining the game. Lots more to look for in this piece, also from Markazi:
Bryant was quick to point the finger for the decline of skilled players in the United States.
“AAU basketball,” Bryant said. “Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It’s stupid. It doesn’t teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don’t know how to post. They don’t know the fundamentals of the game. It’s stupid.”
Bryant was born in Philadelphia, but when he was 6, his father, former NBA player Joe Bryant, moved the family to Italy to continue his playing career. Kobe spent his childhood in Europe until Joe retired in 1991 and moved the family back to the United States.
“When you have limitations and you understand your limitations and you stay within yourself, you can be great,” Kobe Bryant said. “You know what you can do and what you can’t do. In America, it’s a big problem for us because we’re not teaching players how to play all-around basketball. That’s why you have Pau and Marc [Gasol], and that’s the reason why 90 percent of the Spurs’ roster is European players, because they have more skill.”
EMEKA OKAFOR COULD POSTPONE COMEBACK
It’s crazy to me that a guy I watched attentively when he was in college is an aging veteran now. I guess this is growing up.
Veteran center Emeka Okafor, who is being tracked by numerous teams in search of frontcourt help, is giving strong consideration to delaying his comeback from a neck injury until next season, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that Okafor, who missed all of last season after suffering a herniated disk in his neck, is leaning toward waiting until the summer before committing to a new team to give himself more time to continue strength and conditioning work.
Okafor, 32, is “healthy,” according to one source, but is reluctant to rush back this season.
Sources say that numerous teams with a need for additional size and rim protection — Cleveland, Miami and Dallas among them — had interest in Okafor if he made himself available via free agency at some point this season as originally expected.
IS THE JOSH SMITH EFFECT REAL?
Tim Cato of SB Nation says it isn’t:
The four wins on this streak came against the Pacers, the Cavaliers, the Magic and Knicks — three teams with losing records and a fourth team that was missing Kyrie Irving at the time.
Still, the Pistons only had five wins in 28 tries before this streak, so it’s not just the competition. Let’s look at the two things Josh Smith is infamous for doing: taking terrible contested jumpers that he rarely makes and being a ball stopper on offense.
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The Pistons are also taking a fewer jumpers in the 16 to 24 feet range (from 12 a game to 10), which is a positive sign that could directly correlate to Smith’s absence. On the other hand, their 3-point attempts are way up, from 23 a game to 31. The big difference here is that the Pistons are making them now.
A better explanation for Detroit’s resurgence exists: the return of Jodie Meeks, a floor spacer the Pistons desperately needed. Meeks made his season debut on Dec. 12 and the Pistons are 6-4 since. They beat the Suns and the Kings before losing to the Clippers, Mavericks, Raptors and Nets. They’re scoring 11 more points per 100 possessions on offense in the 10 games since Meeks came back and Detroit has gone from a 48 to a 53 percent true shooting percentage.
Smith didn’t fit in Detroit and his absence is addition by subtraction. But the schedule and a healthy team are the principal reasons for the Pistons’ four-game winning streak.
TY LAWSON TALKED TO KEVIN DURANT ABOUT RETURNING TO DC
Does this whole KD-to-DC thing seem a little too perfect to anyone else? Like, a) LeBron just did the same thing, and does Durant want to be seen as copying LeBron? b) I’m a little skeptical Durant would leave OKC without a ring, and c) when he was coming out of high school, the buzz was that he wanted to get out of the area and never considered Maryland or Georgetown, the big DC-area basketball programs. In comparison, LeBron went #1 in the draft to his hometown Cavs, straight out of high school. KD’s never been as strongly associated with DC as LeBron was (and is) with Cleveland.
It does make sense for basketball reasons, though. But when was the last time basketball reasons came into it?
Ben Standig of CSN Washington:
Ty Lawson certainly thought about it. Lawson knows Kevin Durant has as well.
It being the idea of returning home for work. Not just for visits, but as primary residency. Home being the greater D.C. area for both NBA standouts. Work being employed by the Washington Wizards.
The point guard has a good thing going with the Denver Nuggets and is two seasons into a four-year extension. In addition, the Wizards are all good at Lawson’s position thanks to John Wall.
It’s rather clear that a welcome mat will exist in Chinatown for Durant in 2016. Whether the reigning NBA scoring champion wants to set up shop where truly everybody knows his name, we’ll see.
Lawson, who grew up playing basketball with Durant in the Maryland suburbs, has a good idea of the Oklahoma City Thunder star’s thinking. The Clinton, Maryland native knows we want to know. He also knows better than to break confidences.
“I’ve talked to him about it, but I probably can’t tell you what he said,” Lawson laughingly told CSNwashington.com when the Nuggets visited last month.