Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers Finally on Verge of Finding Balanced Formula

Midway through a season more about soul-searching than substance, the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant have stumbled upon a formula that works, both now and in the long run.

Balance.

More pointedly, selfless balance.

Most of 2014-15 has been about Bryant’s march toward history—his pursuit and surpassing of Michael Jordan on the NBA‘s all-time scoring list, his unprecedented, self-shouldered workload, his defiant disregard for time and age and reality.

Bryant became a welcomed distraction for some, career-worst shooting percentages be damned. The Lakers aren’t contending for a playoff spot and have only a scant chance of retaining their first-round draft pick. Their most recent first-round prospect, Julius Randle, is done for the season. Steve Nash won’t log a minute in 2014-15, either.

Watching Bryant rail against circumstance, simultaneously trying to drum up his stat lines and shoot the Lakers to victory on his own, at 36 years old, was in many ways a respite from dismal times. But it was also a sign of the times, and a reminder that Bryant is now incapable of carrying a collective on his own.

Both the offense and defense were worlds better in the 354 minutes Bryant spent on the bench through the Lakers’ first 27 games, according to NBA.com (subscription required). In the end, then, they would be working an ebbing Bryant tooth and nail without any silver linings to admire.

If anything of value was to be gleaned from this season, if it was to be about more than absolute futility, something would need to change. While Bryant sat out for three games, it became clear that something was him.

The Lakers were only 1-2 in his absence, but they played freely, moving the ball in volume, resembling an actual team. It was a different brand of basketball, and one that allowed others to forge an identity outside Bryant.

To his credit, Bryant hasn’t messed with that vibe since returning. There has been marked change in the way he’s approaching offense. He’s not trying to blow by every defender, and he’s deferring more often not.

After attempting fewer than 12 shots just once all season, Bryant has jacked up no more than 11 in each of the last two games. He’s also handed out a total of 18 assists during that time, including 11 en route to his 21st career triple-double in the Lakers’ Tuesday night victory over the Denver Nuggets.

Though he is averaging just 35.7 passes per game on the season, he’s thrown out at least 52 in each of the last two. The Lakers, in turn, are passing more overall while having enjoyed two competitive tilts.

“I’m just trying to be more patient,” he said following Sunday’s loss to the Phoenix Suns, during which he took just 10 shots and amassed seven assists, per ESPN Los Angeles’ Arash Markazi. “The defense is loading up on me all over the place. It was probably better for me to be a little more assertive offensively. The defenses are loading up on me completely and there’s not much I can do without forcing it.”

Patience through passing is the only option at this point. Bryant’s three-game sabbatical acted as the ultimate wake-up call. The Lakers weren’t doing themselves any favors by playing him 35-plus minutes every night or having him register the highest usage rate of anyone aged 36 or older in NBA history.

That flagrant reliance on one player breeds discord. Surrounding players see that Bryant is beyond reproach and they lose confidence, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding writes:

While Bryant and Scott have been exchanging their private text messages this season deep into the wee hours, all these other players have been yearning to have their slumber disturbed and their numbers called. It’s not accurate to call this season a nightmare for them, because no one had any great expectations for any of these guys, but there’s no doubt that their frustrations have been real. …

Jeremy Lin, the only other Laker with an eight-figure salary, and thus the default voice of the downtrodden, has hinted at how hard it is to play in this system. In addition, Scott has put a premium on defense, which is good, but he hasn’t kept Bryant accountable on that end, which has been ruinous.

Riding Bryant into the ground makes sense if the Lakers are 10 games over .500 and playoff-bound. But they’re not. They’re on the fast track to an early vacation and—if Bryant’s three-game breather is any indication—burning out the very player they’re trying to preserve.

Prospective free agents won’t be wholly seduced by another 2,600-minute season from Bryant, after all. Not at his age.

Sure, it’s evidence that he’s healthy enough to play, but that’s assuming he even gets there. He needed to rest once; he could need to rest again.

Involving others in the offense—one that ranks 14th in points scored per 100 possessions—is a way of offering rest.

Remember, Bryant hasn’t evolved into some body-protecting, energy-conserving spot-up shooter. More than 67 percent of his made baskets have been self-created. So, the fewer shots he takes, the less energy he expends, the healthier he is by season’s end.

And ideal health has to be the goal as the Lakers try to wedge his title window back open. An already war-worn Bryant—who has logged north of 55,000 minutes (playoffs and regular season) to date—is of no use to the team as an on-court asset or free-agent selling point if his body deteriorates further.

That’s something the Lakers and Bryant have visibly addressed since his return. His minutes have topped out at a more palatable 32, and his on-ball craft hasn’t been as taxing. That he’s re-inspiring his teammates in the process is merely a bonus.

“It’s contagious,” Jeremy Lin said of Bryant’s play, per ESPN Los Angeles’ Baxter Holmes. “When the ball moves, it flows through everyone’s hands. That’s how it should be.”

Nick Young, Jordan Hill and Lin all attempted more shots than Bryant against Phoenix. Carlos Boozer hoisted more than Bryant against Denver, while Ronnie Price and Wesley Johnson nearly matched his attempts (11) with 10 apiece.

Opportunities have increased tenfold for everyone over the last five games. Johnson is averaging 14.8 points and shooting 46.4 percent from deep; Price is pumping in 11.8 points on 51.2 percent shooting; Wayne Ellington is approaching double figures (9.2 points) while draining 43.8 percent of his long balls; Boozer is tallying 15.4 points on 61 percent shooting; and Nick Young, while still his inefficient self, is throwing up more than 11 shots every night.

The results of this balance, as they pertain to Bryant, speak for themselves:

Two games is a spectacularly small sample size, to be certain. The Lakers’ hot shooting will inevitably subside, and there will be nights when Bryant resorts to firing away at will. Volume shooting is his trade—especially when facing large deficits.

But the length of these adjustments isn’t as important as the blueprint they leave behind. This is a style Bryant can sustain, if only because he must.

When the prematurely crowned superteam of 2012-13 was flailing and failing beneath egos, Bryant responded by becoming a point guard proxy, assisting on a then-career high 29.7 percent of baskets that came with him on the floor. And when he dished out at least six assists per game—his season average—those Lakers were a formidable 28-12.

While said shift will have a different impact on this lottery-lost version of the Lakers, it will be similar in spirit. This season’s team is already 6-6 when he collects at least six assists, winning at a pace that dwarfs its present standing.

“I’m a natural scorer,” Bryant said, per Holmes, “but it doesn’t mean I can’t evolve.”

In many ways, Bryant has already evolved. From fewer rim attacks to more introspective postgame thoughts, he isn’t the same player or person he was 10, five or even two years ago.

This latest adaptation, while still largely untrodden and untested, is just another part of the process—understanding that Bryant cannot, and should not, go it alone.

 

*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com and are accurate as of games played Dec. 30, 2014.

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Lakers Teammates Hope Kobe’s Step Back Will Allow Him to Let Them Step Up

LOS ANGELES — The world is going to watch and wonder whether Kobe Bryant is indeed taking concrete steps toward aging gracefully.

He has finally accepted that his body won’t let him do what he is used to doing—all over the floor, virtually always with the ball. He’s speaking as if it’s finally time for the old habits to die and for him consistently to pass the ball when he sees a double-team coming.

Described in Phil Jackson’s 2013 book as “a hard-headed learner,” Bryant transitioning fully to the latter from the former is going to be fascinating to track.

Yet there are some other people involved here. Let’s call them an underserved minority, because even though they outnumber Bryant in body, they certainly do not in clout. The rest of the Lakers players, so often overlooked by coach Byron Scott this season and totally uncertain if they have futures here, are headed for real opportunities.

The only two guys you could say with any confidence will be in L.A. next season are Julius Randle and Nick Young—and Randle’s not playing because of injury, and Young’s below-market $5.2 million salary next season and productivity might make him the Lakers’ best trading chip.

All of them knew when they showed up for training camp that the story of the Lakers’ season was going to be Kobe’s comeback, but no one was assuming Bryant’s usage percentage would be the 35.8 it is right now, higher than ever in his entire career—except when at age 27 his 38.7 usage rate was the highest in pro basketball history. (Bryant averaged 35.4 points on 45 percent field-goal shooting with 1.8 steals per game that 2005-06 season and absolutely should’ve been the NBA MVP over Steve Nash, but Bryant wasn’t—partly because the Lakers were only pretty good and mostly because mainstream America wasn’t ready to acknowledge Bryant so soon after the Colorado allegation.)

While Bryant and Scott have been exchanging their private text messages this season deep into the wee hours, all these other players have been yearning to have their slumber disturbed and their numbers called.

It’s not accurate to call this season a nightmare for them, because no one had any great expectations for any of these guys, but there’s no doubt that their frustrations have been real.

If Bryant is now ready to dial it down—and if Scott is going to lead accordingly despite still admitting he is going to have to “fight that temptation” to rely so heavily on Bryant—then there is hope for these other guys to be more than furniture in the background on the Lakers’ set.

Jeremy Lin, the only other Laker with an eight-figure salary, and thus the default voice of the downtrodden, has hinted at how hard it is to play in this system. In addition, Scott has put a premium on defense, which is good, but he hasn’t kept Bryant accountable on that end, which has been ruinous.

Bryant naturally has to save some energy on defense at this point in his career. Certainly less so, though, if he’s not killing himself on offense.

“Try to make the simple play,” Bryant said of his new philosophy after he took just one shot in the first quarter and one in the fourth quarter Sunday night. “Hit the guys when they’re open.”

Said Lin: “He did a great job making basketball plays. That’s what we’re going to need.”

Bryant most definitely can play that way. It can inspire his team, too, as seen in the playoff passes he threw en route to those five championships and how Mike D’Antoni actually wound up playing Bryant at point guard and moving Nash to shooting guard when the three of them did briefly get to work together.

As bad a rap as Bryant gets for being a ball hog, he has usually operated from the same basic premise: read the defense. If guys aren’t hitting shots off his passes when the defense traps him, then he’ll take it upon himself to try to hit tough ones—which is what has failed him and the Lakers this season.   

Hell-bent on not being like all the others who got hurt and were never quite the same, Bryant has spent his 19th NBA season trying to show it’s not over until he decides it is. (And Bryant is indeed so old that he was born the year the movie Animal House came out: 1978.)

That’s just dandy if this was 2005, when Smush Parker was the third- and Kwame Brown was the fourth-leading scorer on the Lakers…and Kobe was in his prime. Bryant did well enough that some of the other guys on that roster wound up becoming parts of Lakers glory: Lamar Odom, Luke Walton, Andrew Bynum and Sasha Vujacic were NBA champions three years later.

The goal for some of the cast members now is to build lives for themselves and maybe even something for the Lakers’ future. It can still go either way for guys with the potential of Ed Davis, Ryan Kelly and Lin.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether Bryant sticks to not shooting his guns.

But, to be clear, he never said he wasn’t going to shoot. He is hoping to spare his body the wear and tear of fighting from an inferior position. Indeed, this was what Suns forward Markieff Morris said about his team handling the Lakers with Bryant scoring 10 points: “Keep a man on Kobe and make the other guys beat us.”

“I can force it,” Bryant said. “But the defenses are just saying come hell or high water I’m just not going to beat them. It’s as simple as that. They’ll double or triple. I go through three guys, and everybody is bitching and complaining, right?”

People bitching and complaining has never stopped Bryant. His body might, however. Bryant flat-out can’t overdo it anymore if he wants to stay healthy.

Even though he clearly had more juice in his legs Sunday night versus the Suns after a week of rest, he was still wearing a heating pad on his back while on the bench and seeking out extra treatment from team physical therapist Judy Seto.

His only shot in the final quarter was a missed three-pointer with that imperfect hitch in his form that he gets when his body is out of alignment.

So it was Lin missing the tying three-pointer with 1:41 left Sunday night after doing most of the Lakers’ scoring in the second half. And it was Lin saying afterward: “I still think I can make even more plays for this team.”

And it was Young, who did most of the Lakers’ scoring in the first half, seemingly speaking of the potential for his non-Kobe teammates after the loss: “Kobe was my favorite player, growing up. To have him talking to me and telling me to come get the ball when he’s out there? That’s all-time confidence for me.”

 

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.

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Losing with a Star Isn’t Easy, but Can Pay off Later for Those Caught in Middle

Every now and then a team, despite having a superstar, struggles. Mightily struggles. Either the star is past his prime, ancillary pieces are missing or the two simply don’t fit. There’s an awkwardness about it all, as if some unwritten basketball code is being violated before our very eyes, the kind that makes you avert your gaze or stare in morbid fascination. It also seems like a total waste – of both the superstar’s talent and the years of those around him, be they final or formative.

But there can be redeeming value in a season like the one Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, or Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks, are experiencing. Former power forward, and current Thunder TV broadcaster, Michael Cage is proof of that. So is Atlanta Hawks sharpshooter Kyle Korver. Indiana Pacers assistant coach Popeye Jones insists he is as well.

All of them played a season with a superstar in decline on a team that finished well below .500 and out of the playoffs. For Cage it was as a rookie with the 1984-85 Los Angeles Clippers and Bill Walton, seven years removed from leading the Portland Trail Blazers to a championship. Korver was a rookie with the 2003-04 Philadelphia 76ers and Allen Iverson, three years removed from his lone appearance in the Finals. Jones was at the other end of the spectrum, playing his ninth of 11 seasons with the ’01-02 Washington Wizards and Michael Jordan, who was ending a three-year hiatus after his last of six championship runs with the Chicago Bulls.

Cage played for a 31-win team that owner Donald Sterling had just uprooted and moved from San Diego to Los Angeles without league approval. The team had no dedicated practice site and played its games in the dingy and dangerously located Los Angeles Sports Arena. The crosstown Lakers were in their dynasty days. Walton had myriad foot problems. As miserable and chaotic as all that sounds, Cage looks back now and believes the building blocks for everything from his 15-year playing career to his rebounding title to his lasting marriage to his current broadcasting career were laid that first season.

“It set the tone for my entire life,” he says now. “There was a lot going on and my head was spinning. Even though we didn’t win, I learned things that were valuable later. Perseverance is a master teacher. I just kept my mouth closed and I watched and listened.”

Cage credits veterans such as Marques Johnson, Norm Nixon, Franklin Edwards and Harvey Catchings for shaping him on and off the court. “Bill talked a lot, but at that time he talked a lot about himself,” Cage said. “The biggest input came from Marques. He was as high character as they come. He would tell stories in the back of the bus. Campfire stories. It wasn’t always basketball. They all talked about how one day I’d have to get married and the women to look out for until that day came. They told me about the joints where you could get in trouble. They talked about the drug culture in the business and that you were going to pay a price if you entertained it. If you mess this up, they said, this is going to haunt you. The back of the bus was like a barbershop.”

Korver’s mentors were point guard Eric Snow and shooting guard Aaron McKie, although in a different way.

“Aaron was a pro’s pro,” Korver said. “He took every day serious. You couldn’t sub in for him on a drill and he wouldn’t let you show him up in practice. He didn’t want to come out of games. But he also helped me get some clothes that first year and he gave me a really nice watch.”

Korver sees Bryant, in his way, imposing the same standard Iverson did on him. “Allen still played so hard every night,” Korver said, “and he wasn’t going to pass you the ball unless he thought you were going to make it. His thinking was, ‘If you’re not going to make it, I’m just going to get my points.’ You wanted to prove to him every chance you could that he could trust you.”

As a veteran, Jones wasn’t looking for mentors, but he did learn some valuable lessons watching Jordan that serve him now as an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers. “At his age, after all he’d accomplished, to see him go about his business the same way despite not having success told me a lot,” Jones said. “It’s all about the routine. My biggest thing was his commitment to the weight room. Every day before practice he’d lift, home or on the road. No matter where we were, he’d find a place he could get it in. That’s what I thought was really special.”

Seeing Jordan continue to fight Father Time made Jones want to do everything he could to honor that effort. “You see the love and passion for the game and when it’s not happening the way it has in the past, you feel bad, as if you’re letting them down,” he said. “Even at that point in my career, he motivated me to try to be better.”

For all the tales of how demanding Jordan was of his teammates in Chicago and the videotape of Bryant haranguing his fellow Lakers earlier this season, Jones saw a different Jordan in Washington and a different Bryant on the court in a recent Lakers-Pacers game.   

“You’d heard how Michael was back then, but he never did anything like we heard Kobe did in practice,” Jones said. “Michael always talked in scrimmages, but you could tell he was trying to be patient. I saw the same with Kobe on the court when we played them. There were times when their guys just couldn’t make a play [Pau] Gasol and [Lamar] Odom made, plays he was used to having made.”

There’s no telling yet if Ryan Kelly or Wesley Johnson or Jeremy Lin will be able to look back at this season and trace their future success to lessons learned from Bryant or one of the team’s other veterans, Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Price or Nick Young. Not if their experience is similar to Cage’s.

“I didn’t understand a lot of what they were teaching me at the time,” he says. “Things like, ‘teams that can put their differences aside have a chance’ and ‘everybody goes through losing stretches’ and ‘you have to put your ego aside and be fully committed to winning.’ I had all this stuff in my head but it wasn’t working.”

But there’s plenty to be gained through the grind now that will pay off somewhere down the line.

“Sometimes it’s not about winning and losing,” Cage said. “It’s, ‘What are you going to get out of this situation that is going to make you stronger?’ If they taught me anything, it’s that if you want something, you have to stick with it.”

 

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.

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Los Angeles Lakers Failing to Give Kobe Bryant What He Needs Most

The Los Angeles Lakers organization has failed to give Kobe Bryant the resources and support needed to succeed at this stage of his career.

It rode an aging superstar to exhaustion as the team headed down the up staircase. It filled in the gaps with some useful role players but neglected to sign the type of talent that puts a team over the top.

And, it hired a veteran coach in Byron Scott—a man whose purple and gold pedigree, and relationship with an aging superstar, was supposed to be beneficial and a harbinger of brighter times ahead.

At his introductory press conference, per Lakers.com, Scott said: “I know Kobe’s will and determination. I think we’re on the same page on how we think about this game and how it should be played.”

But as the season progressed, that “same page” allowed Bryant’s Icarus-like flight toward the sun as he piled up points, proved he was still fiercely competitive and then plummeted back to earth—his wings thoroughly scorched.

Now he has to rise from the ashes once again, like the reborn Phoenix.

That’s no way to put together a winning season. When it came time for Scott to lead, he seemed either blinded by allegiance to an old friend, or simply star-struck. He built an homage to Kobe, not a team. 

The issue of playing time has been especially puzzling. Before training camp even began, Scott told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News: “We have a set amount of minutes. I’m going to stick to my guns if I think that’s going to be in his best interest. One thing I’ll never do is sacrifice a players’ health for a basketball game. I won’t do it.”

But by the time Bryant’s coach actually implemented that plan, it seemed like closing the barn door long after the horse had already limped out the door.

On Dec. 21, the Lakers lost a close game on the road to the Sacramento Kings, with Bryant launching 30 shots while making only eight in a team-high 38 minutes. He also had nine turnovers and looked on the verge of disintegration in the fourth quarter as he tried and failed to single-handedly save a win.

Grantland’s Zach Lowe compared the game to a “vaudeville freak show,” adding: “No one in NBA history has faced so little accountability. It is absurd on its face. Bryant has hijacked the entire organization.”

But is this really the case, or has the organization actually failed its enduring star? Darius Soriano for Form Blue and Gold subsequently offered a counterpoint to Lowe’s argument, putting the onus on both the front office and Bryant’s coach, writing:

Now is the time to stop enabling a player to fail and start putting him in better positions to succeed. This doesn’t have to be done callously or publicly. But it needs to happen. Not only for the player’s sake, but for the rest of the team’s, the coaches, the organization at large, and the fans. No one wants to see this continue like this.

When a decision was made to rest the 36-year-old Bryant against the Golden State Warriors, the unexpected happened—the Lakers dominated the team with the best record in the NBA.

This fueled the debate about L.A.’s efficacy with or without the Mamba, even if it was after a comical one-game sample size. Per Baxter Holmes of ESPN LA, Scott responding by saying: “Anybody that really insinuated that we were better without him, they’re just ridiculous. We’re a much better team when he’s on the floor, period.”

Bryant also missed a marquee Christmas Day appearance against the Chicago Bulls, explaining it as a matter of “old age,” per TWC SportsNet: “My knees are sore at this stage of the season. My Achilles are sore, both of them. Metatarsals are tight. Back’s tight. I need to kind of hit the reset button.”

The Lakers were beaten by a team that now includes a rejuvenated Pau Gasol—Bryant’s teammate for six seasons and two championship runs. And then they lost the next one as well against the Dallas Mavericks, marking yet another night of rest for Bryant and underscoring two essential points—a player in his 19th NBA season should not have been leading his team in minutes, and this current roster won’t pile up wins without him. 

The better franchises in the league succeed by finding a balance. Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs doesn’t wait until his veteran players are headed for a breakdown before resting them—he manages their minutes like a miser hoarding a fortune from day one of the regular season.

And, Spurs management doesn’t count on lottery draft picks or splashy free-agent signings to build a roster—they actively obtain and develop players that are off the mainstream radar, often scouring the international ranks for talent.

The same holds true for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and coach Rick Carlisle, who have reloaded around Dirk Nowitzki in the final years of his career. Just two seasons ago, it looked as if Nowitzki would ride into the sunset with a mediocre team. Instead, the Mavs are in contention again.

Part of that rebuild was the recent trade for Rajon Rondo—beating out the Lakers in the process.

After six days rest, Bryant made his return Sunday night against the Phoenix Suns in a game that was about discipline and getting his teammates involved, with 10 points, eight rebounds and a team-high seven assists in 32 minutes.

Nonetheless, the Lakers lost 116-107, falling to a record of 9-22 for the season.

After the game, Byron Scott offered measured praise for the usage-friendly performance, per the team’s official Twitter account: “For not playing for a week, obviously he’s going to be a little rusty. But I thought he played pretty well.”

For Bryant, it was one more game in another losing season, doing what he can with the team he has and the time he has left.

Los Angeles as an organization can’t be accused of inexperience or lack of a track record. Bryant, Scott and general manager Mitch Kupchak have a combined 88 years in the NBA, along with an astonishing amount of championship hardware.

Adapting and evolving with the times should not be out of reach for any of them. But, it has to be a collective effort.

Bryant is a smart enough player to know that he can no longer score at will at any moment of a game. But those who have watched him over the years recognize his body language at critical junctures, when instinct and habit take over and reason goes out the window.

In those instances, trust in fellow teammates becomes either a fine line or nonexistent. And at this point in his career, the wear and tear on his body can turn an improbable shot into an impossible one.

Management has failed Bryant by not surrounding him with sufficient talent. His teammates fail by not showing consistency in their actions and play, and therefore not earning the level of trust that can overcome those fine lines.

And his coach has failed to show effective in-game adjustments or strong leadership overall.

There are always the tanking advocates—those who reason that a downward slide into next year’s draft is a solution. But lottery picks rarely turn a team’s fortunes around quickly, and a slow rebuild will do little to give Bryant what he needs most—real help, right now.

If he wasn’t able to carry a subpar team on his shoulders eight years ago during the Smush Parker and Kwame Brown era, why on earth should he be able to now during his final dance on the hardwood with Father Time?

The clock is ticking on one of the game’s fiercest warriors. Kobe Bryant can still do a lot of things, but he can’t carry a team on his own.

And, he shouldn’t have to. It’s time for the Lakers to realize it.

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Biggest Surprises and Disappointments for Los Angeles Lakers

It’s been a topsy-turvy season for the Los Angeles Lakers, filled with both triumphs and tragedies.

Successes like beating a league-best Golden State Warriors squad have been offset by failures like giving up 140 points in a beatdown at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks.

Players new and old alike have been under the microscope, as has a new, yet familiar, head coach. These trends are worth monitoring to see if they continue and how the Lakers eventually adapt.

Kobe Bryant is at the heart of it all, as is to be expected, and it is with him we kick off our list of the biggest surprises and disappointments of the Lakers’ season to date.

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Michael Jordan Tells Kobe Bryant to ‘Go Get Karl’ on NBA Scoring List

Now that Kobe Bryant has leapfrogged Michael Jordan on the NBA‘s all-time scoring list, His Airness has a request for the Black Mamba: Gun for second place. 

According to the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Seth Gruen, Jordan urged Bryant to “Go get Karl [Malone],” who occupies second place with 36,928 points scored over the course of a 19-year career. 

Bryant told reporters that he was appreciative of Jordan and other legendary scoring greats for leading by example, per Gruen: 

It was more of a thankful feeling to Michael and the players who came before because I’ve learned so much from them. And I don’t say that lightly. I’ve literally just stole [expletive] from them, like spin moves and pull-ups. It’s not me passing these players. It’s us. I’ve literally taken things from their games and made them my own.

As things stand, Bryant is 4,563 points behind Malone. And with his contract running through the end of the 2015-16 season, Kobe would need to score obscene amounts before his deal expires. For some context, Bryant set a career high by scoring 2,832 points during the 2005-06 season and has crossed the 2,000-point threshold for a single season eight times during his career. 

However, only three (2008-09, 2010-11 and 2012-13) of those eight times have come since Bryant turned 30. 

Additionally, Bryant may be sidelined for more than a week with general soreness, which will delay his run up the charts, according to Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding: 

“I didn’t think I’d be shooting like s**t,” Bryant said, according to Ding. 

Although he’s averaging 24.6 points on 22.4 shots a night, Bryant’s knocking down a career-worst 37.2 percent of his total field-goal attempts while converting a meager 27.4 percent of his threes, his worst rate (minimum 20 appearances) since 1998-99. 

But as ESPN Stats & Info noted on Dec. 14, “Bryant trails Malone by 4,618 points, therefore would need 182 regular-season games to pass Malone at his current scoring average of 25.4 points. The Lakers have 58 games left this season, so about halfway into the 2016-17 season figures to be a reasonable estimate for when Bryant could pass Malone.”

However, sticking around until midway through the 2016-17 season will require Bryant to sign on for another year in Purple and Gold, which would come as a surprise to Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak. 

“All indications are, to me, from him, that this (two-year contract) is going to be it,” Kupchak said earlier this month, according to NBA.com’s David Aldridge. 

So if Bryant truly does have an eye on passing Malone, another year and a half won’t cut it. Playing until he’s nearly 40 should be enough, but as the correlation between his efficiency and volume suggests, it’s going to be arduous trek past the Mailman. 

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Kobe Bryant Fights Fierce Competitive Instinct in Battle Against ‘Old Age’

CHICAGO — It’s not like Kobe Bryant to let a moment pass him by.

That’s what happened Thursday…Bryant letting down his team, his league and all the fans. He surprisingly sat out the NBA’s Christmas showcase, never even donning the special first-name-on-the-back uniform that was a novelty practically designed for him.

It’s unnatural for him to step out of the spotlight. It’s even more out of character not to take the stage at all.

“I feel an obligation to play,” Bryant said about missing this game, “(even) if I’m at the YMCA.”

Yet with the world ready to watch, Bryant chose not to meet the obligation. That’s some wisdom coming with age, which he must apply these days. The best of Bryant has always been unwavering faith to his personal tenets combined with some touch with reality…balance, same as for us all.

For Bryant to flourish in this body—though he said Thursday he’s “constantly experimenting” for new-age solutions to his old-age status—he has to find that balance more than ever.

There are plenty of Bryant’s supporters who hope he never changes, who depend on his fearlessness to inspire their own backstage lives and almost want him to be Al Pacino going down unabashedly firing in Scarface.

Bryant wants better than that. So he sat there Thursday night in his maroon jacket and patent leather dress shoes, chewing gum and holding steady as the NBA’s all-time leader in Christmas games played (15) and points scored (383).

“It’s really going against my nature, man,” he said. “I’ve got to be smart about this.”

What he saw out on the court was a Chicago Bulls team that—after quite a struggle even with lucking into drafting a hometown MVP in Derrick Rose—has finally moved on from the Michael Jordan era the way the Los Angeles Lakers someday will from Bryant, too.

Bryant’s goal, though, is to be great until he announces that day has come.

To that end, he rested Thursday and will again Friday while the Lakers play in Dallas and perhaps longer. Backup Wayne Ellington said Lakers coach Byron Scott told the team “it could be a week” before Bryant returns.

In a sense, it is mature thinking.

It is also making the most of the moment in a different way.

If Bryant knows by now he can’t perform at the level he wants by pounding through the aches and pains and doing things his old way—“I didn’t think I’d be shooting like s**t,” he said—he is now prepared to lean toward his savvy side over his stubborn one.

It was just last week that Bryant passed through the Midwest and didn’t think for a second about resting.

The Lakers were on the last leg of three road games in four nights. It was Indianapolis, where Bryant had maniacally tried for a first quarter a year-and-a-half ago to play two days after severely spraining his left ankle.

When the Lakers were beyond lethargic this time, trailing by a 60-21 score, a frustrated Bryant ignored his own fatigue and indulged his psycho side. He starting racing all over the court at both ends in the third quarter, creating some energy, misdirected as it was at times.

When the period was over, with Bryant toppling over the scorer’s table in futile pursuit of a loose ball as time expired, the Lakers had cut only two points off Indiana’s 33-point lead.

It was an admirable effort in the sense of principle, perhaps setting an example for his younger teammates. Lakers director of player development Larry Lewis was inspired to step out from behind the bench and thank Bryant for the try, appreciating that he didn’t have to do it.

Well, sometimes he shouldn’t do it—no matter the excessive demands Scott placed on him.

This is what Bryant, 36, had said before the season about being careful in his comeback:

“In the past, I’ve always pushed myself to the limit. That’s every day. Now I’ve just got to be a little bit more patient and make sure when you step off the court you still have something there.”

That’s philosophy. What Bryant felt after that Indiana game was real life.

The Lakers had two days off. Then a feeble Bryant played half-speed and missed a buzzer beater in a 104-103 home loss to Oklahoma City on Friday night. Without much recovery time Sunday afternoon in Sacramento, Bryant played wildly and poorly in an 8-of-30 shooting outing and 108-101 Lakers loss as he tried to live up to his legend that has so often graced the old Arco Arena.

Bryant hasn’t played since.

“When I have a couple days, what happens is the body realizes how messed up it is,” Bryant said. “So everything else starts hurting.”

Bryant cited current problems with his knees, Achilles tendons and back. He put them all under the umbrella of “old age” that required physical therapist Judy Seto to work on him, “taking care of every part of my body,” for an hour-and-a-half Thursday to limited benefit.

Steve Nash is the obvious example of how precarious health is at this point in a long career. Nash, who went from optimistic and healthy to out for the season/career in almost a blink before the season, showed up at the airport Wednesday when the Lakers were leaving, his first time back at a team function, to wish the guys merry Christmas.

Still, Bryant’s belief is that he can recharge the old batteries.

“I’ll get back to being healthy like I was at the start of the season,” he said.

From there, Scott is promising to drop Bryant’s 35 minutes per game down to 32 or 33. But Bryant is thinking about changes in quality beyond the quantity.

He prides himself on his learning, and it has sunk in now:

He can’t do all that Scott has wanted.

He can’t be what he once was.

“It’s habit for me to move around and be active offensively, all over the place from different spots on the floor,” Bryant said. “I don’t think my body can hold up to that. …A lot of that is breaking habits, because you’re used to playing a certain way for so long.”

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau is a believer in Bryant’s will—but also his ability to adjust.

Thibodeau, remember, scored his titanic victory as Boston Celtics defensive coordinator by beating Bryant in the 2008 NBA Finals—before losing to him in 2010.

“He’s always found a way,” Thibodeau said. “He’ll figure it out.”

 

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.

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Kobe Bryant Injury: Updates on Lakers Star’s Soreness and Return

The Los Angeles Lakers will play the Chicago Bulls without Kobe Bryant on Christmas Day. 

Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding provided the news from Lakers coach Byron Scott: 

Kobe was blunt when asked why he is missing tonight’s game via Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:

David Aldridge of NBA.com added more information about his status for Friday against the Dallas Mavericks: 

Bryant also missed the Lakers’ 115-105 win over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. He is currently averaging 24.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 27 games. 

Bryant and the Lakers had hoped last season was not a sign of things to come. He returned from the Achilles injury in December, but ended up playing in just six games and didn’t look like his usually dynamic self before going back to the sidelines due to a knee problem.

Instead of bringing him back and risking further injury, Los Angeles opted to keep him out for the rest of the campaign as it had faded out of the playoff picture.

There was plenty of optimism coming into the new season. Bryant looked healthy during training camp and performed well enough during stretches of the preseason to believe a bounce back was on the horizon.

Bill Oram of the The Orange County Register provided comments from the guard back in October, who was pleased with how his body was holding up.

“This is the healthiest I’ve been in a couple years,” Bryant said. “Three years maybe.”

Clearly the 36-year-old star is being cautious at a time when he is currently averaging 35.4 minutes per game.

The biggest thing with Bryant is that he only has one level of competitiveness. When he steps on the court, he wants to showcase why he’s the best player on the floor, even at this stage of his career. And that certainly hasn’t changed in his comeback from injury.

So it’s a situation where his mind says he can still dominate but his body is fighting back. He has a lot of mileage from all the years of play, which includes playoff runs and international duty. The cumulative effect takes its toll.

The Lakers will likely split his minutes among several players. Nick Young, Wayne Ellington and Jordan Clarkson are among the group that should see an increase of playing time.

None of them, nor their combined effort, can come close to what Bryant provides when healthy, though. It leaves the Lakers in a tough spot as they wait for further information about their superstar’s status.

 

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Byron Scott’s Kobe Bryant Plan Leaving Los Angeles Lakers in Dangerous Position

LOS ANGELES — Here’s one thing Byron Scott has accomplished.

He has left no question about it, and it’s good to know: Kobe Bryant no longer can do everything and be everything for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Chalk it up to Bryant’s career mileage, sure, but consider this, too: Bryant never really had a chance to show if he still had it.

That might sound crazy considering Bryant’s league-high 35.8 usage percentage (Russell Westbrook’s higher, but he has barely played half of Oklahoma City’s games) and 37.2 shooting percentage.

Because of how his coach over-trusted and overused him, Bryant never got to ramp himself up for all to see what would’ve been his peak performance—and therefore the Lakers’ peak performance.

By building a team that was all about Bryant, asking him to do more than he was ready for, and casting him in the role of leading man based on past history instead of current reality, Scott guaranteed that Bryant would falter.

So the Lakers played at Staples Center on Tuesday night, and Bryant didn’t. Like an old uncle too tired to leave the house, Bryant stayed home, no helicopter powerful enough to lift those weary bones up.

Bryant has been so bad recently that even Scott’s blind spot couldn’t miss it.

Scott said he will consider resting Bryant for more games—in addition to cutting back on his 35.4 minutes per game as “the next step.” After separate consultations with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and trainer Gary Vitti, Scott decided to give Bryant this break—although don’t think for a second Bryant will not be back out there in Chicago on Christmas for the NBA’s showcase day.

When Scott told Bryant about perhaps sitting him out, Bryant’s reply to Scott was: “Whatever you want to do.”

That’s a veritable cry for help from a control freak and achiever such as Bryant.

Scott got a graphic look at what it looks like to empower a whole team instead of a single superstar with the Lakers delivering intensity and teamwork en route to a season-high 22-point lead through three quarters against the previously 23-3 Golden State Warriors. (For the record, it was the second night of a back-to-back set and a look-ahead trap before Christmas for a Golden State team overdue for letdown without defensive anchor Andrew Bogut.)

The Lakers actually had played similarly well with Bryant low on energy early in their last home game—before Bryant missed at the buzzer in a 104-103 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The share-the-wealth way is how teams should play at home—where role players feel more comfortable with all the fan support—but the Lakers have leaned on Bryant here, there and everywhere.

Yes, Lakers ownership paid Bryant a league-high wage, but everyone except Scott knew that was a business decision as much as a basketball one. Everyone except Scott suspected Bryant couldn’t be the same: The guy is not just 36, not just in his 19th NBA season, not just coming off two major injuries, he has played more than 55,000 combined regular-season and playoff minutes (fourth in league history).

Then again…when last we left Bryant in his fully healthy mode pre-Achilles rupture, he was playing 45 minutes for Mike D’Antoni against the Warriors—after playing 48, 41, 47, 43, 47 and 48 in the preceding games. The Lakers went 6-1 in a stretch that feels like forever ago but was actually only a little more than a year-and-a-half ago.

Bryant proved then in pushing the Lakers successfully to a playoff berth in their lone Dwight Howard season that Bryant could play outsized minutes, dominate the ball and win.

That was D’Antoni riding a style that he didn’t prefer but was winning. Scott invested in something from the start—and stuck with it, despite red flags that Bryant even uncharacteristically offered up himself—until Bryant wilted.

More than a month ago, I used the word “unhealthy” to describe what Scott had made his relationship with Bryant. He needs coaching; everybody does. Scott was coming in with a unique opportunity, a voice that Bryant inherently respected as a Lakers legend who was his mentor as a rookie.

But Scott didn’t come to Bryant now as his coach—with broader vision, honest dialogue or clear authority.

Without that assistance, Bryant tried and tried and tried.

And now we know he failed.

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Delivering Kevin Durant Could Be Kobe Bryant’s Final Gift to Los Angeles Lakers

Kobe Bryant is winding his way through the end stages of a brilliant career, competing as fiercely as his 36-year-old body will allow. Delivering Kevin Durant to the Los Angeles Lakers could be a bittersweet parting gift.

Bryant’s current two-year contract lasts through the 2015-16 season. Durant’s contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder will expire after that season as well.

There is certainly no guarantee that the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player will leave the organization that drafted him at No. 2 overall in 2007, and an even slimmer chance that he would join forces with the struggling Lakers as things stand now.

But recent comments spoke volumes for his admiration for a basketball legend and began fanning the free-agent flames among Lakers fans desperate for a spark.

Per Sam Amick of USA Today Sports, Durant unequivocally slammed the idea that other players are turned off by the idea of playing with Bryant, and he went as far as to embrace the idea of playing alongside Kobe: 

I want to play with a winner every single night, especially somebody who wants to win that bad, who works that hard, who demands a lot, who raises up your level. I’d want to play with a guy like that every day. … (His style) may make people uncomfortable, how he acts and just how he approaches the game, but I love that type of stuff. I think (the accusation) is BS.

And if there was any room for doubt after that, Durant quickly dispelled it, launching into what specifically he admired about the longtime Lakers leader:

Just his work ethic, just his demeanor man. He doesn‘t mind being an (expletive), and he comes to work man. He’s intense. He demands a lot out of his teammates, and I’ve seen that just playing alongside him in the Olympics (in 2012). He demands a lot out of everybody. He makes them better. Everybody out on the court. You’ve got to respect that. As a player, I study guys like that.

Of course, even the slightest tantalizing thought of one of today’s elite superstars joining the Purple and Gold paints the picture of a different sunset ride off to glory than what currently awaits Bryant.

This team is not constructed to compete at a high level in the ultra-competitive Western Conference right now. And that leaves the Mamba raging futilely, shooting his team in and out of games while piling up new statistical records in the process.

But even before Durant made his feelings known, the idea of Bryant continuing beyond his current contract had been broached.

Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News relayed the hopefulness of Lakers coach Byron Scott: “If we put something together that excites him, we’ll have a real good chance of him saying he’ll play another year and give it another shot. That’s what we plan to do.”

Bryant’s response, also per Medina, was tepid: “Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t want to be coy about it. I don’t know what to tell you. Right now I’d say no. But it doesn’t matter. Would that change a year from now or something like that?”

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has also added some waffling of his own. When David Aldridge for NBA.com raised the subject, the GM said: “All indications are, to me, from him, that this (two-year contract) is going to be it.”

But a week later, on Colin Cowherd’s The Herd on ESPN Radio, Kupchak was offering a more nuanced assessment:

“If he’s playing at a high level and we were able to put our team together with some vision, in other words, have cap space to acquire players that help us going forward and help us win right away, I don’t know why we would not consider bringing Kobe back.”

As in Bryant and Durant, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the past and the present. 

Could the Lakers retain Bryant and still pay a max contract to Durant? In a word, yes. As it currently stands, the team’s only financial commitments for the 2016-17 season are Nick Young for $5,443,918, and an option on Julius Randle for $3,267,120, which is almost undoubtedly an assurance to be exercised.

In order to build a competitive roster around Durant, however, Bryant would have to be willing to take a reduction from next year’s league-high salary of $25 million. That would be a no-brainer in exchange for an encore for the ages.

The idea of a Mamba swan song with a prime-time Durant by his side is music to the ears of some, but unnecessary to others who are ready to turn the page and move ahead to a new chapter in Los Angeles.

Durant has dealt with a fractured foot this season, as well as a more recent ankle sprain. Yet, those issues notwithstanding, the 6’9” swingman has enjoyed a relatively injury-free career.

There is no reason to doubt that in two years, at age 28, Durantula would still be as gifted, fluid and deadly as any player in the NBA. A soft-spoken action hero, he has a habit of putting games on his back in clutch situations and delivering.

Why would L.A. need to pair a never-quit player at his peak with a fading superstar looking to re-sign for a 21st season?

For the same reasons Durant recently voiced—a warrior’s mentality and an insatiable thirst for winning. And yes, five championship rings do still count for something, even when skeptics sometimes count the Laker legend out.

There will be plenty of other teams vying for Durant’s services in 2016, however, including the Washington Wizards.

The future NBA star grew up in the small community of Seat Pleasant, Maryland, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Last summer, in an interview with Amick, Durant spoke about the pull back to a familial place:

“I go home, and everybody asks me. Man, it’s crazy. Like little kids, 4 years old, ‘You coming to the Wizards?’ Man, (expletive), how do you know about this? At 4 years old, I didn’t even know what basketball players were. How do you know about free agency?”

One of the modern giants of the game will have a wealth of choices when free agency eventually rolls along. He can stay loyal to the Thunder and his longtime running partner, Russell Westbrook. Or, he can return home to the place where roots run deep.

He could also take a chance with any number of other cash-rich contenders.

Or he could enter the den of a lion in winter, and still one of the game’s fiercest competitors.

Bryant may be unnecessarily headstrong at times, but his myopic intensity also has much to do with the knowledge that this current Lakers roster is simply not built to win.

With Durant and a strong supporting cast, things would be different. And remember, Durant didn’t say he wanted to play for the Lakers—he said he would want to play with Bryant.

But that may be a pipe dream, because time is the ultimate avenger.

After coming back from a fractured knee, which followed a ruptured Achilles tendon, Bryant is heading deep into the unknown, summoning every shred of strength he has left to continue his relentless pump-fakery, jab-stepping, trash-talking and shot-launching.

Nobody knows how long he has left—not his coach, his GM or himself.

But Durant has expressed an interest.

And if Bryant can’t be there in body, then perhaps he will recruit his successor as a parting gift, ushering in a new era of Lakers supremacy.

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