4 Stats That Perfectly Sum Up Kobe Bryant’s Career

“This season is all I have left to give. My heart can take the pounding, my mind can handle the grind, but my body knows it’s time to say goodbye,” Kobe Bryant poetically penned for The Players’ Tribune, announcing that he’d retire at the end of the 2015-16 campaign. 

When No. 24 hangs up his sneakers for the final time, the sport of basketball will have lost a legend. Love him or hate him—with Bryant, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground—you have to respect what he’s meant to the NBA. 

He’ll go down as one of history’s best players. Personally, I had him at No. 11 when I ranked the top 100 legends of the Association’s many years, and the unfortunate nature of his play throughout the swan song likely won’t influence that placement. 

Summing up Bryant’s career isn’t easy.

During the remaining portion of the 2015-16 campaign, you’ll likely read countless pieces waxing poetic about his spot in history and how much he meant to the Los Angeles Lakers. Given the amount of time and energy he’s poured into his craft, it’s only appropriate. 

Bryant can’t reasonably be boiled down into a handful of numbers, but that’s not going to stop us from trying. 

 

Stat No. 1: 25.3 career points per game and 55.2 true shooting percentage

Forget about the miserable shooting percentages you’ve seen Bryant post during the last few seasons of his spectacular career. Though it’s undeniable that he’s been playing at a low level, he has a pretty valid excuse—his legs have completely abandoned him after a litany of injuries and the ill effects of that pesky old Father Time. 

During his prime years, the shooting guard never submitted sparkling field-goal percentages. But it’s not like he had to, as his athleticism and aggressive mentality allowed him to charge toward the hoop and earn countless trips to the free-throw line. 

When he won a scoring title in 2005-06, he averaged 35.4 points per game while shooting an even 45 percent from the field, but he also made a staggering 10.2 trips to the free-throw line during his typical outing, converting those freebies at an 85 percent clip. True shooting percentage factors in those journeys to the charity stripe, as well as work from beyond the three-point arc, making it a more accurate picture of shooting and scoring efficiency. 

Dating back to 1996-97, when Bryant entered the league as a fresh-faced teenager from Philadelphia, he doesn’t just have one of the highest lifetime scoring averages. His actual level of efficiency also stacks up quite nicely against the marks submitted by other top point-producing talents: 

Next time you hear Bryant discussed as a gunner, you should choose one of two ways to respond. 

First, you could argue that he doesn’t deserve to be described as such. He might have taken a lot of shots with a high degree of difficulty, but he was fantastic at making them and remained aggressive enough to produce efficient scoring numbers. Second, you could concur but qualify the description with the claim that few have ever been so good for so long at advantageously gunning. 

Either way, he’ll go down as one of the best scoring threats of his generation. His level of volume and corresponding efficiency stands out, even among the top offensive players this millennium. But perhaps most importantly, the latter still wasn’t a concern for him.

“In a league that has rapidly become obsessed with efficiency, Bryant was never scared of being inefficient, provided his team came out with a win,” Benjamin Hoffman recently wrote for the New York Times.

More often than not, his team did. 

 

Stat No. 2: 28,369,325 votes

Up through the 2012 All-Star festivities, we have records of the 10 biggest guard and forward vote-getters in each conference, as well as the top five centers from each half of the NBA. From 2013 through the present, the ballots changed, such that 15 frontcourt and 10 backcourt players are represented from the East and West each year. 

Since Bryant entered the league in 1996, a whopping 226 different players have earned one of those coveted spots. Not a single one of them registered nearly as many total votes: 

Bryant has paced the league in All-Star voting on three occasions, and the dates are arguably as impressive as the sum of his enduring popularity. 

First, he beat the field during the 2002-03 season, back when he was a 24-year-old rising superstar on a Lakers squad that also featured Shaquille O’Neal. He’d hover around the top without earning the No. 1 spot for nearly a decade before 2010-11. Then, at 32, he was quite obviously in an entirely different phase of his career. 

Two years later, he paced the league for the third time—something only he, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Julius Erving have ever done. It was his last full season as a true upper-echelon player in the Association, but it’s not like his popularity has just died away in conjunction with his health and overall effectiveness. 

Pictures like that, shared by ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell, don’t exist without the player in question becoming a worldwide phenomenon. 

Bryant’s career is about so much more than the numbers he produced and the titles he won. It also hinges on his overwhelming popularity—both domestically and internationally. If anyone from the post-Jordan generation has become a true superstar, he’s the No. 1 choice. 

 

Stat No. 3: 4.206 MVP Shares

Somehow, Bryant only managed to hoist up the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the NBA’s MVP once during his Hall of Fame career, earning the honor for his work with the Lakers in 2007-08. The diminutive nature of that number is a bit misleading, since he was so extraordinarily valuable to the franchise, but always seemed to fall behind one or two other players in the award voting. 

And that’s where the concept of MVP shares comes into play.

Rather than handing out a trophy and declaring everyone else non-MVPs, this metric looks at placement on the ballot. A unanimous MVP will be awarded a full MVP share, while someone who earns votes but finishes behind the eventual winner will earn a partial MVP share—the equivalent of the percentage of possible points received. 

In 2008, for example, Bryant received 82 of a possible 126 first-place votes, and his other placements on the ballots left him earning 1,105 of the 1,260 potential voting points. Not only did he win MVP, but he earned 0.877 MVP shares that year, while Chris Paul came in second place with 0.706 MVP shares. 

As opposed to the traditional system, this gives us a more accurate picture of perceived value over the course of a career, and Bryant fares quite well among the all-time leaders: 

Finishing at No. 11 is nothing to be embarrassed about, especially given the names of the players listed ahead of him. 

But if we look only at stars who are still active, he stands out even more: 

Is Bryant the best player of the post-Jordan generation? MVP shares would put him in that conversation, though some—including yours truly—would argue he belongs third in a group that also includes Tim Duncan and LeBron James. 

Once more, there’s no shame in that. 

Whether erroneously or accurately, Bryant might not have been deemed the league’s Most Valuable Player on more than one occasion. But he was one of the NBA’s most important standouts throughout his entire career, and that’s even more meaningful. 

 

Stat No. 4: Five Rings

“I just want No. 6, man,” Bryant said back in 2012, per ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin, when it seemed like there was a legitimate possibility he could eventually adorn the first finger on his second hand with a championship ring. “I’m not asking for too much, man. Just give me a sixth ring, damn it.”

Why was that sixth championship so special to the future Hall of Famer? Because Michael Jordan, the man whose game inspired his own, finished his career with six titles.

To Bryant, it’s irrelevant that Bill Russell won a record-setting 11 championships, or that the legendary center’s Boston Celtics teammates all seem to grace the top of the ring-earning leaderboard. Robert Horry getting to polish seven pieces of jewelry doesn’t matter. Six is the magic number because—despite its ninth-place spot in those aforementioned rankings—that’s where the presumptive G.O.A.T. ended up. 

Bryant’s career has always been about chasing titles and emulating Jordan, to the point that we get videos like the one above (yes, there are plenty more of them gracing the YouTube archives). And that’s why it’s abundantly fitting that he’ll finish his career with five championships. 

It’s an incredible number, currently putting him in a tie for 14th place in NBA history. It also leaves him on the precipice of the all-time great—an appropriate spot for a man who made people believe that the totality of Jordan’s career actually could be caught, but ultimately fell just shy of getting to that same pinnacle. 

However, comparing Bryant to Jordan also distracts us from another point: The former was incredible in the playoffs throughout his career. 

In May, I looked at the top 100 playoff performers of all time, using new metrics that evaluated each contributor’s individual impact and the credit they should receive for advancing deep into the postseason (details here). After looking at how every player in NBA history who has suited up in at least one playoff game fares in each of those two categories, Bryant is one of the few who truly stands out in a positive way: 

Brushing shoulders—or faces, in this case—with legends such as Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen has to be viewed as an achievement, especially because this methodology leaves Bryant as the No. 8 playoff performer of all time. In order, he trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Jordan, Tim Duncan, Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal.

And doesn’t that provide an even more accurate picture of what Bryant’s legacy will end up becoming? 

We could focus on so many other numbers—his league-leading points-per-game average in 2005-06, his surprisingly impressive assist numbers, his record number of seasons playing for the same franchise, or something else entirely.

But above all else, he’s been one of the sport’s greatest winners, and the unfortunate ending to his time in the NBA shouldn’t even partially negate that fact. 

 

Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com and are current heading into Nov. 30’s games. 

Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.

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Kevin Durant Comments on Kobe Bryant’s Retirement, Criticism of Lakers Star

Although many will agree the time has come for Kobe Bryant to retire, Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant won’t be satisfied with anything less than an honorable end for the Los Angeles Lakers star.  

On Monday, Durant voiced his displeasure with the general narrative surrounding Bryant as he has reached the twilight of his career, per Anthony Slater of the Oklahoman (Note: Tweet includes NSFW language):

When Bryant first entered the NBA in 1996, Durant was just eight years old. He watched Bryant first as a fan and then as a colleague, and he has always maintained a high opinion of the 17-time All-Star.

“He’s the greatest of all time. His skill is second to none,” Durant said of Kobe in March 2014, per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “Him and MJ are neck and neck as far as skill. Kobe is the top two best ever in just having skill, footwork, shooting the [three-pointer], shooting the pull-up, posting up, dunking on guys and ball handling. Kobe and Jordan are 1 and 1A.”

With Bryant officially announcing his retirement Sunday effective at the end of this season, both his peers and basketball fans in general have a few more months to appreciate him before he’s gone from an NBA court forever.

The Lakers will meet the Thunder four times this year, with the first matchup on Dec. 19 in Oklahoma City. Watching Bryant and Durant go head-to-head will be must-see television for basketball fans.

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With Flair for the Dramatic, Kobe Spins Frustrating End into Emotional Final Act

From time to time, fans of Kobe Bryant will tell me they are thankful that I was around to cover his career.

It’s a sentiment I appreciate but deflect, because as skilled as Bryant has been on the basketball court, he possesses an uncommon sense of story.

Confrontations and controversies, triumphs and tribulations, Bryant wants his career to be dramatic and inspiring. Ranking far ahead of his desire to be loved or willingness to be hated, Bryant fundamentally embraces being different.

That, my friends, is the crux of a real-life character.

So much has happened with this guy that I asked him about a decade ago—before so much more would happen—if he had any sense of what an objectively interesting life he has led.

He said it’s the only life he has ever known.

The life will continue, but the basketball will end after this season. Bryant came to that conclusion recently and made the announcement Sunday.

Why declare it to the world now? Already with a camera crew tracking many of his recent moments, Bryant knows that’s how the story should go—starting Tuesday with his final road game on the Philly turf that gave legs to his legend, continuing with an All-Star farewell in Toronto on Valentine’s Day and finishing at home on April 13 at Staples Center against the Utah Jazz.

As self-absorbed as he can be, Bryant understands every actor needs his audience—and the production is an experience they share together. The awareness that his work is a story to be told separates his transcendence from so many others’ greatness.

Tim Duncan’s game has aged far more gracefully. But Bryant’s connection with fans worldwide is beyond compare—and much of that is Duncan’s disinclination to indulge the story.

No one ever thinks of Duncan as the selfish one. In this sense, he is. He prefers to go about his business and private life.

Meanwhile, Bryant’s book is open. And Bryant’s popularity isn’t just a result of the points he has scored. The way he scores them is daring and fearless; the way he talks about them is brash and bold.

Absolutely he stole moves from Michael Jordan, but even more important, Kobe captured Michael’s flair for the dramatic.

Jordan will forever win the titles talk, 6-5, but besides the all-time scoring list and basic basketball longevity in Bryant’s favor, there’s this: Perhaps the most timeless story in sports is playing hurt. According to the testimony of none other than Phil Jackson, Bryant took that plot point far beyond Jordan’s dramatic arc, making himself a character consistently worthy of the suspense.

And now Bryant is paying the price for all that primitive perseverance—and Jordan-like relentlessness to score. The reality is that John Stockton, Bryant’s only perimeter peer in permanence, didn’t have to go that hard with a pass-first mindset that was amazingly artful but left far less of an individual impression.

Oh, but paying that price: Bryant’s failing body is what is dictating to his mind and spirit that there is no future in this. That’s why what has happened to start his 20th season is irredeemable.   

Bryant, 37, got emotional just two minutes into his press conference late Sunday night, when he noted how steadfastly he still sticks to his work ethic behind the scenes.

“Even though I play like s–t,” he said, his voice cracking, “I work really, really hard to try not to.”

The shooting base just isn’t there anymore, and there’s no meditation, ice bath or German blood-spinning out there to fix that.

He might play like a know-it-all a lot of times, but no one has ever been as open to evolving in other ways. Every change Bryant made was a step in pursuit of excellence—or a return to excellence. He was his own Rocky workout montage.

The rehabs from the Achilles tendon, tibial plateau and rotator cuff were all supposed to be such steps. Turns out they weren’t. He’s not regaining that ground, and he knows it now.

Kobe Bryant’s Muse, his 2015 documentary, ended with him saying that feeling like a failure is to him “almost worse than death.”

The ongoing failure of his basketball performance meant it was unequivocally time for the career to die.

So here we are—reminded of Bryant’s sense of story through a timely retirement announcement and the coming career denouement he has clearly defined (plus his poem for The Players’ Tribune and reflective letter about Lakers fans inspiring him).

Bryant has offered the world context to accept his poor play, which is good for him. That he plans to spin his storytelling skill into his post-basketball business endeavors with Kobe, Inc., is also good for him.

Good for us, he has provided what we needed to hear: He’s not stupid; he’s not sad.

He’s just done, and here’s where the story ends.

 

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

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Kobe Bryant to Retire: Takeaways from Lakers Star’s Press Conference

Sunday night was emotional for Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant as he stepped onto the floor at Staples Center for the first time since announcing this is his final NBA season. 

While Bryant’s retirement had been a constant source of speculation since Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak brought it up on SiriusXM NBA Radio in May, the five-time NBA champion made the move official in a first-person article for the Players’ Tribune:

Following the Lakers’ 107-103 loss against the Indiana Pacers, in which he scored 13 points on 4-of-20 shooting, Bryant discussed his decision to retire in more detail. 

As far as when he decided this would be it, Bryant said it did not come out of the blue, per ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes:

Per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, Michael Jordan told Bryant to “just enjoy” the ride during his final season after Bryant informed the Chicago Bulls legend over the summer that this would be his last season. 

While it’s an emotional time for Bryant, he added that he’s comfortable with walking away, per Holmes and Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:

Expanding on that point, per Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters, Bryant said, “I just had to accept the fact that I don’t want to do this anymore and I’m OK with that.”

Never one to shy away from giving an honest assessment, Bryant critiqued his own performance this year, per Mike Trudell of TWC SportsNet:

As difficult as this season has been for Bryant and the Lakers, he admitted to taking something away from it already, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated:

Even though Bryant is fading away in his final season, hearing him talk about the beauty of Los Angeles’ 2-14 start was fascinating.

The expectations for the franchise were low before the season began and have only gone down over the last month, yet Bryant is around young talent such as Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell every day. He can see where the Lakers will go after he leaves. 

In fact, the 37-year-old joked that he is too old to even be considered an old guy on the Lakers roster, per Golliver:

Bryant may not be the same player who used to be regarded as one of the best in the NBA, but he’s still fighting with everything he has to help the Lakers win games and develop talent for the future. It’s going to be a long process, and he will have a small part in it before walking away.

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Dwight Howard on If He Learned Anything from Kobe Bryant: ‘Next Question’

The basketball world had itself a love-fest for Kobe Bryant on Sunday night.

Everyone except Dwight Howard took part in it.

After the Mamba announced that the 2015-16 season would be his last through the Players’ Tribune, Howard was asked about Bryant following the Houston Rockets’ victory over the New York Knicks.

The big man, who clashed with Bryant during his rocky 2012-13 campaign in Los Angeles, wasn’t feeling too sentimental:

Cold.

As Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post noted, though, Howard did actually go on to talk about Bryant’s career:

[Twitter]

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Kobe Bryant to Retire: Twitter Reacts to Lakers Star’s Announcement

Between Kobe Bryant‘s performance and injury issues over the last few years, most expected this to be his final season in the NBA.     

The Los Angeles Lakers star announced in an open letter on the Players’ Tribune that he’ll retire at the end of the 2015-16 campaign:  

Bryant also wrote an open letter for fans (via Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press):

“Sad. We talked about it last night,” said Lakers head coach Byron Scott, per the team’s Twitter account. “I told him it kind of shocked me when he told me.”

Scott also reminisced about Bryant’s career:

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (via the NBA’s Twitter account) provided a statement on the news:

 

Watching Kobe this year has been somewhat depressing for basketball fans everywhere. The greatest scorer of his generation, now 37, entered Sunday averaging 15.7 points a night on 31.5 percent shooting.

Sports Illustrated‘s Chris Mannix is of the opinion that Bryant’s final years will be largely forgotten much in the same way Michael Jordan’s seasons with the Washington Wizards were:

SportsCenter noted the numerous accolades Bryant has earned during his time on the court, which will overshadow the injury-plagued twilight of his legendary career:

For those interested in following the Kobe Bryant retirement tour, Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears highlighted the most interesting games left on the Lakers’ schedule:

The timing of Bryant’s announcement leaves fans with more than enough time to get their last looks at Kobe before he hangs it up for good. It certainly would’ve been a shame if he decided to retire with little fanfare at the end of the year.

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Kobe Bryant to Retire After 2015-16 Season: Latest Comments and Reaction

We’ve seen retirement press conferences. We’ve seen retirement open letters. We’ve seen retirement tweets. On Sunday, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant gave us a first: a retirement poem.

In a piece posted on the Players’ Tribune, Bryant wrote a poem titled “Dear Basketball,” which announces the future Hall of Famer’s intention to retire after the 2015-16 season:

You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
And I’ll always love you for it.
But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.
This season is all I have left to give.
My heart can take the pounding
My mind can handle the grind
But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.

Bryant, 37, will sit down with Good Morning America to further discuss the decision. In the final season of a two-year extension he signed with the Lakers in 2013, Bryant is averaging 15.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, all numbers that rank among the worst of his career. Struggling to work his way back into form after a series of injuries over the last three seasons, Bryant is shooting 31.5 percent from the field and 19.5 percent from three-point range.

His performance and shot selection have been the source of almost nonstop scorn, especially as the Lakers struggle their way to a 2-13 start. Some have wondered whether Bryant’s presence is actively detracting from the development of young talent like Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell, who have each struggled to get into a groove despite playing on an otherwise depleted roster.

“I would never, never, never do that,” Scott said when asked if he’d consider benching Bryant, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com. “That’s not an option whatsoever. No, that’s not an option.”

While the concept of a “legacy season” probably isn’t the smartest team-building outlook, if there is anyone who has earned it, Bryant is that person. He’s played his entire 20-year NBA career with the Lakers, making 17 All-Star teams, 15 All-NBA teams and 12 All-Defensive teams. The Lakers won five championships during his career, the first three coming in tandem with Shaquille O’Neal and the second built around Bryant and Pau Gasol.

Planning to stay a Laker for life, Bryant does not plan to pursue an overseas career, per ESPN’s Marc Stein. A global icon who spent a lot of his youth in Italy due to his father’s playing career, there had long been speculation about Bryant possibly finishing his career across the pond.  

Bryant sits atop of the Lakers record book in career points, steals, field goals made and seasons played, among others. Overall, Bryant is third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, having passed Michael Jordan just last season. NBA commissioner Adam Silver commented on his impending retirement, per Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck:

Suffice it to say that even if he end has been unfortunate—Bryant’s been either injured or ineffective since rupturing his Achilles in 2013—that it’s been a career worth celebrating. 

 

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter

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Byron Scott Says Benching Kobe Bryant ‘Not an Option’ for Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is having one of the worst seasons of his 20-year NBA career, averaging just 15.2 points per game while shooting 31.1 percent from the floor.

However, Lakers head coach Byron Scott said he will not take Bryant out of the starting lineup this season because of his lack of production, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com.

“I would never, never, never do that,” Scott said. “That’s not an option whatsoever. No, that’s not an option.”

Bryant, a 17-time All-Star, has earned the right to play if he wants, but right now, he’s not helping an inexperienced Lakers team that has the Western Conference’s worst record at 2-12.

His 16.4 shot attempts per game lead the team, but his effective field-goal percentage (which accounts for the fact that a three-pointer is worth more than a two-pointer) could go down as one of the worst in league history, per John Schuhmann of NBA.com:

Despite that, when asked if Scott’s plan is to try to keep Bryant healthy and continue with him as an integral part of the team, the coach was adamant that it is, per Holmes: “Absolutely. And we’ll just roll with the punches.”

That’s easier said than done, considering the 37-year-old Bryant has missed three games already, and he may sit out Sunday against the Indiana Pacers, per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.

Kobe is coming off back-to-back seasons in which injuries caused him to miss a total of 123 games. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith didn’t mince words earlier this week when he tweeted his thoughts on Kobe’s situation:

Calling for him to retire midseason is extreme, but there is no doubt that we are watching Bryant’s skills deteriorate before our eyes.

If Scott is publicly saying he won’t bench him, there is no way he can go back. Bryant is going to be part of the Lakers’ plans, whether fans want him to be or not, and it will be tough to watch one of the all-time greats go out like this.

Even though it may be hurting the team, Bryant will go out on his own terms. And that’s what Scott is letting him do.

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Kobe Bryant’s Role, Minutes Won’t Be Reduced, Says Lakers HC Byron Scott

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott insisted that Kobe Bryant‘s role on the team wouldn’t change despite his tough start to the season that included a 1-of-14 performance from the field against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday.   

“I haven’t thought about reducing his role,” Scott said Wednesday, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com. “I think his role is pretty defined for us right now. So is his minutes.”

Bryant, 37, is averaging 15.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 30.5 minutes per game, though he is shooting a career-worst 31.1 percent from the field and a dreadful 19.5 percent from beyond the arc. Scott said he was continuing to work with the future Hall of Famer and wasn’t worried about Bryant, who he expected to rediscover his shot as the year went on.

“I know his mentality is that he still feels that he can still play in this league, and we feel the same way,” the coach added.

Still, there is the concern that with Bryant playing the second most minutes on the team behind Jordan Clarkson and taking the most shots per game, he might be stifling the development of No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell. 

Charles Barkley of Turner Sports, for one, felt Bryant should retire after the year.

“Oh, yeah, this definitely should be it,” Barkley told Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “To me, this is like a farewell tour. Just go and play 25 minutes a night and let the NBA fans say, ‘Thank you for an amazing career.’ “

The Lakers might agree, considering Bryant represents a huge cap hit. And with the Lakers already 2-12 and headed for another lottery pick, handing the reins over to the next generation of players like Russell, Clarkson and Julius Randle seems wise. 

Time is not on Bryant’s side, after all.

“He’s one of the few players in NBA history to have gotten everything possible out of his body,” an Eastern Conference executive, who remained anonymous, added to the Times report. “Now his body has nothing left to give,” he said. “But that’s life in the NBA, in professional sports. At some point, the body just can’t do it anymore and Kobe’s body can’t do it anymore.”

Nonetheless, for now the team insists it won’t reduce Bryant’s role. If he doesn’t improve his play, however, the Lakers might not be left with much of a choice.

 

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It’s Time for LA Lakers, Byron Scott to Play Kobe Bryant off the Bench

LOS ANGELES — Overshadowing the sometimes-stumbling, sometimes-steady development of D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle, and a defense that deserves no single-word explanation other than “wow” to encapsulate how terrible it’s been, a crumbling Kobe Bryant is so far the most noteworthy theme of this Los Angeles Lakers’ season.

Questions about the 37-year-old’s surreal load whiz past head coach Byron Scott’s face every day, like immortal mosquitoes. But he bats them away as if nothing’s wrong and nobody should ponder why the Lakers still prioritize Bryant’s wishes above all else, regardless of his negative on-court effect or what all this early-season exertion is doing to his body.

In what’s more than likely the final season of a truly illustrious career, Bryant’s minutes, in a vacuum, are not without precedent. According to Basketball-Reference, there have been 13 other players, spread throughout 19 seasons, who at the age of 37 (or older) averaged at least 31 minutes per game. 

Bryant was barely over that benchmark before he only played 24 minutes in a 34-point loss against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, which pushed him down to a 30.5 minutes per game average. But contextually, that’s besides the point; all this is nonsensical. The Lakers have young players to develop, and long-term expectations to worry about. Bryant’s tendency to stop the ball and hoist hasty attempts early in the shot clock are damaging the team’s present day and immediate future.

The minutes should concern everyone involved, but don’t appear all that much of a worry to the only person’s opinion who really matters: Scott, Kobe’s coach, who let the longtime franchise cornerstone dangle for 37 minutes in an 11-point loss to the Toronto Raptors.

“I know the minutes, that was big for him tonight,” Scott said after that game. “But, again, I’m not worried about it. I just let him out there because I know we needed him out there.” He continued: “At the time when we’re trying to win the basketball game you try not to worry about it. But obviously after the game you worry about it.” 

Right. Bryant is shooting 31.1 percent from the floor and an unthinkably poor 19.5 percent behind the three-point line (on seven attempts per game!). He’s isolated on 41 possessions (13th most in the league) but ranks in the 21st percentile, averaging just 0.59 points per possession, per Synergy Sports.

These are just a bite-sized portion of plays where Bryant cripples L.A.’s rhythm and shatters any hope of offensive flow. His PER, True Shooting percentage and free-throw rate have never been lower. His three-point rate has never been higher.

Bryant acknowledges that syrupy ball movement is an issue, but does little on the court to massage it through. He shackles an offensive system that needs no help doing so by itself. According to SportVU, Bryant is averaging 29.8 passes per game, fewer than Enes Kanter, Mason Plumlee, Jordan Hill, Kevin Garnett and a very long list of guys who don’t play as often and/or aren’t the focal point of their team’s nightly game plan. 

While Scott blames the Lakers’ trickling flow on a lack of trust, Bryant is less than convinced. Standing at his locker after a 14-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers’ all-time leading scorer was asked how far L.A.’s ball movement was from where it should be: “Pretty far. You know we have games where we do much better and games where we don’t. It’ll be a constant process.”

These myriad problems figure to regress before they improve, and the only logical solution is either a drastic minutes cut, Bryant accepting a dramatically reduced role or, last but not least, retirement. Since none of those options are imminent or remotely realistic, the next best thing for Scott to do is stagger Bryant’s time so that a vast majority of his on-court experience is against inferior competition, bench players who won’t give him as much trouble one-on-one or make him exert the little defensive effort he has left to offer.

It’s an extremely depressing reality, spawned by pigheaded denial, but Scott, Bryant and the Lakers have selected this road, and no party shows the slightest sign of retreat. Six of Bryant’s 19 seasons have a lower usage percentage than what he’s at now. Six! According to Basketball-Reference, he sits at 29.5 percent—his career average is 31.8, fourth highest in NBA history, by the way—which is higher than John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, Kawhi Leonard and the list goes on and on and on. 

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Scott was already playing Bryant beside four bench players at the beginning of most every second and fourth quarters earlier this season. The bad news is he shortened his rotation on Sunday night before things went haywire at Oracle Arena.

The future is unclear. What’s not is Bryant’s relatively impressive production when facing opposing second units. According to Seth Partnow of Nylon Calculus, Bryant’s effective field goal percentage against starters (lineups that feature four or five members of that team’s original starting group) is 35.7 percent. His effective field goal percentage against bench players (lineups that feature between zero and two members of that team’s original starting group) is 48.8 percent. 

These numbers were lifted before Tuesday’s 1-for-14 debacle, and there’s a notable discrepancy between the two sample sizes. But it only makes sense for Bryant to shoot better in these situations, and it’s wise (again, relatively) for L.A. to embed him there as often as possible.

From everything seen on the court, bringing Kobe off the bench makes more than enough sense. Not only will he be able to perform as his most efficient self (hopefully) but (some of) his many defensive deficiencies will be masked as well. 

Per ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus statistic, Bryant is the 381st best player in the league right now. Something has to give.

It’s clear after every game: The most important number isn’t how many points Los Angeles scores or allows, it’s how many seconds their oldest player stands on the court. It’s increasingly sad and entirely too predictable.

Long hoisted as a symbol of hope and supreme authority, right now Bryant is pushing the Lakers deeper into a tar pit that’s already up to their forehead. 

 

All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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