Why We Still Haven't Seen the Best of Kobe Bryant This Season

Kobe Bryant is having a fantastic season for the Los Angeles Lakers so far this year, especially for his age. However, his best basketball of the season is still yet to come.

While Bryant's scoring has been near the caliber it was back in the 2006 and 2007 seasons, he still has a way to go before he truly plays his best.

The key to this is games like the one with Washington last week, in which Bryant shot 9-for-31 from the field, missing more shots than big men Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol even took.

Bryant has to do what is best for his team and become more of a facilitator. The offense cannot just be about him when he's got two very offensively talented seven footers in the lane.

Granted, Bryant doesn't have much help on the outside other than himself, but if he would feed the post more often, even he would get more open looks.

Passing is Fun Too

So far this season, Kobe Bryant is averaging 4.8 assists per game, which is pretty good for a shooting guard that is his team’s primary scorer.

However, this team needs more than that from its superstar. They need him to distribute the ball more and take fewer shots.

Right now, Bryant is averaging a ridiculous 24 shots per game. That’s the highest in the league, which just shouldn’t be the case.

Together, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are averaging about 24 or 25 shots per game. Basically, Bryant shoots half the shots and the Gasol/Bynum beast makes up the other half.

Gasol and Bynum need more shots. I can’t blame Bryant for not passing to the other guys on the team like Metta World Peace, Matt Barnes and Derek Fisher as much. Those guys aren’t going to help him.

However, Bynum and Gasol are the biggest advantage the Lakers have over other teams, even a bigger advantage than Bryant. He will be playing his best ball of the season when he figures out that he needs to take five or six fewer shots (at least) and get the ball to the bigs.

Fewer Shots, Smarter Shots

Bryant is shooting 43.5 percent from the field so far this season, which is the lowest he’s shot in a season since 2005. The reason is because he’s overdoing it by taking so many shots, but also because he’s not taking the best shots he can get. That means his own shot as well as those for teammates.

He’s a bit older now, but he needs to get to the lane a bit more and stop settling so much for outside jumpers.

He doesn’t need to change this up a whole lot, but just a few times per game. It keeps the defense off balance and gets him higher percentage shots. Passing the ball out of the lane could be effective for the team too.

Not only does passing the ball more affect how well the team does, but it will also affect his individual production by getting him better shots.

When Bryant is efficient, he and his team are nearly unstoppable. They have a shooting guard on the outside that is one of the most lethal scorers in the history of the game and two twin towers on the inside who can play great offensively and defensively.

A Case in Point

On Sunday, March 11th, the Lakers showed exactly how they could best win in the NBA.

Bryant had a pretty efficient 26 points to lead his team, along with seven assists and three rebounds. He also took just 20 shots, as opposed to the 27 combined shots put up by Gasol and Bynum.

Gasol and Bynum combined for 33 points and 27 rebounds, showcasing their joint dominance against a once-vaunted Celtics front line.

A few supporting players also helped out, with World Peace chipping in 14 points and Fisher adding nine.

That’s the blueprint for how this team can win going forward: Bryant shooting a bit less and distributing a bit more while Gasol and Bynum do their thing in the paint. They’ll also need those supporting guys to chip in a bit, which may not be as easy to count on.

The point is that Bryant must make his whole team better as he did against Boston that day.

Lakers coach Mike Brown already gave Bryant his MVP support. Hold on, not just yet, coach. Let’s see how much better he can really be.