What to Watch for in Kobe Bryant's 20th and (Perhaps?) Final Season
Kobe Bryant hasn't called it quits just yet. Every time he's been asked if the 2015-16 NBA season will be his last, he's answered with some variation of "We'll see."
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," he said at Lakers media day. "Hell if I know. I don't know."
Either way, the Black Mamba's latest (and perhaps last) comeback will be must-see TV.
Keeping Kobe on the Court
There will be no glorious swan song for Bryant if he's not healthy. Each of his last three seasons have ended with devastating injuries: a torn Achilles tendon in 2013, a fractured tibial plateau in 2014, a torn rotator cuff earlier this year.
So far, Bryant seems to be in solid shape. "I'm past the recovery phase," he said after the Lakers' 117-114 overtime preseason loss to the Utah Jazz in Honolulu, per the Los Angeles Daily News' Mark Medina. "It's about getting my timing down. I feel like I'm myself."
It'll be up to the team's coaching and training staff to keep Bryant in proper playing shape.
Monitoring the Mamba's minutes will be paramount to that effort. The Lakers have yet to determine just how much Bryant will play from night to night, as head coach Byron Scott told NBA.com's David Aldridge:
"I haven't given a hard cap on minutes right now, as far as how many minutes, but I do know that it won't be over 30. I know that for a fact. And Kobe probably knows that as well. Even though we didn't talk about numbers, we did talk about being able to sustain a level of play that he's accustomed to doing in a certain amount of time. Last year I made the mistake of playing him too much, and we could see he hit the wall after a certain period of time.
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In all likelihood, Scott and team trainer Gary Vitti will be extra cautious about Bryant's workload after last season.
Kobe of Old or Old Kobe?
Mere health won't be enough to satisfy many in Lakerdom, least of all the Mamba. When asked about his expectations for himself on the heels of three injury-plagued campaigns, Bryant responded, with more than a hint of sarcasm, "Nothing. Be average. I'll be average," per Medina.
That won't cut it for anyone—not the Lakers, who are paying Bryant a league-high $25 million this season; not their fans, who've continued to pay top dollar for seats at Staples Center, despite No. 24's absences; and certainly not for Kobe, who'd rather not conclude his decorated career with a whimper.
As Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding put it, "For Bryant's potentially final season to be a true success for him and the team, he has to recapture his dominance and his ability to play the 30-something minutes per night required of a superstar."
Trouble is, Bryant hasn't looked like a superstar in two-and-a-half years. The last anyone saw of Classic Kobe, he was busy playing upward of 45 minutes a game while dragging a star-studded, but disappointing, squad into the playoffs.
That stretch ended with Bryant hitting two free throws and limping off the Staples Center floor after blowing out his Achilles against the Golden State Warriors in 2013. Since then, he's averaged a sturdy 21.1 points per game but has shot just 37.8 percent from the field (28.5 percent from three) while turning the ball over four times an outing.
Same Number, Different Spots
Even if Bryant avoids injury and picks up his performance over time, he might not look like the Kobe of old, albeit by design. Scott has made it clear that he plans to play Bryant at forward, be it as the starting 3 or as a small-ball 4, as he explained to NBA.com:
"First of all, [at] the 3, it's less running. It's less pounding as far as being 20 feet away from the basket. We can put him in a much less condensed area. I know people lost their minds when I said the 4, but Golden State plays [Andre] Iguodala at the 4. So he can play the 4 at times. Against some of these lineups, he can play 3, 4, 1, 2. It's just how this league is going right now.
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Skill-wise, Bryant seems well-suited to a positional switch. He's long been a top-notch low-post operator, thanks to his bottomless bag of basketball tricks and cerebral approach to scoring. Whether at the 3 or the 4, he'll be tasked with scoring and dishing from some of his favorite spots on the floor.
Bryant's move is more about necessity than invention. On offense, he won't have to spend as much time running around the floor to get his shot. On defense, he may have trouble keeping up with just about anyone, but at least a slide up in position will allow him to track players who, in theory, should be slower than the shooting guards he's used to shadowing.
Bryant's switch in spots should also benefit the Lakers, now and going forward. Of all the positions, they're thinnest at the 3, where Nick Young and rookie Anthony Brown are the top options beyond Bryant.
And by playing as a wing-forward, Bryant's paved the way for Jordan Clarkson, an All-Rookie first-teamer last season, to join D'Angelo Russell and Julius Randle in the Lakers' starting lineup.
Coach Kobe
The team has pinned its hopes for the future on Clarkson, Russell and Randle. If those three talented youngsters develop both individually, as franchise cornerstones, and collectively, as a run-and-gun nucleus, they could restore the sheen to the Purple and Gold in due course.
Bryant will have a role to play in that, as well. The more he can do to mentor his newest proteges in not only what it takes to succeed in the NBA, but what makes a great Laker, the quicker his pupils can reach their potential and the better they'll be when they do.
That is, if they can avoid being starstruck while working alongside an all-time great.
"Something you got to get past, if we want to be the best we can be," Russell said, per ESPN's Baxter Holmes. "We've got to look at him as a mentor, not look at him as a fan [would]."
Bryant, for his part, doesn't intend to serve as an active extension of Scott's staff. For now, he's enriching the youth with his own oral tradition.
"It's just talking and sharing some of my stories and they want to know about how I did it," he said, per Holmes. "I'm just very frank and candid with them. I think it sinks in. It's important that they find their own way. I can only provide them with some of the knowledge and information that I have."
And what kind of knowledge and information might that be?
"The process and the journey and things to look out for. Not so much tactically about the game, more so emotional—kind of what separates good players from great players. What happens when players come in, first pick, second pick, third pick, and some go on to have great careers and some just fall by the wayside. And why do you think that is? What do you see?
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Balancing the Rebuild
Of course, the vast majority of Bryant's influence in these regards will come behind closed doors, beyond the visual field of folks watching from home or the stands at Staples Center. What people will see—and many more will likely criticize—is how Bryant handles deferring to his young running mates, especially in situations where his instincts tell him to take over like the old days.
As general manager Mitch Kupchak said at his pre-camp press conference in late September:
"I don't think it'll be any different than it has been in years past. He'll be 100 percent on board with the game plan. He'll be patient, as patient as can be. There will be a point where if things aren't going the way that he feels they should be going or the players aren't producing or his instincts will kick in, I'm sure he'll try to do much as much as possible. That's something that will once again flush itself out in training camp and the first six to eight weeks of the season. Hopefully everyone makes a contribution.
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That is, enough of a contribution to convince Bryant to step back and let the next generation lead the way. Not everyone believes he's capable of such acquiescence.
"When has he ever embraced anything even close to that over the last two to three years?" one scout asked ESPN's Baxter Holmes. "I don't think you're going to be able to change him to be in a role that he's never been in."
Then again, Bryant's never had this much young talent around him. Nor has the lasting leg of legacy ever stared him quite so squarely in the face as it does now. If Bryant wants what's best for the Lakers, he'll have to bite the bullet from time to time and let Randle, Russell, Clarkson and Co. fight through their growing pains.
But if the Lakers want what's best for their fans and their season, they won't hesitate to call Bryant's number in the kinds of dramatic moments that have defined his illustrious career.
To that end, striking the right balance between winning a little now and winning a lot later won't be on Bryant alone. Scott, for one, knows that Bryant might not be buttering L.A.'s bread for long.
"My future is Randle, Russell and Clarkson right now," Scott said during a recent chat with Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd. "Those three guys. We know that they're going to be here for a number of years. We do know these young guys that we have are obviously the future of Los Angeles."
The onus is on Scott, more than anyone, to find a happy medium between propping up Bryant right now and prepping the franchise's foundation for years to come.
More Mamba Milestones
What Kobe can do for himself, when he's not busy helping his successors, is continue to add to his extensive resume.
Bryant won't be touching the No. 2 spot on the all-time scoring list unless he has another season (or two) to close the 4,447-point gap that stands between him and one-time teammate Karl Malone.
Not that there aren't other statistical lists for him to climb. He's just 76 steals shy of topping Derek Harper for 13th place and 102 from Allen Iverson at No. 12. If he suits up for 56 games in 2015-16, he'll leap from 20th to 10th all time in that regard.
Bryant should surpass old pal Shaquille O'Neal on the career field-goals list within the first game or two, assuming he's able to knock down at least 10 shots in that span. And with 386 more successful trips to the stripe, he'll surpass the late, great Moses Malone for second place among the game's most prolific free-throw shooters.
| Games | 1,280 (20th) | Charles Oakley - 1,282 | 3 |
| Steals | 1,882 (14th) | Derek Harper - 1,957 | 76 |
| Field Goals | 11,321 (6th) | Shaquille O'Neal - 11,330 | 10 |
| Free Throws | 8,146 (3rd) | Moses Malone - 8,531 | 386 |
But the biggest milestone on offer for Bryant this season won't require that he do anything more than suit up for one game. With that, Bryant will become the first player to spend 20 years with the same franchise. That speaks volumes of his individual greatness, longevity and inextricable ties to the Lakers organization.
Even if the Lakers stink for a third straight season, Bryant's mere presence will once again make their games worthy of appointment viewing. That's the power of the Mamba.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
