Kobe Bryant: Reasons a Lesser Role for Kobe Could Help the Los Angles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant, for the past decade, has been one of the best players in the NBA, if not the best in that time period.
He has put his name in the history books as being one of the best Lakers of all-time and one of the best players in the history of the game.
Kobe has shown the ability to take over any game at any time and hit any shot that is necessary to win the game, and he has been rewarded for that ability with five NBA Championships.
Now, however, the Lakers see a different, aging Kobe Bryant, and while he is easily capable of continuing to do what he has done for the majority of his career, he should take a step back and ratchet down his production for the time being.
If he does, it could benefit the Lakers in more ways than one, and could make them a more complete and even better team, if that even seems possible.
He's Got Pau Gasol
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If there is one thing that great players know how to do, it's coexist with other great players, and Kobe has shown the ability to do that with Pau Gasol in the past few seasons.
In the past two seasons with the Lakers, however, Gasol averaged around 18 points per game, a great number for a second option on any team.
This year, Gasol is averaging 22 points per game and looking like an early season MVP candidate, one that could star on almost any team and drag them into the playoffs.
With the increased production from Gasol, and his increased shooting percentage, the Lakers could easily survive if Kobe were to take an extra few minutes on the bench each game.
They Need a Facilitator
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Last season, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom were the top three players in assists for the Lakers. Two forwards and a shooting guard leading your team in assists is a bit unorthodox, to say the least.
The Lakers still rank second in assists per game with 24.5, just behind Boston, who has 26, even without a point guard who can distribute the ball with ease.
If Kobe were to back off and become that distributor, something he is easily able to do, it will open Derek Fisher up to shoot more over the course of a game, something he is still capable of easily doing.
Kobe has an excellent basketball IQ and could either run the offense as a hybrid guard or do it as an intermediary as he has done in the past, but on a higher scale.
With the Lakers moving the ball as well as they are, Kobe becoming an even better passer would leave defenses baffled.
He Can Shoot Fewer Threes
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Kobe Bryant is a great shooter, and he knows it. The problem is, sometimes he refuses to believe that he is having a bad night and will try to take the game over while taking and missing a large number of shots.
This is something he has mainly done from the three-point line over the years, and he has done it once this season.
In their first loss of the season to Denver, Kobe jacked-up 10 threes, making only three. In three games in October, he only shot 12 three-pointers.
Kobe can be a stubborn player, which is sometimes a good thing, but if he were to back down from time to time and pass the ball when thinking about shooting a trey, he can get it to better distance shooters like Fisher, Shannon Brown or Steven Blake.
He Can Get His Team More Experienced
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With Kobe Bryant taking a slightly lesser role on the Lakers, it will force his teammates to step up and make up the production that Kobe would normally put up.
Him being a facilitator or spending more minutes on the bench would give other players more reps shooting the ball in big games or give players more playing time and experience.
This would be invaluable to the team come the time when the playoffs roll around in April.
If you have a team who has players who have played respectable minutes all season long, then you can expect them to do good things in the playoffs and help get this team to another three-peat.
Save Those Knees
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Kobe has shown very few signs of slowing down, even though he is getting up there in years, now sitting at 32 with 14 years of NBA basketball under his belt.
He has logged nearly 40,000 minutes of basketball in the past decade and a half, and if there is one thing that you can't fight without some "supplements" from a baseball "doctor," it's father time.
So consider the reduced minutes as a preemptive strike on old age, giving him less minutes during the season, leading to less banging his knees around and less chance of injury.
Plus, he would have legs that would be less sore at the end of the season and into the playoffs, where he can really let loose.
Most players start to have a decline when they hit 30-35,000 minutes, let alone 40,000, something that Kobe has shown no signs of doing so far, and giving him fewer minutes would create less of a chance for that to happen.
