Bryant is a great passer. That is what makes it so frustrating to watch him hijack L.A. possessions. Bryant passes as a last resort, when the extra defensive attention has made it too difficult for him to get off a makeable shot.
Again: He’s great at those passes. He’s a savant at anticipating defensive rotations, rather than reacting to ones that have already happened, and spotting the right player. These passes help. But they’re Old NBA passes that come only after an Old NBA scoring tactic has failed. They are almost a form of surrender.
Bryant made a pile of batshit-crazy shots against Atlanta, because he’s an incredibly skilled player capable of making batshit-crazy shots from 20 feet away with Thabo Sefolosha inside his jersey. He’s averaging more than eight foul shots per game, because even though he can’t get to the rim like he used to, Bryant is a damned artist when it comes to footwork, pump fakes, and pivot moves. He attacked the rim for a layup down the stretch of that Houston game with an explosion that was, frankly, astonishing given the two massive injuries he suffered in the last 18 months.
On Lakers' free agency:
The Lakers, for instance, showed initial interest in Lowry, but told him and his agent, Andy Miller, that they simply could not offer Lowry a contract until they heard a final answer from Anthony and James, Miller says. They contacted the agents for some of those other B-level players with similar tepid overtures, per several league sources. Stephenson told me the Lakers contacted him early in free agency but never followed up. Thomas says he badly wanted to be a Laker, but that the team showed no interest.
On The Future:
Part of being normal, at least for some teams, is chasing the B-level free agents — the Al Jeffersons and Lance Stephensons — while the glamour boys fight for the best guys. The Lakers get meetings with everyone, and they always will. That doesn’t mean they are the front-runner for any superstar, and to get there, they might have to beef up the roster first.
“I’m not going to tell you the only kind of free agent we’ll pursue is the superstar,” Kupchak says. “It depends on a lot of things — who you draft, who you trade for.”
The Lakers are far from the championship level to which they’ve become accustomed. They are in the wilderness, really, for the first time in the history of the franchise. There is no obvious way out — yet. In the meantime, they are still one of the best shows in the league — in their own way.
Zach Lowe | Grantland
Some of his opinions about Kobe's game are perfectly true and something we'll always wonder why.
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