Bynum as the first option?

[Patterns]

Run the offense through Pau. He will be like the Duncan of our team with Bynum acting as an "Oberto", Kobe as Ginobili, etc.

It might sound weird but our offense shouldn't go through Kobe now that we have probably the best PF/C combo in the league. It'd make things a lot easier for Kobe too.

Kobe can and still will lead the team in scoring but I believe our offense would be best running from Pau.

[ClubLakers KB8]

Any team featuring a prime Kobe Bryant can have no other first option. Bynum though should definitely be #2. Open the game up for him and everything else falls right into place.

[Big Bird]

^^Exactly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for encouraging ball movement and a diverse offense, but it's pretty unreasonable to expect that all of a sudden Kobe will turn into a spectator on offense. I mean, he hasn't averaged under 20 FGA/game since the first championship run (with the exception of the 03/04 season) and I think it's pretty reasonable to have him shoot the ball somewhere in that vicinity. After all, he is one of the best offensive weapons of all time... do we really want him playing the Pippen role just so Bynum, Gasol and Odom get their points and touches? I think that wouldn't benefit the team. If anything I'd expect/like all three to learn how to create scoring opportunities for themselves. That would really be taking a lot of the burden off Kobe's shoulders. Although, given their age, Bynum is probably the only one who could be able to do that. Kobe's demonstrated throughout his career that he'll do whatever it takes to win, whether it's scoring 65 points or dishing out 15 assists... the question is, can the other 3 of the Big Four mesh their style of play to suit their teammates best? I'm not sold that making Bynum (or Gasol for that matter) the first scoring option will solve that, especially for reasons already brought up in this thread by other posters.

Anyway, Kno pretty much nailed it on the head with his assessment and that's how the team mentality started shaping out after Bynum went down. We went from Kobe leading the team in scoring 75 out of the 80 games he played in (2005/06) to 65 out of 82 last year (with the majority of those of course coming as soon as a respectable 2nd option arrived - and that of course aslo discounts for what could've been had Gasol not gone down - 10 games where Kobe was essentially the only true offensive threat (well, other than the Machine, of course) and led the team in scoring each and every time). So going by that pattern + the return of another capable scorer (Bynum) and with more (especially in Kobe's eyes) trustworthy teammates (Sasha and Farmar of this season will be significant upgrades over Sasha and Farmar of last offseason), I expect Kobe's FGA to be somewhere between 18-20 per game and a lot more balanced offensive output by our starters, with all 5 being able to lead the team in scoring on any given night. But that doesn't mean Kobe won't still be the first option (as he should be) on offense, since he is the most capable of creating not only for himself but his teammates also. You simply don't run a team with Kobe Bryant on it by diminishing his role on offense and making it flow through an unproven 20-year old center without a solid and effective go-to move (and this isn't even meant as a knock on Bynum, who will be a great center in this league, imo).

But yeah, our offense should be really scary come next year and I doubt there will be a lot of problems (knock knock). Now if only our defense could follow...

[Anklebreaker702]

IMO any player that has it going you keep feeding him. This is not going to be a popular thing to say but that is how we will see if Kobe has really matured. IMO sometimes he doesn't like to be upstaged i.e. when Pau was killing Denver in the 1st game of the playoffs, Kobe didn't have it that day but he just kept jacking up shots from everywhere seemingly to not want Pau to upstage him. Now again that's only IMO I actually hope it's not so. But if Bynum gets it going ride the train until it slows down. He has the makings of a great Center even if it's not time to make him the 1st option all the time yet, get ready for it.

You do realize that the difference in shot attempts from GM1 to GM2 in the first round of the playoffs againt Denver was 1 shot. So if you call that jacking up shots....I guess. Kobe, the number one option, should be taking about 25-27 shot attempts every game. If nothing more but to keep the defense honest. So weather hot or cold he attempted pretty much the same amount. Im not to worried about Kobe's maturity.

Obviously i have been off the board for a while or I would have ran you into the buzz saw right after you posted this quote. What the hell does game 2 have to do with game 1? Since it's obvious you don't know i'll make clear. Kobe was on fire in game 2. I started my quote by saying ride with a player when he's hot. Pau had it going & Kobe couldn't his an Elephants a** with an irioning board in game 1 That is why i called it jackin up shots because that is exactly what he was doing. Pau had 34 @ the end of 3 & Kobe was something like 9 for 32 or something of that nature. There is no way Pau shouldn't have gotten 40 unless he started missing shots. So you ride Pau the rest rest of that game or until you start to see fatigue settle in. So if you're not worried about Kobe's maturity, that's fine, but it's an observation of mine that he tends to be immature on & off the court at tmes. 25-27 shots is to many shots for him to take this upcoming season with the talent he has around him unless he has it going. I'm sure he's not walking around with a shot counter in his jock strap trying to check to see if he's reached a total # of shots. It's all in the flow of the game & if we need his scoring ability. On a night he has it going i don't care if he shoots 35 times.

[Chubby Chaser]

With a team as stacked as ours the first option should be whoever is open. I just want to make sure that we move the ball around and get the ball into the post on every possession. Kobe should keep an eye on the offense and take over when need be. It wouldn't surprise me if next season we would have a different leading game scorer each game, with the leader having maybe 22 points or less. I expect a lot of balance offensively with our top 4 hovering around 14-18 points respectively. It's going to be an art form watching our offense next year.