I merged a few of the Kobe threads together to keep things coherent.... I think it provides a better timeline to all this too...
And here's a post I made on the game thread...
Kilroy wrote:I haven't always been a fan of Kobe's shoot first and always style of play...
But I still say there's logic to him taking that role this season, especially under D'Antoni. This team lacks scorers. And they have the individual talent to shine no matter what Kobe's doing. I think on paper, D'Antoni's system needed Kobe to shoot more, especially outside to try to spread the floor for Pau and Dwight. And with Nash on the team, I think the assumption was that he'd take the facilitation duties off Kobe's plate.
So I don't fault Kobe this season.
I know the argument could be made that he should have recognized the detriment he was having on the team earlier, but I don't think it was his decision in the first place. I think it took the whole team basically going off the reservation, to get it changed. They're playing a system that seems to have been devised by Kobe and Pau, and everyone is feeding off of it.
Basically I think if everyone was playing like we all expected them to play, Kobe shooting a lot wouldn't matter. If Nash was Nash from last year, Kobe wouldn't have to be such a facilitator. If Dwight was the dominant interior force he was in the pass, Kobe wouldn't have to focus on scoring and defending as much. If Pau was half the player he was in the Olympics, even more facilitation duties and scoring duties would be off his plate. But since nobody has been terribly effective, Kobe needs to facilitate more.
I'm not going to blame him for that approach this year, but I'm glad he threw away the playbook and found a way to help the team be effective.
Good for him. Good for them. Good for us.
Now let's just build on it and stop harping on the past.
Never have rice at Hanzo's house...