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I've watched Kobe his entire career. I didn't, however, pay as much attention to the fine details and statistics. As far as pure statistics, I can see that he was probably more efficient (shooting percentage-wise) during the Shaq era, and that his volume of scoring increased, with a slight decrease in efficiency post-Shaq. The reason for me is pretty simple: teams were able to double and triple team Kobe when he was on bad teams; also, we can't ignore that he hasn't always had the best shot selection.

It's pretty tough, but I would personally go post-Shaq. To me, I feel that he dominated games more as a player, and specifically, dominated the most important games in the playoffs of the Lakers championship runs.

post shaq - pre pau.


smush/luke/kwame

dockingsched wrote:post shaq - pre pau.


smush/luke/kwame

the worst situations bring out the best in you.

dockingsched wrote:post shaq - pre pau.


smush/luke/kwame

its sad but it was these times..

2003-04 to 2007-08 were his best years.

dockingsched wrote:post shaq - pre pau.


smush/luke/kwame

I agree, I was thinking about this the other day, his prime was wasted on by far what were the worst lakers teams he was on.

01-03 he was great, but 06-08 he was better

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:2003-04 to 2007-08 were his best years.

he wasnt as good in 04 and 05 as he was from 01-03 and 06-08

he hasnt reached his prime yet.

He was just as good a player in 05 as any other year before going down. The injuries and lack of offensive structure/coaching are what mar that season from Kobe. Pure ability-wise he was near the top of his game, athletically and skills-wise.

I consider his prime to be 2001-2008, with the middle years 2003-2006 being the apex. 2008 pretty close to that. Was not impressed by 2007 personally.

2004 too injury and distraction riddled to compare imo.

what many people dont realize is that kobe gained some weight back in the 2003 off season and as a result, his 03-04 and 04-05 seasons were sub par as someone who's followed his whole career. having said that, his best year when you talk about offense and defense combined was 2003 imo. offensively he reached his peak in the 05-06 and 06-07 seasons, watching him play you just knew he could literally drop 40 every game if he wanted to.

That Nicka wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:2003-04 to 2007-08 were his best years.

he wasnt as good in 04 and 05 as he was from 01-03 and 06-08

I think 04-05 was the only bad season and he made 3rd team all NBA.

Some really good arguments, guys. The only thing I would add is that he was scoring a lot of points, but during that particular period of time, he had a drop-off in his efficiency (i.e. field goal percentage). For me, I really like how he dominated the two playoff runs recently (minus some games in the Boston finals). I guess that there's probably no such thing as a single peak in his prime, but rather several peaks during his career.

I've often thought his 2008-09 season was when we has at the peak of his powers in all aspects of his game....he knew how good he was and what he could do the opposition, but he had matured enough and was able to pick his moments better than ever before, bringing his team mates into the game and being that on court leader- that to me is when someone is at their peak.

dockingsched wrote:post shaq - pre pau. smush/luke/kwame

agree

disagree- But not entirely. Kobe was better after Shaq, but I think he took it to a different level post Pau. his game became less about stats and more about leading the team. after Pau he did not have to go buck wild with the ppg and that stat suffered. his ability to lead the team to 3 final apearences was more impresive in the long run. he made the adjustments to his game in order to get the rings and those adjustments made him a better team player while still being in the MVP conversation every year.

aussie_laker wrote:I've often thought his 2008-09 season was when we has at the peak of his powers in all aspects of his game....he knew how good he was and what he could do the opposition, but he had matured enough and was able to pick his moments better than ever before, bringing his team mates into the game and being that on court leader- that to me is when someone is at their peak.

FTW

Once I play 2K12 I'll be able to let you know.

It was definitely post-Shaq and pre-Gasol. It's a shame he had to play with guys like Smush Parker and Kwame Brown during his prime years.

2005-2010 (From the 35 PPG Kobe to the 5 champion Kobe).

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:

That Nicka wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:2003-04 to 2007-08 were his best years.

he wasnt as good in 04 and 05 as he was from 01-03 and 06-08

I think 04-05 was the only bad season and he made 3rd team all NBA.

3rd team is bad when you are perennially all 1st team lol... And 04 was the atrocious finals... I stand by my initial remark that he wasn't as good in 04-05 as he was from 01-03 and 06-08

Its debatable but I think he was at his peak before the Pau acquisition. His skills today might be a tad more refined but during those years he did so much more with his body on the floor because he was still relatively young.

We didn't have any legitimate scoring option on the team so teams geared their defense on him but still failed miserably most of the time. He scored pretty much whenever he wanted despite doing the same thing from game to game. A bad shooting night usually meant his shot just wasn't dropping and had little to do with the defense.