Jackson says this should be Kobe's MVP season

[timebandit]

Coach says his star player has made his teammates better.
By Jonathan Abrams, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 3, 2008
This year's most-valuable-player race is expected to be close. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson's nominee is the one he has seen up close for a while.

"Best year ever as far as an overall team player," Jackson said of Kobe Bryant. "I think the judgment that I kind of make is, how much better do you make your teammates? This has been one of Kobe's finest years in that regard."

Jackson also credited Derek Fisher's return and steadying influence as improving Bryant's comfort level.

But of course, every nominee has someone supporting that role.

"I take a lot of the credit myself. I haven't been playing lately, so Kobe has to have a lot of it," Jackson deadpanned.

Jackson said he is not shocked that Bryant has not won an MVP award in his 11-year career.

"With Shaq[uille] O'Neal on his team for [eight] of those years, basically Kobe was going to be a second choice as far as the most valuable player on that team," he said. "Since that time, not making the playoffs the subsequent year, there wasn't an opportunity.

"The following year, he really had an exceptional year. He led the league in scoring. He had some outrageous games . . . that was the year that I would have guessed he could have been named as MVP, but with [ Steve] Nash coming and the really unbelievable season Phoenix had, you had to consider that as a factor."

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Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak, who was cheered at an annual "town-hall meeting" with season-ticket holders Tuesday night at Staples Center, provided a few additional revelations from that session.

He suggested it would be a quiet off-season for the Lakers, whose acquisition of Pau Gasol (three more years and $49.4 million) launched them well into luxury-tax territory.

"We won't be in the free-agent market for a significant star player," Kupchak said. "We're looking for a veteran who can maybe play 15 minutes a night."

Kupchak also blamed a string of poor defensive efforts on attrition, pointing out that the Lakers had been without three 7-footers and injured forward Trevor Ariza, who he said was the team's best defensive player.

"You extend and extend and it finally catches up with you," Kupchak said. "Give Phil credit with the players we're missing, especially in the games in Dallas and Utah."

We all know Kobe is way over due and Paul is not even a vet yet! So give the man his MVP..

[Erik Eleven]

I co-sign with all of what the two of them said ^.

[timebandit]

Kupchak also blamed a string of poor defensive efforts on attrition, pointing out that the Lakers had been without three 7-footers and injured forward Trevor Ariza, who he said was the team's best defensive player... This means Ariza will be signed again because the man that will sign hin is saying Ariza is the best defensive player on the Lakers right????

[Dexmor]

Yeah they will resign there own and maybe a guy who wants to bandwagon a ring, a cheap vet.

[Joe Kleazy]

I had to bring over this excellent post from Jules Winnfield that sums up this MVP voting thing through pure research and if I could fit it I would put this in my damn signature due to it being so ON POINT. ( for those that have not come across it yet)


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Again, I think Kobe Bryant deserves MVP:

They are 1 1/2 games back of New Orleans (1st place).

They Lakers are only one game worse at home than New Orleans

The Lakers are one game worse on the road than New Orleans

They Lakers have a better division record and they have the exact same record against the Western Conference.

The Lakers have a larger margin of victory than the hornets.

I think any reasonable person would look at the results of all this and conclude that the Hornets and Lakers are roughly a similar quality team.

BUT: Pau Gasol has been a Laker for 31 games. That means he's been on the roster for about 41% of the Lakers season so far (31/75). He's missed 12 games. The 10 starting at New Orleans and ending with Washington. And he's missed 2 games where he was a Laker but hadn't been acclimated to the system (Toronto, Washington). So he's missed 12 of those 31 games or 39% of the games he's been a Laker.

So look at that. Pau Gasol has been a Laker for over 40% of the Lakers' season, but has missed over a third of the games he has been on the roster.

Andrew Bynum has been on the roster all year. He has played 35 games this season. That means he has missed 40 games! He has missed 53.3% of the season!

The Lakers have played 20 games without either Bynum or Gasol in the lineup. That's 26% of the Lakers season! To put in perspective, that's over a quarter of the Lakers' NBA season with almost no frontline.


Now look at the Hornets:

David West has played in 68 of 74 games. That means he's played in 92% of New Orleans' games so far.

Tyson Chandler has played in 71 of 74 games. That means he's played in 96% of New Orleans' games.

Peja has played in 69 of the 74 games. That means he's played in 93.2% of New Orleans' games.

That would be enough to put the Lakers injury situation into context versus New Orleans, BUT WAIT, there's more.

Peja missed games on 12/9, 12/12, 12/15, 12/17, 12/19

Tyson missed games on 11/21, 2/6, 2/9

West missed games on 1/5, 3/5, 3/7, 3/8, 3/16, 3/17

What is interesting here is that of Paul's top 3 supporting players NONE OF THEM EVER missed a game on the same day. Not once. Ever. It happened to Kobe for over a quarter of the Lakers' seasaon (20/75). It NEVER happened to Paul.

Yet the Lakers are only 1 1/2 games back from first in the West.

And people say Bryant isn't the MVP compared to Paul?

[timebandit]

Paul had his whole team there this season in which Kobe has not!
Bynum went down along with Ariza, Pau and Odom got hurt so lets not forget with kobe's season with he himself finger injured in all should be the MVP!! Not even close!!!!!!!
Good laker talk radio station Link http://www.am570radio.com/main.html

[Phil Jackson]

Phil Jackson is right.

[timebandit]

This should really be his third!! Should this not be his year we should burn this mutha folker down!!!

[UThinkUrSoGood]

Not that I don't agree with Phil, its juss the only thing I don't like about this is that Phil also said we wouldn't win 50 games this season

[ImmortalD24]

Phil Jackson is right.

[Squirrel Boy]

Kobe is and will forever be God.

[milesfides]

I hate the argument that Chris Paul doesn't deserve the MVP because he's young and Kobe's been denied the award for so long. If Paul deserves it more, he should get it.

But I don't Paul should, because he had better support for the year. For Kobe, Bynum was out for half the year, and Gasol was out for nearly a month after that. Considering we're right up there despite those injuries to our pivotal players, and considering Kobe's role in keeping our team competitive, that should be the deciding factor.

[dockingsched]

but kobe lost to memphis and charlotte, at home, back to back!!!!!!

[Jules Winnfield]

OH NO, Not back to back losses to Memphis and Charlotte at home!!

Kobe can't be MVP!

But examine the situation a little bit closer

Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio (rd), Dallas (rd), Cleveland, New York, Detroit(rd), Toronto(rd), Washington(rd), Houston (Rd), Dallas (Rd), Utah (Rd), Seattle(rd), Golden State (X2, 1rd) Washington, Memphis, Charlotte. Lakers went 10-10 on this schedule without Bynum or Gasol.

Let's look at Paul's record with these games:

Seattle (rd, hm) - W, W
Phoenix - W
Denver - W
San Antonio 2/23 (rd) - L
Dallas 12/14(rd) - L
Cleveland - W
New York - (haven't played them at home yet)
Detroit (rd) - L
Toronto (rd) - W
Washington (Rd, Hm) - L, L
Houston (rd) - L
Utah 2/4 (rd) - L
Dallas (rd) - (haven't played dallas for a second time on the road yet)
Golden State - W, L
Memphis -W
Charlotte - W

The exact same games Paul went 1 game over .500.

He was 9-8 with a healthy Hornets squad.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/players/...yerId=2779


So Paul with a healthy Hornets squad goes only 1 game over .500 while the Lakers managed to go .500 WITHOUT Gasol or Bynum.

[milesfides]

That's an interesting comparison, but yeah, the records are really close enough among the top Western Conf. teams to dismiss a couple games difference, imo. That the Hornets won a couple more, meh. What Kobe has done with all the injuries should be considered a much bigger factor.

Also, i think dcash was being sarcastic!

[Jules Winnfield]

That's an interesting comparison, but yeah, the records are really close enough among the top Western Conf. teams to dismiss a couple games difference, imo. That the Hornets won a couple more, meh. What Kobe has done with all the injuries should be considered a much bigger factor.

Also, i think dcash was being sarcastic!

Yeah, Dcash is my guy. I know he was being sarcastic. I was trying to play along, but couldn't do it cause people are actually taking those 2 games out of 75 out of context and saying that is why Paul should be MVP.

[dub81]

I hate to do this, but I have to.

If it wasn't for the amazing season that CP3 is having, I would have to give it to Kobe. But I read a stat that says something like 60% of the points that the Hornet's making are coming from CP3. It's pretty amazing. I did not even think the Hornet's could even make the playoffs, but they are probaly going to be the 1st seed in the Western Conf. Thats a big accomplishment on it's own.

Gotta give it to him. Even though I don't want to.

[milesfides]

^fair play and oh YEAAAAH

[semi-sentient]

I'm not sure how he could be responsible for 60% of the points, let alone 50%.

The Hornets score 100.7 PPG.

CP3 scores 21.4 PPG. He dishes out 11.4 AST, so if we double that then we get 22.8. Say 4 of those assists are 3's... that makes Paul responsible for 48.2 out of 100.7 PPG, which is around 48%.

By contrast, Kobe is responsible for around 42%.

[semi-sentient]

DP