Kobe's Roaming Defense

[YiYaoYue]

With Artest, I really hope Kobe stops doing this and just stick to his man. This type of defense really hurt the Laker's against Boston as 3 pt shooting role players were left open while kobe was trying to prevent allen/pierce from getting the ball. Kobe needs to go back to the defense he showed in USA Team and lockdown on a player. With two players who can do this on the perimeter, there probably won't be a need to try and gaurd the entire backcourt and cause confusion and missed assignments in rotations. The frontcourt has tall defenders so no problems there.

[Patterns]

Play Spurs defense. Forget the steals. Man up and rebound.

[Lakerholic44]

I'm not a Kobe fan or Kobe apologist, never have been. I'm a Lakers fan.

However, Kobe man's up when he needs to and does it great.

The roaming thing against Boston last year, was completely necessary, because Pierce and others were killing LA and he was simply daring Rondo to take outside jumper. Well played.

This post-season, he did the same roaming thing against Brewer, Battier, Jones, and Lee. And Kobe's help defense was crucial in helping to slow down other team's big men and/or top scorers. Great strategy overall and one can't argue with the results.

However, how one cannot see the job that Kobe would did on Artest, Anthony, Lewis etc. when he switched over to them after Ariza was getting punked by them is beyond me. Kobe went up against them and battled, not only on the perimeter, but on the low post. It's as if he literally would say, "Trevor, this is how you do it, now take notes..and man-up for the rest of the series." And lo and behold, Trevor did get more aggressive and assertive on defense.

[Rubynator]

Well we got Ron Ron so defense won't be a problem.

[Dr Aki]

i swear kobe's sometimes trying to stat pad when he begins to roam around

and every now and again he rewards us with a 4 stl, 3 blk game

but generally we get pissed off at him ignoring his man, who is usually the worst jump-shooter on the team, so its probably even magnified harder when kobe's man hits those open 3s

in the end, its probably by design, it allows kobe to rest slightly on defense and half the time it stuffs up opposition offensive flow...

[iamworthy]

Kobe will do whatever Phil Jackson says.

[dingclancy]

i swear kobe's sometimes trying to stat pad when he begins to roam around

and every now and again he rewards us with a 4 stl, 3 blk game

but generally we get pissed off at him ignoring his man, who is usually the worst jump-shooter on the team, so its probably even magnified harder when kobe's man hits those open 3s

in the end, its probably by design, it allows kobe to rest slightly on defense and half the time it stuffs up opposition offensive flow...

Yes it is by design. Phil always like to pick one player from the opposing team and dare him to make his team win. For Phil, he like the 5 on 4 matchup and leave the worst player on the floor open. In the long run, it makes sense, even if you think the guy is getting wide open shots. That always happens with every team although we seem to play that tactic more deliberately.

[CowsMoo]

Too many asian girls.