Henry Abbot: Lakers FO can't wait for Kobe to retire

[LakersDynasty14]

The problem is that to tank the Lakers have to tank as hard as last year (protected top 5) and with Kobe that makes it impossible unless you believe in Floppys 15 win prediction.

You will win more than 15 games, but you're the second worst team out West at best.

A pick in the 4-7 range is easily done, even with Bryant.

The Lakers defense is going to be that bad.

No way. You do know that they fired Mike 'Antoni and hired Byron Scott right? Byron Scott is an elite head coach with multiple finals appearances, and Laker legend. He and Kobe have way too much pride in the purple and gold to let the team slack off on D all year like "Antoni let them last year.

Lakers won 27 games last year with no Kobe and 'Antoni coaching the team. Now they get a healthy and hungry Mamba back, and a huge upgrade at coach, plus an updated supporting cast, and they suddenly the 2nd worst team at best?

Wizards won 19 games in 2001, then old MJ joined the team and increased their win total to 35, a 16 win increase. Then after MJ retired, they saw a 10 win swing in the other direction.

Kobe is currently better than MJ was at that stage of his career and just on sheer will power alone he will lead them to at least 10 more wins, with 15 more likely which would give the Lakers a 42-40 record this year.

[LakersDynasty14]

Missed the green?

Sure you put prime Kobe and Melo together and they would be a top 3 team in today's loaded West but at 36 Kobe and Melo are not going to be even serious WCF contenders.

No green needed. Have you not seen Kobe this preseason? He's been tearing it up lately, and improving every game. MJ was still competing at an elite level at this age, so why wouldn't Kobe?

[PaulieWal]

Missed the green?

Sure you put prime Kobe and Melo together and they would be a top 3 team in today's loaded West but at 36 Kobe and Melo are not going to be even serious WCF contenders.

No green needed. Have you not seen Kobe this preseason? He's been tearing it up lately, and improving every game. MJ was still competing at an elite level at this age, so why wouldn't Kobe?

Okay, I am not sure if this is KobeKenobi's alt account.

[goodboy]

Missed the green?

Sure you put prime Kobe and Melo together and they would be a top 3 team in today's loaded West but at 36 Kobe and Melo are not going to be even serious WCF contenders.

No green needed. Have you not seen Kobe this preseason? He's been tearing it up lately, and improving every game. MJ was still competing at an elite level at this age, so why wouldn't Kobe?

Okay, I am not sure if this is KobeKenobi's alt account.

He's tearing up the preseason, lets go home.

[nonjokegetter]

Loving the last half dozen or so posts.

[irie]

Missed the green?

Sure you put prime Kobe and Melo together and they would be a top 3 team in today's loaded West but at 36 Kobe and Melo are not going to be even serious WCF contenders.

No green needed. Have you not seen Kobe this preseason? He's been tearing it up lately, and improving every game. MJ was still competing at an elite level at this age, so why wouldn't Kobe?

Michael Jordan at age 36: 35,887 minutes played. Retired from the Bulls for the last time.

Kobe Bryant at age 36: 45,567 minutes played. Returns from back-to-back Achilles injuries for his 19th season.

[WOX_69]

Missed the green?

Sure you put prime Kobe and Melo together and they would be a top 3 team in today's loaded West but at 36 Kobe and Melo are not going to be even serious WCF contenders.

No green needed. Have you not seen Kobe this preseason? He's been tearing it up lately, and improving every game. MJ was still competing at an elite level at this age, so why wouldn't Kobe?

Michael Jordan at age 36: 35,887 minutes played. Retired from the Bulls for the last time.

Kobe Bryant at age 36: 45,567 minutes played. Returns from back-to-back Achilles injuries for his 19th season.

*One Achilles injury, followed by a lateral tibial plateau fracture.

[irie]

No green needed. Have you not seen Kobe this preseason? He's been tearing it up lately, and improving every game. MJ was still competing at an elite level at this age, so why wouldn't Kobe?

Michael Jordan at age 36: 35,887 minutes played. Retired from the Bulls for the last time.

Kobe Bryant at age 36: 45,567 minutes played. Returns from back-to-back Achilles injuries for his 19th season.

*One Achilles injury, followed by a lateral tibial plateau fracture.

Ok, my mistake. 10,000 minutes played difference is still quite significant.

[Slava]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MarkHeisler/status/524959375811559425[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/MarkHeisler/status/524959885486616577[/tweet]

Ouch!

[nonjokegetter]

Is Heisler suggesting that Abbott basically pulled a Stephen Glass? Those are way serious allegations. Like...in the world of journalism, it doesn't get anymore serious than that.

[anarchy24]

Michael Jordan at age 36: 35,887 minutes played. Retired from the Bulls for the last time.

Kobe Bryant at age 36: 45,567 minutes played. Returns from back-to-back Achilles injuries for his 19th season.

*One Achilles injury, followed by a lateral tibial plateau fracture.

Ok, my mistake. 10,000 minutes played difference is still quite significant.

Last I heard MJ played college ball for 3 years? He totaled 3107 mins. So 7k minutes difference is not that bad since MJ retired once.

[Basketballefan]

Apparently everyone but the Lakers FO knew it was a bad idea to give Kobe that $48 mil extension last year.

You have to respect everything Kobe has done for that franchise but giving him that extension just handcuffed the team for the next two seasons.

Whats funny is, Stephen A Smith actually defended Kobe being paid that much. No body s**ks Kobe the way he does.

[Yoshun]

Is Heisler suggesting that Abbott basically pulled a Stephen Glass? Those are way serious allegations. Like...in the world of journalism, it doesn't get anymore serious than that.

Nah I don't think so. I think he's suggesting what many of us thought from the start. He's putting a spin on what the sources say to reflect his opinion.

[irie]

*One Achilles injury, followed by a lateral tibial plateau fracture.

Ok, my mistake. 10,000 minutes played difference is still quite significant.

Last I heard MJ played college ball for 3 years? He totaled 3107 mins. So 7k minutes difference is not that bad since MJ retired once.

Well, Kobe then played over 1,000 more minutes than MJ in the playoffs. And yeah, the retirements actually would have further reduced the wear on MJ.

I'm not sure why we need to discuss this really. Obviously playing huge minutes will eventually catch up to guys. Kobe regular season + playoffs + international play is pushing 50,000 minutes. That's ridiculous. That's almost as much as Garnett (another straight out of high school guy), who has now all but completely broken down. I'm not saying Kobe will break down, I actually think he'll have a nice season, but there's a certain point where the body just can't take it anymore. And I think minutes are a pretty fair way of looking at it when you're comparing guys who played college versus those who didn't.

[anarchy24]

Ok, my mistake. 10,000 minutes played difference is still quite significant.

Last I heard MJ played college ball for 3 years? He totaled 3107 mins. So 7k minutes difference is not that bad since MJ retired once.

Well, Kobe then played over 1,000 more minutes than MJ in the playoffs. And yeah, the retirements actually would have further reduced the wear on MJ.

I'm not sure why we need to discuss this really. Obviously playing huge minutes will eventually catch up to guys. Kobe regular season + playoffs + international play is pushing 50,000 minutes. That's ridiculous. That's almost as much as Garnett (another straight out of high school guy), who has now all but completely broken down. I'm not saying Kobe will break down, I actually think he'll have a nice season, but there's a certain point where the body just can't take it anymore. And I think minutes are a pretty fair way of looking at it when you're comparing guys who played college versus those who didn't.

But Kobe, like MJ, have that old man game going. They rely less on their athlesism o do what they want on offense. If we're talking about Lebron here, then I would be worried about the toll on that body.

[TheDoors24]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MarkHeisler/status/524959375811559425[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/MarkHeisler/status/524959885486616577[/tweet]

Ouch!

So even people in Henry's professional field think the article is garbage. People he mentioned like PG and Phil think it's garbage. Except Kobe haters like Colin and Charles.

So this leads me to believe that the writer had an agenda. Maybe put his name out there? We already know that ESPN doesn't take kindly to people standing up to them and calling them idiots. The writer has probably put his kids through college with Kobe articles through out the years.

[kingkirk]

No way. You do know that they fired Mike 'Antoni and hired Byron Scott right? Byron Scott is an elite head coach with multiple finals appearances, and Laker legend. He and Kobe have way too much pride in the purple and gold to let the team slack off on D all year like "Antoni let them last year.

Lakers won 27 games last year with no Kobe and 'Antoni coaching the team. Now they get a healthy and hungry Mamba back, and a huge upgrade at coach, plus an updated supporting cast, and they suddenly the 2nd worst team at best?

Wizards won 19 games in 2001, then old MJ joined the team and increased their win total to 35, a 16 win increase. Then after MJ retired, they saw a 10 win swing in the other direction.

Kobe is currently better than MJ was at that stage of his career and just on sheer will power alone he will lead them to at least 10 more wins, with 15 more likely which would give the Lakers a 42-40 record this year.

I like Byron Scott. He is a good coach, but not an elite one.

He will also be implementing a new game plan, one that may take time to grasp. That could impact you guys early on.

Everyone out West has improved. Even the plebs like SAC, UTA & NOP have all improved imo.

Have the Lakers?

Getting Bryant back is big, but replacing Gasol with Boozer is a big negative. Young won’t be as effective because Bryant is back.

Really, a starting line up of Nash, Bryant, Johnson, Boozer & Hill is the worst defensive starting unit in the league maybe outside of Philadelphia. It’s abysmal.

You may get hot on a number of nights and stay with teams offensively, but you guys will leak buckets. It will get damn ugly.

I am not sure how you’ve come to that conclusion about the Wizards thus calculated the Lakers win/loss total. Seems completely ‘airy fairy’ to me.

Look at it this way. Kobe, on his own, almost 10 years ago with a bunch of scrubs similar to the roster you have now only won 45 games.

That was prime Bryant at his scoring dominant best and it was a long time ago. He has aged since then and is on the come back after missing a tonne of basketball, and he alone isn’t worth 15 wins.

42 wins is not realistic.

24-28 wins and a bottom 5-7 finish i.e. similar to season 13-14.

[Rob Diaz]

It's kind of widely known that most "new media"(advanced stats advocates, younger people that write about basketball, etc) members are not fans of Kobe, while the "old media"(people that use terms like killer instinct and will to win, along with counting rings, like Wilbon/Kornheiser/Bob Ryan, for example) loves Kobe. So, while Abbott's article was certainly biased towards his own preferences, I don't think this is anything new.

It's strange that ESPN has chosen to run it in the spotlight, though, maybe they're trying to generate Laker interest as much as they can prior to the season, since they will most likely be a bottom-2 team in the West and not worthy of discussion. I don't know, tbh.


It seems to be working, though. A lot discussion, along with a 26-page thread on RealGM about a player who is currently average on the court, at best.

[madmaxmedia]

If they are trying to tank for a top 5 pick, trading for Lin was a bad idea. I'm not saying he's leading them to the playoffs, but on a lesser team he can be a spark plug that leads them to a few unfortunate wins.

No matter the strategy they got themselves a sure first round pick with that trade which beats out tanking and hoping you get lucky enough in the lottery. They would have to finish 2nd worst to be sure to keep their pick. They finish 5th worst or higher they have very little shot of keeping it. Kobe is probably still good enough to get them out of 4th worst. The Lakers would have to be banking on serious injuries.

Oh yeah, I think it was a great move by the Lakers, getting a starter level PG that might eventually stick with the team, and a 1st round pick. Just not something the Sixers would have done.

[madmaxmedia]

Look at it this way. Kobe, on his own, almost 10 years ago with a bunch of scrubs similar to the roster you have now only won 45 games.

That was prime Bryant at his scoring dominant best and it was a long time ago. He has aged since then and is on the come back after missing a tonne of basketball, and he alone isn’t worth 15 wins.

42 wins is not realistic.

24-28 wins and a bottom 5-7 finish i.e. similar to season 13-14.

Ouch to the bolded part, because it's true. At one point I was hoping for 40. But what I think I really meant was that I think they can play like a 40-win team maybe half the time, and thus win about half those games. The other half, they will have plenty of off nights where Kobe is off, or defense intensity is flagging, players are hurt, etc.