How would Kobe best be utilized today?

[FrodoBaggins]

Preface: Kobe = in his rough "prime." Whether that's 2000-2013, 2001-2013, 2001-2010, 2003-2010, etc, I leave to your discretion.

Second Preface: How he should be utilized and how he wants to play are two separate, competing variables. I understand that. You'd hope that the understanding of The Modern Game would get him to cut out the long twos and focus on the short mid-range like Shai.

He's not going to be playing in The Triangle with comparatively poor spacing and post-up bigs today. He'll have more space to operate.

I think the obvious initial adjustment would be to use him more on-ball as a pick-and-roll ball handler. He used 3.9 PnR Ball Handler possessions per game in 2007-08 and scored at 0.92 ppp (92nd percentile). He was 88th percentile in ppp in 2008-09, also, so he was great at it in his own time.

The immediate modern comparison would be Shai—a similar-sized guard with a comparable combination of ball handling, pull-up shooting, slashing, and passing. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of those offensive skills. For reference, 2024-25 Gilgeous-Alexander used 9.6 PnR Ball Handler possessions per game. About 2.5x more than Bryant in 2007-08.

The isolation usage is relatively similar. Kobe's probably doing it more from the wing, whereas Shai's from the top.

Where they differ is in the off-ball and post-up department. 2024-25 Shai used 1.1 post-up possessions per game and a combined 3.6 spot-up, off-screen, hand-off, and cutting possessions per game. 2007-08 Kobe used 2.6 post-ups and 6.5 spot-up, off-screen, hand-off, and cuts. Bryant would go on to measurably increase his post-up usage starting in 2008-09 (3.56 per game without passes; 4.15 with passes).

Kobe's offensive diversity was one of his great strengths, and I think that's still an intelligent way to utilize him today. I'm thinking Devin Booker for the off-ball stuff? And maybe DeRozan, Siakam, or 2023 Luka for the post-up? There aren't many guards who do all three effectively like Kobe: on-ball, off-ball, post-up.

[UcanUwill]

For starters, I imagine he would be "point guard" just how SGA is "point guard" nowadays. He would be the guy creating all the offense.

[JinKaz69]

Low post game is nearly gone in today's game so all his post-up touches would be either 3 pointers, drives or a mix of both.

[doogie_hauser]

With all due respect, this is a pointless and unnecessary thread. Despite what most Lakers fans think, Kobe is not a top 5 player, let alone top 10 player of all time

He was a decent player but hardly on a level of a Michael Jordan/Larry Bird/Lebron James type

Heck I don’t think Kobe is a top 5 Laker of all time tbh.

[bonita_the_frog]

Kobe loved 3-pointers (6.5 attempts per game in 2005-06), and shot them from further out than anyone of his era, so I bet he'd be launching more 3s than anyone today...
And he liked shooting them off-the-dribble, so he'd be like Anthony Edwards (Edwards 10.3 trey attempts per game last season) except he'd shoot from further out than Edwards.

[Lockdown504090]

well i mean, look at demar derozan, then make him more physical, have him jump better off two feet, have a better left hand, and give him kobe's whistle instead of demar derozan's.

Ill give some great examples

Watch on YouTube

You can see how many more layups hes getting because of vooch spacing out to 3.he can get so much closer to the rim than kobe could because teams are cognizant of helping off the 3. Theres one play where caruso cuts in and stays there. Thats a modern concept, bringing a guard over to give the guys on the perimeter more space, while having the help defender be a smaller guy.

Kobe is going to be around 58 true shooting on unprecedented volume because of how versatile and resilient he is. its going to be EXTREMELY challenging not to foul kobe in todays game. especially if they are calling this high five stuff they are right now.

The biggest difference is that you will see more assists and more 3 pointers than youd expect.

Watch on YouTube

This too. You can see the shots hes getting when nash dwight and pau are on the floor and the driving lanes. hes killing. and D'antoni has him attacking early instead of later.

[MMyhre]

The problem with Kobe is that his athletic peak and shooting peak was pretty far apart (01 +/- to 10 playoffs +/-) so it depends which Kobe you have.

He got to the rim and got better looks easier when he was younger, but did not have the jump shot consistency and skill of the older one.

So I imagine the younger one playing more rim attack oriented while looking for playmaking using the pick and roll & different sets, picking his spots more in terms of jump shots and 3's. If you could make him, he was coached by Phil Jackson and still took so many contested long 2 fadeaways in iso and off the dribble etc..

Older one would be happier to look more for threes in pick & r, or using different sets with screen actions to get open, but also look a lot more like Shai operates in the mid range, with his jumper being improved. Compared to Shai a better 3pt capacity, worse midrange %/shot selection, less athleticism/rim pressure and more turnovers.

It would be fun to see if he could play smarter with his jump shot selection, and how his efficiency would look if he picked his spots more.

[MiamiBulls]

The 2002-03 Season would probably be a good template for how Kobe Bryant might look in today's game. Strong upper body, excellent long range pull-up shooting, still quite explosive at the rim & very physical overall, on & off the ball.

Bryant was a practice demon, so a sizable portion of his game would likely change holistically to accommodate today's strategy.

[Doranku]

With all due respect, this is a pointless and unnecessary thread. Despite what most Lakers fans think, Kobe is not a top 5 player, let alone top 10 player of all time

He was a decent player but hardly on a level of a Michael Jordan/Larry Bird/Lebron James type

Heck I don’t think Kobe is a top 5 Laker of all time tbh.

So because (in your eyes) he's not a top 10 player of all time, it's pointless and unnecessary to discuss how his game would look today? We're not allowed to discuss players that aren't top 10? Damn, better never see you talking about any Celtics that came after Bird then.

"A decent player" lmao let the hate flow through you, clown.

[bonita_the_frog]

Kobe would score more than Anthony Edwards, that I'm certain of, and probably about the same as SGA.

[ImmortalD24]

With all due respect, this is a pointless and unnecessary thread. Despite what most Lakers fans think, Kobe is not a top 5 player, let alone top 10 player of all time

He was a decent player but hardly on a level of a Michael Jordan/Larry Bird/Lebron James type

Heck I don’t think Kobe is a top 5 Laker of all time tbh.

Odd take. Want a cookie?

[benson13]

I find myself wondering what would happen to his efficiency given the the change in his shot distribution, all other thing being equal. More than a quarter of prime Kobe's shots were long twos.

[cupcakesnake]

For everyone talking about making Kobe a point guard or high-volume PnR guy, I lean heavily in the other direction.

For me, Kobe's biggest strength was how relentless he was in terms of threatening the basket, and how much he moved defenses around due to this threat. Defenses were really scared of leaving Kobe, and devoted a ton of defensive attention to him. There was a tiny bit of Steph/Reggie to Kobe's game, that never got noticed in his era, with everyone thinking of his tough on-ball shot-making.

Where Kobe sometimes struggled was as a decision maker. His outrageous confidence as a shotmaker, meant he too often passed up great looks to create okay ones. When Kobe was doing "the Detail", breaking down footage for ESPN, you'd even see him talk about hitting the open man, while acknowledging a little bit that he could have done that more often.

Putting the ball in Kobe's hands still created pretty good offense, because he's just so talented and impossible to guard. However, use Kobe's shotmaking threat in an offensive system, and you easily create [i]great[i/] offense.

I strongly prefer putting Kobe in a system where you're maximizing his off-ball gravity, while providing him with advantages on ball. I'd rather see Kobe cutting into space, getting post entry's from another playmaker, or flying around a post hub, rather than make him play like Harden or Shai. Kobe can absolutely play like that and have success, but the best version of Kobe is coming at defenses from a million different angles and attacking with advantage, while opening up advantages for teammates with his gravity.

Give me some Steph and Booker play packages, mixed in with some flex and delay action so that Kobe isos aren't guardable.

[tsherkin]

Low post game is nearly gone in today's game so all his post-up touches would be either 3 pointers, drives or a mix of both.

So, first of all, it doesn't have to be "low post" to be "post game." Second of all, there are plenty of guys who do guard post a fair bit in today's game, like Jalen Brunson. Third of all, there are a bunch of star players who explicitly use the post a lot. Fourth, a lot of modern fans are fairly ignorant as to how older guys who were viewed as "post players" actually operated, and don't understand the difference between back-down and face-up post action, or how often guys worked off-ball, etc, etc. If a guy's worth it, he gets touches in the post. If it's a set which makes sense, it happens. What doesn't happen much is forcing the ball into a guy who isn't worth it and can't pass well enough to justify his offense in volume through those sets, that's all.

Kobe would still post some in today's game. He did that more when he was older than when he was younger anyway, though. As a youthful guy, he was a pretty nasty slasher who played above the rim a fair bit. He'd thrive in that environment, and we already know from 2013 and other bursts that he could be quite effective spamming PnR.

It wouldn't take much to turn him into a reasonably contemporary helio guy, even with relatively weak 3pt shooting.

[tsherkin]

I strongly prefer putting Kobe in a system where you're maximizing his off-ball gravity, while providing him with advantages on ball. I'd rather see Kobe cutting into space, getting post entry's from another playmaker, or flying around a post hub, rather than make him play like Harden or Shai. Kobe can absolutely play like that and have success, but the best version of Kobe is coming at defenses from a million different angles and attacking with advantage, while opening up advantages for teammates with his gravity.

While it makes plenty of sense to get him off-ball as much as you can, that depends rather heavily on other personnel enabling him to do that. You'd need a guy who was good enough on-ball to merit Kobe being off-ball, which is exactly how Shaq functioned for him during the 3-peat. And then you'd still need reliable ball-handlers beyond that, which is sort of what Fisher and Odom were for him, you know?

Very personnel-dependent, IMHO, even though I agree that it would be ideal for his deployment.

[cupcakesnake]

I strongly prefer putting Kobe in a system where you're maximizing his off-ball gravity, while providing him with advantages on ball. I'd rather see Kobe cutting into space, getting post entry's from another playmaker, or flying around a post hub, rather than make him play like Harden or Shai. Kobe can absolutely play like that and have success, but the best version of Kobe is coming at defenses from a million different angles and attacking with advantage, while opening up advantages for teammates with his gravity.

While it makes plenty of sense to get him off-ball as much as you can, that depends rather heavily on other personnel enabling him to do that. You'd need a guy who was good enough on-ball to merit Kobe being off-ball, which is exactly how Shaq functioned for him during the 3-peat. And then you'd still need reliable ball-handlers beyond that, which is sort of what Fisher and Odom were for him, you know?

Very personnel-dependent, IMHO, even though I agree that it would be ideal for his deployment.

You'd want to build a roster that optimizes how you want to use a star player, for sure.
I'm not sure the on-ball guy needs to be a star/better than Kobe though. Draymond being on-ball to maximize Curry, Mark Jackson or Jalen Rose being on-ball to maximize Reggie... that kind of thing! Odom was an excellent complimentary pieces for Kobe. To me he was a huge part of why those rosters worked, even before they got Gasol and other talent upgrades. I felt they should have leaned further into that identity, as there was a feeling of: Kobe needs to have his iso touches, for ego reasons. Not that he wasn't amazing on-ball too. I just have this imagination of Kobe tilting 10-15% more towards being an off-ball threat. Trading in 2-3 crazy contested iso for 2-3 more pin downs or flex action types of things.

[tsherkin]

I'm not sure the on-ball guy needs to be a star/better than Kobe though.

Neither am I, which is why I didn't say that

The Shaq remark wasn't about necessity, it was about how those Lakers functioned. If Kobe was operating with primacy, we're only talking about a quality on-ball second option who can score and shift the defense at a reasonable level, not at Diesel's level of impact. Because Kobe was the clear second option on those teams, which changes the narrative. But what helped enable Kobe to play off-ball a bunch was the presence of those other ball-handlers and Shaq's ability to function on-ball as well, you know?

Draymond being on-ball to maximize Curry, Mark Jackson or Jalen Rose being on-ball to maximize Reggie... that kind of thing! Odom was an excellent complimentary pieces for Kobe. To me he was a huge part of why those rosters worked, even before they got Gasol and other talent upgrades.

I mean, to be fair, they were a +2 offense prior to Gasol, primarily on the back of ball protection and offensive rebounding as much as anything. Obviously, of course, with Kobe holding down huge volume, but they were the same level of offense in 05 as they were a year later in 06 when he went bonkers on like 8 more PPG. Gasol helped propel their offense to considerably better heights, but it was his defensive impact as much as anything else which flipped the script.

Meantime, they "worked" to a given degree. That was a 34-win team in 05, and 45 a year later with better health out of Kobe and Odom, the addition of Kwame (which makes me cringe so hard, framing that as a positive), and such.

Bleh. Even though I was pissed at him for his part in blowing up a dynasty, I felt bad for Kobe in 05 and 06, man. Those were ROUGH squads, and it didn't get better in 07, when they barely humped .500.

I felt they should have leaned further into that identity, as there was a feeling of: Kobe needs to have his iso touches, for ego reasons. Not that he wasn't amazing on-ball too. I just have this imagination of Kobe tilting 10-15% more towards being an off-ball threat. Trading in 2-3 crazy contested iso for 2-3 more pin downs or flex action types of things.

Yep, that'd be a nice way to approach it. Anything to make life easier for him, for sure.

[chudak]

Kobe would be a rich mans Antony Edwards

[tsherkin]

Kobe would be a rich mans Antony Edwards

Doubtful, and disrespectful to an all-time great for no particularly sensible reason.

[chudak]

We are talking about Anthony Edwards as an all time great here, because I am not sure how would this be disrespectful to Kobe?