GC Pantalones wrote:In 08 the Lakers were 35-20 without Pau despite having a team full of scrubs, a very skilled Odom, and constantly injured help (Bynum and Rad Vlad). They traded for Pau Gasol and here you can see the true value of Kobe and Phil (together).
Ok, see this is just wrong. The 2008 Lakers were a long way from a "team of scrubs" as a support cast. Bynum played like an all-star, he was putting up 13-10-2 in only 28mpg and looking fantastic. Odom was an all-star quality player, even if he never made a team. Fisher was 33, still young enough to fill the role of solid vet player. Radman was a decent enough player, he had just gotten paid because teams recognised his value as a role player. To call Radman a scrub is disingenuous. Farmer and Turiaf were young, but they gave the team good energy off the bench and played well. Neither was a scrub. Vujanic played like a scrub at some points in his career, but not in 2008. This was his contract year, and he played well enough to get paid. Lakers fans in the know often distinguish between "contract year Vujanic" and regular Vujanic. So the support cast certainly did not suck, and was obviously well coached.
Your analysis of their pre-Pau record is also misleading. The team was only 9-7 in games Bynum/Pau didn't play. It was only when Bynum, playing like an all-star big, or Pau (playing like an all-nba big) were on the court that the Lakers looked like a contender, so Kobe didn't carry them anywhere that year. Interestingly Bynum and Pau never played together, because Bynum got hurt not long before Pau arrived. Just to focus in on Bynum again, once he got the starter gig he was even better than his overall stats make him out to be (he was putting up 15-11-2 as a starter on 675 TS%, and the Lakers were 17-8 while he started). Obviously once Pau arrived they ripped it up like never before.
Pau went from averaging 19/9/3 to 19/8/4 in less time. Nothing major until you see his efficiency. His TS jumped from 57 to 64 and his ORTG from 114 to 128. That wasn't a sample size thing either because the next season Pau led the league in ORTG. He was never that efficient before playing with Kobe and their teamwork has always been regarded as top of the line. The most memorable thing about that first Finals win without Shaq was how well Pau and Kobe were clicking (even in the numbers you can tell Pau took more of a finisher role and Kobe distributed more).
When you go from being the primary option on a mediocre team to being the secondary offensive option on a deep team, it's hardly surprising that your efficiency goes up. That's the normal progression. It is a far cry from suggesting Kobe was somehow making Pau play better. To me it looked like Pau was playing much like he always had, like back when he led 3 mediocre Grizzlies teams to the playoffs (an interesting contrast to Kobe's 3 year run from 05-07, which was markedly less successful). Part of that TS% increase is also obviously an anomaly, probably produced by the small sample size. He was back down to 617TS% the following year, and then 593TS% the year after that. I think the 2 full seasons before and after 08 are a lot more accurate than the 27 game sample in 08 you try to use. Pau's TS% the two full seasons before he got to the Lakers was 594TS% and 593TS%, so the increase is not at all as you make it out to be (in fact his 06 and 07 TS% is equal with his 2010 TS%). The 09 increase is in line with the marginal increase in efficiency you'd expect when a player goes from being the man on offense on a mediocre team, to being the 2nd option on a stacked team (and a team where Odom is the 3rd best player, 4th when Bynum is healthy, is clearly a stacked team; to say nothing of the other solid players on those Laker teams). The 27 game sample in 08 just looks like an anomaly that he never came close to again.
Is hard to find other players who played so well in different situations (with Phil being his only constant).
This is a weird comment. Kobe basically succeeded in two situations:
1) Playing next to Shaq in a triangle system Phil coached, and
2) Playing next to Pau/Odom in a triangle system Phil coached.
I fail to see the differences. There were changes around the edges, but Kobe substantially played in the same situations for all his success (and in the case of Kobe and Shaq there is certainly an element of "they succeeded in spite of not wanting to work together" not because of a magical chemistry that made them synergise or something.
