Kobe begins shooting- Rehab Watch

[what would jack bauer do?]

Per his instagram

Kobe's began shooting finally. In June he said he was hoping to get cleared to shoot in July, but said it would be either July or August. I guess this keeps him on track in his rehab. Recently, everything has been negative about what Kobe has left in the tank. I'm hopeful he can turn the corner finally as far as injuries go in his (possible) final season. As Kobe's said himself his legs are finally strong since this was an upper body injury.

How do you guys think Kobe will adapt his game in his final season? If the legs are back and he's still nursing his shoulder injury the first couple months, I think he's going to defer a good portion of his ball-handler duties to Clarkson, Williams, and Russell. Don't get me wrong Kobe is going to want the ball in his hands, but up until the last few seasons Kobe's been smart with his recoveries. I foresee him allowing Clarkson/Russell/Williams to create for others with Kobe as a recipient. Hopefully he can just catch and shoot in the first couple months of the season, but Byron has said he wants to "save" Kobe from expending energy and let him operate in the post. With a torn rotator cuff hopefully Kobe doesn't try to bang down low until he's 100%. I think Kobe may be better served operating similar to how Carmelo has with less driving and more of a face up game that can transition into that pinch post attack that kobe is accustomed to.

Hopefully Kobe is smart and focuses on being efficient by using Clarkson's energy and youth to his advantage. Kobe has never played with another guard that explosive. I'm praying we see an open floor game with easy buckets complimented by Kobe's halfcourt game. But to be realistic, Kobe is still our best creator for others so I'm just hoping it all works out somehow where we develop synergy and use our shooters to get easy offense in the half court because frankly Byron's offense is garbage.

[DEEP3CL]

Despite what stupid writers and other so call basketball analyzers say about him at the 3 spot, that's the best spot for him at this point of his career. Also he has no choice but to let Russell handle much of the ball duties, the obsessive "I can do it all " mantra has to die. This team is in a critical stage of transitioning from him to other guys who will be here for a while....mainly DeAngelo, Jordan and Julius, they have to have a hand in what goes on weather Kobe likes it or not. Now he can help them or hinder them depending on his mindset, but bottom line is these guys can play and he needs to know that.

I want Kobe to do well but he has to share the pie, and D-Lo, Randle and JC now get a slice of that. So let's hope Kobe goes with the plan from what Scott has in terms of minutes, and letting the guys around him help.

[Slava]

Good timing, today is also his 37th birthday. Hope he got a good steak dinner to cure the soreness after.

[DEEP3CL]

Good timing, today is also his 37th birthday. Hope he got a good steak dinner to cure the soreness after.

...It's funny you say that, because I had been having some shoulder pain from a little shot I took playing pick up a few weeks ago. Then just out the blue I was craving having a steak dinner so I took the fam out and I got a nice Porter House steak and boom few days later my shoulder felt better.


As far as Kobe, hope he just eases into his work again...no need to go full jack mode and waste whatever he has left in the tank.

[Mamba Venom]

I with the Lakers would make Kobe wait an extra month. Kobe trains harder than anyone. I think Kobe has been rushing back the last few seasons and he is prone to over doing it.

Take is slow Kobe. We need one last good season to say goodbye!!!!

My fav all time Laker.

[One Love]

LEGEND...

[FrozenIceCubes]

Really wish Kobe had one last run at a championship with a contending roster. now with this question mark roster.. he just needs to get to the playoffs as the 8th seed and ride off to the sunset and close his basketball chapter.

Mitch and Jeannie have all but made this season about Kobes farewell tour and let's hope when the Lakers go on the road opposition fans appreciate his greatness for the last time.

[Slava]

Really wish Kobe had one last run at a championship with a contending roster. now with this question mark roster.. he just needs to get to the playoffs as the 8th seed and ride off to the sunset and close his basketball chapter.

Mitch and Jeannie have all but made this season about Kobes farewell tour and let's hope when the Lakers go on the road opposition fans appreciate his greatness for the last time.

If Kobe wanted a contending roster, the only way to make that happen would have been to take less money so he could entice two free agents to come play together along with 3 young players that we have.

If we had option for 2 max slots, we could have made a pitch to both Aldridge and DeAndre to come play with each other. Hearing how interested Aldridge was to explore the option of Lakers, its a great what could have been that we couldn't encourage that desire.

[FrozenIceCubes]

I don't think Kobe had any less desire to win when he signed that big contract.

Like always there are always what ifs when it comes to sports in general. I think the Lakers really had a good chance to make something happen this off season despite Kobes contract... It just didn't work out...

I'm just happy that his body is gonna be in best shape in a long time this season I just hope he doesn't end up getting hurt.

[mcscotty]

I don't think Kobe had any less desire to win when he signed that big contract.

Like always there are always what ifs when it comes to sports in general. I think the Lakers really had a good chance to make something happen this off season despite Kobes contract... It just didn't work out...

I'm just happy that his body is gonna be in best shape in a long time this season I just hope he doesn't end up getting hurt.

Kobe certainly had no less desire to win...on his terms. Kobe is only interested in championships that he delivers. Unfortunately, he was rather delusional and shortsighted to think he could still be the man in his mid-thirties.

[kblo247]

Really wish Kobe had one last run at a championship with a contending roster. now with this question mark roster.. he just needs to get to the playoffs as the 8th seed and ride off to the sunset and close his basketball chapter.

Mitch and Jeannie have all but made this season about Kobes farewell tour and let's hope when the Lakers go on the road opposition fans appreciate his greatness for the last time.

If Kobe wanted a contending roster, the only way to make that happen would have been to take less money so he could entice two free agents to come play together along with 3 young players that we have.

If we had option for 2 max slots, we could have made a pitch to both Aldridge and DeAndre to come play with each other. Hearing how interested Aldridge was to explore the option of Lakers, its a great what could have been that we couldn't encourage that desire.

The cap went up several million than it was supposed to, which is why we still have the room. All they had to do was ditch Randle and Kelly to make room for Deandre and Aldridge in actuality.

The fact is this roster isn't contending because Mitch and Jim are inept compared to Jerry and Jerry. Mitch has never been an amazing recruiter. He's had two summers with money and recruited horribly. He did better this year than the dumpster fire of the year before. But the fact is you don't take a cut and assume Mitch will just come through or that Jim will come through. They aren't Jerry West and Jerry Buss. They don't deserve nor have they earned the benefit of the doubt based on their past or how they wasted his prime for 3 years and ran him in the ground with their coaching choices. Blindly following someone who has never proven to be able to do anything but trade for talent in the hopes they can recruit for once is stupidity ... Dirk level of stupidity


Mitch and Jim will likely strike the **** out next year too when their fighting other front offices who all have money with better teams and better coaches too ... Their saving grace is hoping cousins wants out, that OKC suffers the injury but and KD says I want to level and then swooping in at the deadline and sending Russel, Clarkson, and/or Randle out

[kblo247]

I don't think Kobe had any less desire to win when he signed that big contract.

Like always there are always what ifs when it comes to sports in general. I think the Lakers really had a good chance to make something happen this off season despite Kobes contract... It just didn't work out...

I'm just happy that his body is gonna be in best shape in a long time this season I just hope he doesn't end up getting hurt.

Kobe certainly had no less desire to win...on his terms. Kobe is only interested in championships that he delivers. Unfortunately, he was rather delusional and shortsighted to think he could still be the man in his mid-thirties.

Kobe didn't even kill Kobe, Mitch and Jim did. They hired Dantoni over Phil to focus on Nash and it forced Kobe to push it to the max to get us to the playoffs. The lakers doctors said Kobe would be worked back into the rotation slowly off the Achilles tear and play 20 mins or so on TWC, and then Dantoni played Kobe 30mpg after only two practices in a slate of 6 games in 9 nights; then even then the lakers Cracker Jack doctors didn't even catch the knee fracture, he had to go get himself checked out after they had him come to practice the next day. And lastly it was Scott who was a dumbass and played Kobe admittedly well above what Kobe himself said he felt comfortable playing. Mitch and Jim hold that bag there because everything goes back to how horribly they handled the exit of Phil in 2011 from punk slipping all the assistants, to screwing Shaw over and making a mockery of his interview, and on to then deciding Dantoni was a better coaching choice while not even allowing Mike to have his own assistants

[Marionettetc]

How do you guys think Kobe will adapt his game in his final season?

Plenty of good opinions in the thread already, so I will keep mine down to one sentence :

Kobe will adapt his game to his age and his team if he decides he wants to.

[Kilroy]

Really wish Kobe had one last run at a championship with a contending roster. now with this question mark roster.. he just needs to get to the playoffs as the 8th seed and ride off to the sunset and close his basketball chapter.

Mitch and Jeannie have all but made this season about Kobes farewell tour and let's hope when the Lakers go on the road opposition fans appreciate his greatness for the last time.

If Kobe wanted a contending roster, the only way to make that happen would have been to take less money so he could entice two free agents to come play together along with 3 young players that we have.

If we had option for 2 max slots, we could have made a pitch to both Aldridge and DeAndre to come play with each other. Hearing how interested Aldridge was to explore the option of Lakers, its a great what could have been that we couldn't encourage that desire.

We've had space the last couple years... We got table-scraps.

In fairness to Kobe, that proposition wasn't even presented to him. Of all the players that have been 'available' since he signed that contract, I struggle to think of 2 that, if added to Kobe at that stage in his career, would have equated to continued post season success. To me, the last shot at that was CP3/Howard from a few years ago... And Kobe was on board for that. I think he would have done what was necessary to keep that core together. Nash/Howard wasn't a bad fall-back plan either, and if it hadn't been clear basically from day one that neither one of those guys were the players they were supposed to be, I bet he would have made that work too.
There really hasn't been a dominant duo available to add to Kobe... So from his perspective, if you aren't in a position to win championships, you can either take the money or go somewhere else. He took the money, and we get to watch him play out a HOF career in P&G.
It's not banners, but I don't think banners were a realistic possibility since the Veto... So that being the case, it's not a terrible trade-off.

[Slava]

The cap went up several million than it was supposed to, which is why we still have the room. All they had to do was ditch Randle and Kelly to make room for Deandre and Aldridge in actuality.

That's not right, tjhe cap only went up by $3 mil from $68 to $71 mil. Kobe, Nick Young and Russell's rookie hold + roster cap holds alone would put us close to where you'd be asking both of them to be taking discounts in their first years.

[Slava]

Really wish Kobe had one last run at a championship with a contending roster. now with this question mark roster.. he just needs to get to the playoffs as the 8th seed and ride off to the sunset and close his basketball chapter.

Mitch and Jeannie have all but made this season about Kobes farewell tour and let's hope when the Lakers go on the road opposition fans appreciate his greatness for the last time.

If Kobe wanted a contending roster, the only way to make that happen would have been to take less money so he could entice two free agents to come play together along with 3 young players that we have.

If we had option for 2 max slots, we could have made a pitch to both Aldridge and DeAndre to come play with each other. Hearing how interested Aldridge was to explore the option of Lakers, its a great what could have been that we couldn't encourage that desire.

We've had space the last couple years... We got table-scraps.

In fairness to Kobe, that proposition wasn't even presented to him. Of all the players that have been 'available' since he signed that contract, I struggle to think of 2 that, if added to Kobe at that stage in his career, would have equated to continued post season success. To me, the last shot at that was CP3/Howard from a few years ago... And Kobe was on board for that. I think he would have done what was necessary to keep that core together. Nash/Howard wasn't a bad fall-back plan either, and if it hadn't been clear basically from day one that neither one of those guys were the players they were supposed to be, I bet he would have made that work too.
There really hasn't been a dominant duo available to add to Kobe... So from his perspective, if you aren't in a position to win championships, you can either take the money or go somewhere else. He took the money, and we get to watch him play out a HOF career in P&G.
It's not banners, but I don't think banners were a realistic possibility since the Veto... So that being the case, it's not a terrible trade-off.

That's the thing though, we've never given ourselves a chance to make a pitch to more than one free agent and ask them to team together because we never had that opportunity due to one extension we could have very well waited on.

DeAndre and LMA might not win us the championship this year but it would be the best frontcourt in the league and go a long way to making us competitive while weakening two of the playoff teams from last season, three if you count Spurs because they wouldn't have Aldridge to lean on. Go into next year with an additional year of development from Randle + Russell and Clarkson with another max slot and you become real players for guys like Durant because you are already there and he'll put you over the top.

[Kilroy]

But Kobe already had his contract in place for LMA and DeAndre, and it seemed like we could have signed them both anyway. Kobe's contract is too short to extend under the CBA if I'm not mistaken, so he couldn't have accepted less anyway. And you'd have to assume that discussion was part of the reason Kobe was in the room for the LMA pitch.
It seemed like we could have done LMA and DeAndre financially, they just didn't want to do that.
LMA, DeAndre and Durant is a bad mix IMO. It's essentially 2 true 4s and a stretch 4. I think people underestimate how much Durant needs a dynamic scorer like Westbrook to be successful as well. He's slower than he appears and without a team designed to create space for him to work, he won't be as effective. Not to mention his recent injuries.
Durant is a superstar and we should try to get him, but if we had LMA and DAJ already, I think adding Durant would be underwhelming.

[Slava]

They don't have an issue with extending Kobe's contract or making monies match if they just waited for it to expire, like Mavs did with Dirk, Spurs with Duncan, Heat with Wade etc, take stock of the situation in free agency and come back to arrive at a sensible number. Instead they offered him an extension like he was 25.

LMA & DJ were never on financially especially with Kobe and Young on the books. They could work pretty fine with Durant because he can play off ball or even run the pick and roll with either of them, if it doesn't work after a genuine try, you can always trade one of the guys to get assets that fit. Getting talent in the door is the first step when you decide to play the free agency lottery.

[Jazzing]

I hope that he can play at least 65 games.

[dipstick]

Please, lets not fantasize about LMA and DAJ. We would have been the Mavs in that scenario. He would have agreed to team up with LMA, then have second thoughts and realize that Blake + CP3 is better than teaming up with LMA.

After DAJ reconsiders, LMA might have reconsidered also and we'd be the laughing stock of the league considering how everyone else would want us to fail.

Im happy where the team is now. Proper rebuilding.