Doctor MJ wrote:
When you say it's the "best non-MJ" you're already making all sorts of assumptions.
It's clearly only the 'best" if you value the volume scoring high enough, and if you value the volume scoring for volume's sake then yes, you're going to love his season. However, as I indicated, the scale of Kobe's volume is not something good team's WANT. It's not a goal, it's not an accomplishment to check off the list.
I said "the best non-MJ
scoring season of the modern era". So yeh....volume scoring is rather the point when looking at a scoring season.
And Phil wanted it. It DID turn LA into a good team and gave them the #7 SRS that season. I thought this project was about the highest peaks? It's strange that with Kobe, a highly impactful year is not what a good team would want. That Laker squad needed him to score that much, look at their roster.
Re: 30 on 55% is delivering. C'mon dude. I'm talking about his ability to deliver at the levels YOU were bragging about. He's obviously delivering a lot, but he's not delivering the stuff that impressed you most when it counts.
And before anyone says this next rebuttal again: No, I'm not holding Kobe to a higher standard than everyone else by knocking him after people praise his hot streaks, I'm just trying to get people to understand how they should analyze this stuff. Credit him with 30 & 55% absolutely, but don't act like he was dropping 40+ in a typical playoff game.
Of course you're holding Kobe to a higher standard than anyone else. To repeat Kobe had perhaps the best 2 scoring months in NBA history that year.
January 2006 - 43.4 ppg, on 61.1% TS
April 2006 - 41.6 ppg on 62.1% TS
^
So to simply dismiss the absolute crazy level of play he had this season, is something I haven't seen at all in this project. Kobe averaged 43 ppg against PHX in 2006. If Phil felt that was the way to go in the 1st round, he could have easily duplicated those numbers in the playoffs, but the strategy was to work the paint. After they dropped game 5, Phil told Kobe to go back into scoring mode and he dropped 50 points on 66% TS. yet LA still lost to the superior team. You're ignoring the fact that LA tried a different strategy in the playoffs.
I expect I'll have to go more into this but the crux:
No he didn't. He went up against a Suns team that HAD BEEN clearly superior for most of the year before they got hit with more injuries. Then they lost their ability to hang in the paint, they played .500 ball the rest of the way, and this continued in the playoffs as they got outrebounded by 8 boards per game. Nobody should be winning series with rebounding that bad, but the Suns did, because their .500-ish ball was still about as good as the Lakers and Clippers.
Wait....are you saying the Suns weren't the superior squad? The Suns were a 5.48 SRS team, 14 out of their last 22 games were on the road that year, so again, I'm not sure why you choose to diminish what LA did, by making the assertion that they were a .500 team.
Again, Kobe is being held to a standard that no one else has. Certainly not Lebron in 2009 when he lost to a lesser Magic team missing their PG. You didn't even mention the fact that Kwame was hit with a false rape allegation in the middle of the PHX series, that changed his play.
-"2005...before injuries". There is no excuse for the end of that year. Kobe packed in it. It's not any huge sin. I don't care about it when judging his career, but clearly I'm not going to be trumpeting that particular season here.
This is false. Kobe like many others on that team were hurt. Where in the World did you get the notion that Kobe packed it in? There's no merit to that statement, and you're the only person I have even heard suggest that.
-"troublemaker". Not saying he's a troublemaker, but when you end the year 2-19, you either aren't trying that hard, or you're not very good as a superstar. Take your pick. Mine is clear: Kobe (and the team) knew the Lakers weren't going to make any real noise, and they packed it in. Understandable, but certainly not as impressive as what they did in other years.
No. The Lakers had a horrible interim coach, and were killed by injuries. I guess KG "packed it in" from 2006-2007 when the Wolves were absolutely horrible. Or does only Kobe get this treatment?
-"Kobe didn't play by Phil's methods." C'mon Phil wrote a book in which Kobe got called "uncoachable". What exactly do you think that meant? I mean, obviously it's hyperbole, but you don't get called that if you're doing what the coach is telling you to do all the time.
Huh? That book was made back in 2004, and Phil came back to coach Kobe so clearly he felt he was coachable. How in the World can you attribute a quote from 2004, and use that in discussions about later seasons?
It's this kind of nitpicking which I didn't see for anyone else. In 2006, it's well known that Phil WANTED Kobe to score in huge volume, that was Phil's plan, and it worked extremely well for a squad most didn't even pick to make the playoffs. So to make it seem like Kobe was going against Phil's wishes is flatout wrong.
The essence of the Triangle is in reading the defense and making passes to the open man. That isn't happening if you're having one player post the highest Usage% ever recorded. One can argue that Kobe's extreme shot taking was for the best, but you cannot argue that it reflected a team strategy that Jackson thought could win a title.
Except Phil himself disagrees with you. With that roster, they needed Kobe to score in huge volume and Kobe did this at an all-time level. This was a team of Smush, Odom, Cook, Mihm, Kwame. The point is to score more points than the opponent, and Kobe's 35+ ppg on 55% TS certainly was highly imapctful at making up for that roster's shortcomings.
-"Used the same style to win 2 titles". Yikes, now I'm wishing I'd read the whole post before going through point by point.
Kobe shot far less in the years he won those titles than in '05-06. He did that because he played in a far more fluid offense which was only possible because he was contributing to its fluidity. I don't know how you can think that's the same style.
No, he shot less because he had better talent around him.
I mean really, what "fluidity" on offense did yopu expect with that 2006 squad? A squad I might add, who had career years next to 2006 Kobe. Go look at Smush parker, and tell me that playing off 2006 Kobe didn't help him. This guy was a d-leaguer at best, and couldn't' even get run on a Miami team in 08', that needed a PG.
Put 2006 Kobe on those 08-10 teams and they're better. It's seems you're avoiding Kobe's actual PLAY in that 2006 season. His scoring range and versatility was amazing. A perfect blend of skill/athleticism. He & Kwame were the only 2 defenders of note that year, yet they maintained an above average DRtg. It's a shame that the focus seems to be on roster shortcomings, as opposed to Kobe's peak play that year.
. But it certainly means something, don't you think? The lack of help he had was pretty astounding.
