When was the last time Kobe Bryant was still Kobe Bryant? It's a difficult and, for some, painful question to ask. As much as he tries, and dear god is he trying, Kobe isn't Kobe this year. Not even close. His points, assists, and rebounds numbers are his lowest since his second year in the league (if we discount his six-game run two years ago). He's making less than 34 percent of his total shots, and less than 24 percent of his three pointers. His effective field goal percentage (field goal percentage that adjusts for the value of three pointers) is less than Lance Stepehnson's last year, which many consider to be the worst season ever put together by someone playing 20 minutes or more a game.
His shot selection feels like a parody of his worst tendencies. I understand where he's coming from, the last time Kobe played an actual portion of the season, people still thought he and the Lakers were done. It was the 2012-2013 season, and the recent acquisitions of Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, and Mike D'Antoni had completely blown up in everyone's face. They started 15-21, had fired a coach, and after being a trendy pre-season championship pick, had been completely left for dead by the media.
The year before had been really rough for Kobe. His shooting percentages had cratered and the national media seemed to finally turn on him and question if his style of play and gigantic usage percentage was hurting his team. An opinion from a life long Laker and Kobe lover; it absolutely was.
From that point on, Kobe channeled his post-Shaq, pre-Gasol self and put the team on his back, dragging them to the playoffs more or less by himself. He averaged just about 28 points over the last two months of the season and delivered the Lakers the seventh seed. He was dominating the end of games at age 34 in a way that was unbelievable to watch after last year's struggles. That March I got to see the best game I've ever seen him play in person. In the last four minutes, with the opposing Hawks and Lakers constantly changing leads, Kobe got the ball on an isolation play at the top of the key on every single possession. Kobe scored three times charging towards the basket, and got to the line twice, making all four of his free throw attempts. After three seasons of gutting out jump shot turnarounds with no lift, Kobe ferociously dunked over Josh Smith to turn the momentum around. The Lakers ended up with a one-point win, and the loudest Staples Center crowd I had ever heard. (I highly suggest checking out the highlights here.)
Once you can pull out games like this when everyone is counting you out, I can see how it's hard to admit you may actually be done with games like this. Kobe simply isn't well enough physically to be a 25 point per game scorer or take 15 shots a game anymore. Maybe he wasn't even back in 2013; he ended up tearing his Achilles a few games before the playoffs started, and nothing has been the same since. Both of the two seasons after that were marred by injury, playing a total of 41 games.
The Lakers have three really exciting and really young players that they can build around. Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle have both had terrific stretches already in their career, are while D'Angelo Russell hasn't had a chance to do much so far, he was a top five pick for a reason. The hope for Lakers fan was that Kobe would adjust to more of a facilitator role, teaching the young guys how to play and putting them into good opportunities to score by bending the defense.
Instead, we've gotten the heroball-obsessed Kobe we all feared. He's airballing or hitting the side of the backboard in seemingly every game. It's really been painful to watch. There's no way he should be leading the team in usage percentage by six percent, and it seems that Byron Scott doesn't have the authority to tell Kobe to change his game, it will have to come from within. We could keep belaboring the point with more statistics, but hopefully you get the point by now.
The silver lining is that Sunday's win against the Pistons might show a path forward for Kobe's game and the Lakers future. They had a fairly dominant win, closing the game up 12, and holding Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris to 9 and 7 points a piece. Kobe's stat line featured some good and some bad. His 17 point, 8 rebound, 9 assist is very impressive if you don't notice he was 6 for 19 and 1 for 4 from three-point range. Detroit seemed unafraid to leave Kobe open behind the arc, which really hurt the spacing of the offense at some points. However, that doesn't take away from his rebounds or assist total, both of which were season highs.
Kobe's best portions of the game came from playing in the post. Roy Hibbert is never going to attract attention away from the basket, but defenses respect Julius Randle ability to shoot and drive from the top of the key. Jordan Clarkson and D'Angelo Russell both have enough range to keep the defense honest. This gives Kobe lots of space to operate inside. Kobe's footwork is legendary and it is especially effective out of the post in an era where few players understand the intricacies of that portion of the court. Kobe just doesn't have the speed or lift to score while driving to the basket or pulling up for jump shots, he's much better off making little moves around the basket.
The offense runs better without Kobe trying to be the lead ball-handler. Every time he's handling the ball at the top of the key he's taking the ball away from Clarkson and Russell, one of whom is already a very effective ball-handler, and one who needs to learn how to run the offense if he is ever to actually become part of the Lakers core. The only other effective post up player on the team is Julius Randle, who seems to largely prefer face-up drives and jump shots. Just in term of giving everybody the ball in their best spots, it makes much more sense to focus on playing Kobe out of the post instead of bringing the ball up the court.
Kobe excelled at finding shooters open around the arc or players cutting towards the rim even when his back is to the basket. He was able to hit Larry Nance Jr. on an alley-oop, Clarkson and Russell for three-pointers, and Randle for cuts to the basket. Kobe also had some very good rebounds last night, even battling Drummond on some possessions. Unfortunately, his breaking-down body doesn't have a shot at exerting himself against bigger opponents for more than a few games, especially if he's committed to playing out of the post.
Kobe can't play tons of minutes in this fashion if he wants to make it to the end of the season for the first time since 2012, but that's okay. Lou Williams has been an excellent backup so far this year, Larry Nance Jr. has shown some promise, and Metta World Peace has been shockingly playable in his Hollywood return. This Laker team has a shot to be respectable if Kobe accepts a different role on this team, and allows himself to play a less stressful minutes load. They are young, talented, and have the makings of a good bench. Byron has done a terrible job coaching thus far this season, but I think he actually did an alright job last year when Kobe was out.
No one in this organization and no one in the media is going to get Kobe to change his ways. This is unfortunate, but it's also the reason Kobe is one of the ten best to ever play the game. Kobe should already be fed up with the way this season is going, and hopefully Monday's victory has planted the seed to motivate him to switch up his style. It's the oldest sports cliché in the book; Father Time is undefeated, but if he can swallow his ego just a bit, Kobe has the chance to give himself a few more rounds in the ring.