Byron Scott finally admitted what anyone who watched the Los Angeles Lakers already knew: Kobe Bryant had no business playing the amount of minutes and shouldering the workload he did in the beginning of the season.
Now that Kobe’s body is beginning to break down, forcing Scott to sit Kobe out of games, there have been discussions about shutting Kobe down for the rest of the season. Scott has even said that he would consider shutting Kobe down in March if the team is out of playoff contention.
Unless there is some injury that we don’t know about yet, that would be a bad idea.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a lost season. The Lakers aren’t making the playoffs, especially in this Western Conference. The remainder of this season should be used to see which players on this roster are worth keeping around for the long haul.
However, the Lakers are also trying to re-build as quickly as possible. Jim Buss said he would have the team in contention in three years, and there’s only two more years after this season. Kobe is still a big part of the team’s immediate future. What can he possibly do to help the team if he’s not around?
When it was determined that Kobe would not return from his injury last year, he wasn’t around the team. He wasn’t at practice. He wasn’t on the bench during games. This season, Scott has displayed the tendency to let Kobe stay home when he rests this year which is something I have continually struggled to understand.
Kobe is one of the most intelligent players in the NBA. How is not having him on the bench, even in a pseudo-assistant coach role not beneficial for the rest of the players on the team?
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Everyone remembers Kobe’s practice rant for calling the rest of the team ‘soft like charmin.’ Another line just as important, in my opinion, was him wondering if that was how the team practiced when he wasn’t around. Bryant is intense and demanding on his teammates. He pushes everyone to their limits and doesn’t allow people to not give 100 percent.
I remember in 2002 watching an injured Ray Lewis roam the sidelines for a Baltimore Ravens team struggling to make a playoff run at the end of the season. When the defense came off the field, it was Lewis meeting the players letting them know what they needed to be doing and where they were failing.
Those players knew that even though he wasn’t on the field, Lewis was holding them accountable for everything that happened and they worked their butts off to make sure they didn’t let him down. Kobe can have that same impact, but not if he’s at home.
Just his presence around the team keeps players on their toes and forces them to be held accountable. For young players looking to grow, that is an important asset, and one that will be lost if he is not around.
On the court, playing with Kobe can be difficult. Though he has adjusted his game recently, it still takes time to develop chemistry with someone like him. Coming into the season, no player — new or returning — had meaningful court time with Bryant, and it showed.
[divide]Kobe Bryant’s Take On His Poor Shooting
CONTINUE READING: Kobe Bryant Being Shut Down For Season Would Be Wrong Move
If this is truly about building towards next season, wouldn’t it be beneficial to build chemistry with Bryant as opposed to developing a style only to have it ruined when Kobe returns?
Only Julius Randle, Ryan Kelly and Nick Young are under contract for next season. However, players like Jordan Clarkson, Ed Davis and Wesley Johnson (the new version 34.0) are young players who could be keepers with the Lakers. Kobe being on the floor, learning their tendencies and vice versa is an extremely important part of their individual and team growth.
Furthermore, how can you really discover Kobe’s limits if he isn’t playing at all? Developing a good substitution schedule, and figuring out how to best maximize him so he’s fresh in the fourth quarter can be done now, instead of sacrificing games at the beginning of next season when there is a clean slate.
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To be clear, Kobe’s workload does need to be scaled back and in all honesty, he really shouldn’t be playing more than 30 minutes a night at the very most. If he is hurt, he shouldn’t be playing and once the Lakers get down to the last week or two of the season, I have no problem with him not playing the last five games or so.
However, if the Lakers need to shut Kobe down now ‘to save him for next season,’ then it’s probably time for him to hang up his sneakers altogether. Kobe provides too much to this team on and off the court to be lost at this point and the players who need the minutes can still get the necessary time on the court around him.
The Lakers are still trying to contend in the short-term, which by all accounts involves Kobe Bryant. We’ve already seen Steve Nash disappear and Kobe has done the same thing before. The post-Kobe Lakers are coming soon, but the current Lakers stand to gain too much from him being around to let that go.
[divide]Kobe Bryant’s Take On His Poor Shooting