The Lakers are struggling to hold on to the 8th seed -- if they fail to make the playoffs (a real possibility) will that change some minds?
Based on the 82games.com clutch statistics. T-Mac's higher than Kobe, and T-Mac can not only create for himself, but he can create for others better than Kobe can. McGrady should take more blame than anyone for last season's playoffs, but then again, he's not a one man team.
he should average 20? based on what, having never averaged more than 17.2 ppg? his career averages are 15.8, 8.4, 4.5 and 45% shooting. his season averages are 14.8, 9.0, 5.4 and 48% shooting. also having a career year from 3 with a 38% 3 pt %. man, kobe is really dragging him down. near career highs in asts and rebs, and well above his career fg% each of the last two season. in fact, in 3 seasons before joining the lakers, he shot 41.9, 43.9, and 43.0%. last two seasons, 47.3 and 47.9%. he's also lowered his TO's quite a bit. looks like kobe has helped his offensive efficiency quite a bit. according to that earlier post, it looks like he makes the lakers offense go more than any other player in the league makes their offense go, even the great steve nash. as for clutchness, i've seen the 82games stat for a while and i'm a big believer in stats, but anything that says kobe is not only not clutch, but unclutch isn't telling the whole story. considering how hated he is, he probably didn't earn the reputation for the last 5 years or so as the most clutch player in the league on accident. now maybe in the last 24 seconds he starts to suck, but in the last two minutes of a close game, he's as money as anyone there is. if it's a back and forth game and the lakers are tied or down 1 or something, it just seems like he's automatic. now in the last 24 seconds, when he seems to heave up some real crap, he doesn't seem as automatic, but he's definitely clutch. as for steve nash giving everyone a career year, is he the reason diaw now averages 6 assists per game? diaw isn't just some nash creation, he's a d'antoni/nash creation. anyone who doesn't see how many easy shots that offense generates and how well most of the guys shoot is kidding themselves. nash can't get diaw assists. and he doesn't get everyone open. he's great at finding the open guys (and don't get me wrong, also makes a lot of passes no one else can) but that system helps make nash look good as well. as someone else said, why hasn't dallas fallen apart. why is dirk having an mvp season if nash makes everyone better. you can easily argue dirk has gotten better since nash left and that dallas has been better since he left. based on the way some talk, dallas should've been a 70 win team while he was there.
In case you are wondering, Tmac is not playing now! To mention his Orlando years, is to get a reference point, where Tmac compares to Kobe right now. Yes, it's Orlando YEARS, which means not only years he made the playoff, and also the year he led them to nothing. BTW, The years Tmac made to the playoffs, they wins 42 games in the east, which Lakers are sure to surpass this year. Sometimes, I wish you guys can actually understand others argument while making your bold claims. Melo and Odom can make it to the playoffs given time, yeah right.
I would take Tmac over Kobe. Tmac is the player to build around. Kobe might be a better shooter, a better scorer because of all his jordanesque moves.. but he does not and will not make his teammates better. If u watch all Tmacs games, you could see how well he passes to other players. He draws double team ( like kobe) and passes to the open player (kobe doesn't do that). Tmac and Kobe are both explosive (personally i think tmac is more explosive.. his 13 points in 35 seconds). Dang if u put Yao on Kobes team i think his stat will be 15pt 8 r guy.
What do you mean "make their teams better, not just the record of the team, but the actual players on the team." Do you mean create for them? Or actually make them better players? Is Kobe suppose to be coach now? Since when is a player responsible more for team chemistry than team record? How many years had PP on Celtics? Who has he made into a better player? Given time? If you mean create for them, Kobe create plenty for Brown, he's just not capable of stepping up. As I said, I'm not even a Kobe fan, and I don't actually want to compare Tmac to Kobe, but let's not have different standard for different players.
Kobe may be having a career year but it seems like everyone else on the team (barring Smush) are having career worsts. I still believe Nash should be the MVP...the Suns were projected to not even make the playoffs but are actually a high seed. To be a 2nd seed in the western conference with a cast of players that include Boris Diaw, Kurt Thomas, Raja Bell, James Jones, Eddie House, and numerous no names is just amazing to me.
Statline #1 35.1 5.3 4.5 45% Statline #2 31.6 7.2 6.7 48% I'll take #2, please. BTW, Lamar Odom is better than Big Z, LeBron's cast without Hughes isn't that much better than Kobe's. Hughes is back though, so that makes the Cavs better but he was gone most of the year.
And Kobe wouldnt have his rings without Shaq. I prefer T-Mac over Kobe overall (clutch time, smarter)
why does it seem that way? i just checked espn and of the lakers top 9 scorers other than kobe, 8 are shooting better than their career average this year, a few over 3% better and up to 5% better. the one who is shooting worse is walton, who is down a whopping .3% from 41.4% to 41.1%. of course his 3 pt % if up 5% so overall i'm sure he's doing better. i didn't bother to look at points for all 9 but the first 3 or 4 were either above their career averages or, in odom's case, 1 point below. of course most aren't playing the same minutes as they have their whole careers so it's difficult to compare, and from an quantity standpoint, they probably lose out a little with kobe scoring so much, but from a quality standpoint, it appears nearly the entire team is shooting better than normal. i'm guessing kobe's presence is the reason.
When it comes to avoiding the slammer... Kobe is light years ahead of other rapists, too. That said, I hear he is good at clutching necks.
I am a known Phil Jackson hater. But I've found some new respect for Phil this season. I mean, anyone who can get the other 11 guys on Kobe's team to not just stand around and watch must be a master motivator.
Any credit to Phil Jackson here? Comparing the Knicks and the Lakers situation, I think it might finally be safe to say that the "Zen Master" is a better coach than Larry Brown. I think the biggest difference between the two is that Phil knows how to keep the team 'calm' and give them some form of direction without antagonizing them too much (he does at times, of course, and sometimes it works, few times it backfired, but I think he times his criticism better than Larry does, who seems to simply have an ego issue and an insatiable appetite for crushing his players in public, not to mention being the definition of a drama queen).
The thread starter said he's light years ahead of OTHER stars--not ALL stars. sure it's a technicality but it helps to point that out to the ones that are ready to pounce and pour on the hate.
Come on. It's obvious that the thread starter was trying to say that Kobe is the best in the business. Now I respect his performance better than the majority of posters on this thread, but I really don't think his year surpasses what Wade has done. They're about even, with Lebron also being in the discussion. Kobe is fabulous, make no mistake about it, but there are other guys that are on par with what he's doing, and others like AI, and Pierce who are just below that.
Thank-you Dr. Semantics ~ when I first started reading the thread I thought he was talking about Kobe's placement on the galactic plane in relation to other stars in the Milky Way and beyond. Now I see that the thread starter was not discussing the massive fusion reactions dotting our universe, but in fact he's talking about basketball players. That being said - I still feel that Kobe is a black hole.
I knew you weren't too bright the minute I responded to that ridiculous post of yours. Orlando was mentioned because YOU said this, "TM? Remember his Orlander years?" If TM is someone other than Tracy McGrady I wholeheartedly appologize. I suspect that it is T-Mac because I don't recall another TM on the Magic roster. Since you said that (following me?) I decided to post a refresher on his Orlando years since you're obviously clueless. Understand now? 3/4 is still better than 1/2 (assuming the Lakers make it this year). I didn't ignore his one season of not making the playoffs. I didn't find it relevant because it's not like Kobe is perfect in CARRYING a team to the playoffs, last I checked they were in the lottery last season. And since he's supposedly light years ahead of other stars he's suppose to do things on his own far better that they've ever done on their own, not duplicate.
