Morning Shootaround: Big Baby Fined, Kuester Optimistic, and Midseason Grades

I watched a Lakers/Cavs game and a Lakers/Heat game and I was shocked at the amount of contact Kobe was getting without a call while Wade and Lebron were parading to the FT line. As the game advanced Kobe just kept attacking and working through the contact to put up some amazing shots and make them. Even when the league didn’t have his back he was owning.

You make some good points, Joel. I also would say Kobe is the most Jordan-like of current players (though Kobe on the court is more Drexler than Jordan). I can’t debate the intangibles you listed. I can, however, take issue with some of the more concrete statements.

Kobe is not an elite defender. He can be, when he wants to be, but he understandably conserves his energy for offense. Opposing shooting guards get a PER of 14.1 against Bryant, which is only slightly below average. Certainly it’s not a perfect measure, but it’s something. (thanks, 82games.com)

And Kobe is not “without a doubt the best midrange player in the league.” I searched on Hoopdata.com, limiting to players averaging 30+ minutes in 30+ games.
     Of the 20 players averaging at least two shots per game from 10-15 feet, Kobe is ranked fifth in percentage, behind Duncan, Roy, Paul, and Jermaine O’Neal. (Incidentally, Stuckey is the worst of the group at 29.8%. DBB fave Al Jefferson takes the most shots, at 5 per game, from this range but only hits 35%.)
     From 16-23 feet, I used a cut-off of 4 attempts a game. 39 players fit the criteria. Dirk, Roy, Deron Williams, Paul, Nash, Kaman, Terry, Haslem, and Amare all do better.

As for maybe being “the best post up layer in the league,” well, he’s not even the best post-up player on his team. One offseason of working on his moves with Hakeem, while a nice story, does not make him better than players who have been working in the post for years.

Dirk Nowitzki might argue about the most polished offensive player, too.

I think I JUST came out of surprise. How did that get stopped? Why was LA stupid enough to propose that?

Kobe is in no way, nor has he ever been, as good a team and individual defender as Michael Jordan. MJ defined defense from the guard position; no one since him has even come close.

Offensively, however, Kobe and MJ are eerily similar. I agree with that for sure.

I think if you take Kobe away from the Lakers, you end up with something roughly approximating the Nuggets.

Odom’s role increases without Kobe, so he produces more.

The only problem is that they obviously don’t have any type of serviceable backup SG … but those aren’t too hard to find.

I think people underestimate just how good Gasol is. That team was not very good, even when Bynum was putting up those numbers before his injury. Kobe is a very good player, but not good enough to propel that team anywhere meaningful. Add Gasol, one of the best all around bigs in the game, and they’re great.

Whereas in Cleveland, LBJ has literally propelled that team to the Finals by himself

Anyway, it’s all subjective, I guess, but that’s what I think. If Kobe does end up going down with that finger injury, we’ll find out.