He’ll ultimately make a decision when he’s ready, but for now, it’s more than fair to start bracing for impact. Kobe’s field goal percentage last year dropped to 37.3 percent, down from his career 45 percent shooting.
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Russell, it seems, briefly forgot about his considerably more famous teammate on Twitter on Thursday. The trio could potentially lineup alongside the soon-to-be 37-year-old in the upcoming season.
“They have really set themselves up for a promising future going on years”. This isn’t just a cap hit; it’s a cap crippler, but then everyone knew that would be the case when the Lakers gave Bryant his latest extension in November 2013. He has said multiple times that before his time is up with the Lakers, he wants to be sure he leaves the franchise in good hands.
Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan: Steve Nash got injured again, leading to his retirement, Jeremy Lin struggled in his return to the starting lineup, especially with Kobe Bryant getting more touches on offense, and then the Black Mamba himself got injured.
This simple interaction on social media shows that Bryant is ready to be a mentor to Russell, Clarkson and Randle. Each baseline turnaround could be his last, making each swish of the net all the sweeter. We’ve already written about this, but it bears repeating – players are going to get a lot more time off in this season.
Colangelo said that winning a gold medal at the Olympics would be a great way for Bryant to close out his career.
However, two days after the original tweet, Bryant replied to Russell with a simple emoji.
In order for that to become a feasible scenario, as Bryant notes, the team must tackle the huge challenge of gelling together their young and veteran players with the youth stepping forward as major contributors.
“He was my Michael Jordan”. He has three promising players that he can mold into superstars. It was no wonder when he finally grew exhausted of the Magic’s inability to build a competent team around him when he finally asked out (although some patience would have drawn Dwight Howard and the post player he always wanted).
Don’t believe me? Summer League drew huge ratings and the Lakers had a huge part in that. “Everyone plays [expletive] small ball anyway”.
“Sir Charles” was on SiriusXM National Basketball Association Radio on Friday with hosts Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine and told them there’s no point for Bryant to just hang on.
But I am convinced those would have been abundantly reasonable reactions, given the sorry state of the Lakers and Bryant’s prominent position right there in the middle of everything that’s gone sour.
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On the contrary, LA Lakers spent the off-season rebuilding their roster to match the best in the business.
