“I haven’t thought about reducing his role”, Scott said Wednesday at the team’s practice facility. “That’s not an option whatsoever”.
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“Yeah, they could do it – because they’re good”, Bryant said afterward.
Unless you revel in their misery (which you very well might), the Lakers have been totally grim and unapproachable this season, with perhaps one exception: off-court Kobe.
Bryant is averaging a team-high 15.2 points and playing 30.5 minutes a game, second-most on the team behind Jordan Clarkson (30.8). His field-goal percentage ranks him 122 out of 122 qualified players, and his 3-point percentage ranks last out of 105 qualified players.
The Lakers might be better off without him not because he is not a serviceable player, but because it would force them to come up with a game plan that does not revolve around Kobe Bryant.
Bryant is shooting an appalling 31.1 percent this season. Less than 12 hours after returning to LA, the Lakers practiced hard, but the topic of the day still centered on Kobe Bryant and his abysmal shooting performance the night before: 1-14.
It is fair to say that Bryant has become the worst shooter in the league. Scott is trying to navigate an untenable situation to the best of his ability, but the Lakers have a long way to go before becoming relevant in the West. Smith added in his rant that he doesn’t blame Bryant for his downfall, but “Father Time” and the Lakers franchise. “It’s not just my performance, we just have biggest problems”. Scott (to ESPN) said that neither him being reduced to an off-the-bench player, or him getting minutes reduced would be occurring. I could’ve scored 80 [Tuesday].
Barkley singled out Kobe’s over-reliance on his signature (and much imitated) pump fake as the reason why Kobe can’t seem to get a bucket this season. “They do, I think, enjoy being around each other”. “We want to keep it going”.
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“I have to start out by saying the human side of me, so I’m in the locker room last night, watching the game, Van Gundy’s talking about the ’96 Bulls compared to this team”, Kerr said. “I try to do some fancy things out there with both hands, making crossover moves and kind of have a certain creativity and flair to my game”.
