Myth: Kobe Was an Inefficient Scorer

[SouBeachTalents]

Idk, does he get Kidd and K-Mart in the early 2000s? If so then they're winning championships. Kobe could have made 10 Finals too in the weak EC.

We can play the hypothetical game all day. Y'all cry about him playing with Shaq in his early 20s but he went through his peak years on horrible teams when he would have won titles with even average supporting casts from 05-07.

Nah, Kobe’s never won without the best supporting cast in the league. There’s been maybe 3 titles in history that were won with an average supporting cast.

[ImKobe]

Nah, Kobe’s never won without the best supporting cast in the league. There’s been maybe 3 titles in history that were won with an average supporting cast.

You're actually delusional if you think Kobe had the best supporting cast in the league from 08-10 lmao.

[RRR3]

You're actually delusional if you think Kobe had the best supporting cast in the league from 08-10 lmao.

He didn’t win in 2008 so irrelevant. 09 and 10, he obviously did. ImStupidBe at it again.

[RogueBorg]

Nah, Kobe’s never won without the best supporting cast in the league. There’s been maybe 3 titles in history that were won with an average supporting cast.

You're crazy, Boston had a better roster than the Lakers.

[ImKobe]

He didn’t win in 2008 so irrelevant. 09 and 10, he obviously did. ImStupidBe at it again.

You have no idea what you're talking about. Now apparently Kobe had more help around him than KG or Duncan or Nash lmao.

You're crazy, Boston had a better roster than the Lakers.

Yep. 3 HOFers in their late primes + a future potential HOFer in Rondo. Deron and Melo had arguably better rosters around them too in certain seasons but weren't on Kobe's level as players.

[SouBeachTalents]

You're actually delusional if you think Kobe had the best supporting cast in the league from 08-10 lmao.

Yeah, delusional to claim the, at worst, 2nd best supporting cast in the league was the leagues best

[RRR3]

You have no idea how much Kobe means to me. I would die for him!

[8Ball]

I watched Kobe's career.

He wasn't bad efficiency wise like Westbrook. But damn did he have many westbrook level shot selections.

[TheGoatest]

I watched Kobe's career.

He wasn't bad efficiency wise like Westbrook. But damn did he have many westbrook level shot selections.

I remember Kobe fans regularly praising Kobe as being "the best bad shot maker in the league", as if that was some kind of compliment, if it were true.
Which of course it wasn't, as Jamal Crawford was easily better at making unnecessarily tough, stupid shots.

[ImKobe]

I watched Kobe's career.

He wasn't bad efficiency wise like Westbrook. But damn did he have many westbrook level shot selections.

Him and Arenas were ahead of their time. How many stars now take those same shots from 3 that Kobe got criticized for?

I remember Kobe fans regularly praising Kobe as being "the best bad shot maker in the league", as if that was some kind of compliment, if it were true.
Which of course it wasn't, as Jamal Crawford was easily better at making unnecessarily tough, stupid shots.

He was. Those 05-07 teams had no business being above-average on offense, yet Kobe made them top 10 in the league by bailing out one horrible offensive possession after another.

[GimmeThat]

the myth exist probably has something to do with his height. 6'6" is on the top end of SG, particularly when it comes to agility, so it's easy to think "well, he scored a lot of points against a smaller defender, I'm not sure what's so special about it" but when it came to matching up against SG with similar size, the volume he scored at made him stand up amongst his generation, again, attributed to that agility and slashing ability.

the truth is that elite players really only pass the ball for stamina reasons, because as much bickering about players talk about how others should pass the ball more, half the times they don't know what to do with it besides simply saying "we need to make them work harder on defense, so we can play better defense"

[Kblaze8855]

That’s what comes of turning basketball into division. And a lot of the pro Kobe people here I see doing it to others. He was having seasons shooting like 25% from 3 when he was already getting best in the league talk. Did he even have 5 good 3 point shooting seasons with the real line?

Such things will factor in long term and all the pure scoring bucket types will have their standings suffer for it. Kobe and second 3 peat Jordan were the best of that type but all of them will feel it in time.

Thats how these new fans want it though. 45/30/83 or whatever will….in time…be all there is to judge a scorer by. Skill set is already barely a factor. Give it 30 years of this. People will lump Kobe in with a gang of people his fans will not be happy about.

They don’t mind using the same argument against people they aren’t impressed by though. People will laugh at that “Compared to league average” shit in time as whole eras are considered garbage because they couldn’t shoot. 2 generations into this new style?

All the non pure shooters will have been garbage in retrospect. Fans barely even give bigs a pass now. A 2? Just wait. You’re gonna wanna vomit reading Kobe evaluations

[ImKobe]

That's why you have to use CONTEXT and look at the stats relative to the era. Obviously no one's going to care that much about Kobe or Lebron decades from now, why would they? For all we know, new metrics get invented that completely re-shape how we view certain players historically.

[Kblaze8855]

Half the topics on this forum are about a guy who was drafted almost 40 years ago. Kobe and Lebron debates will be going on for decades. There are several of us who have been here doing it for 2 decades already. I hope I’m not here two more but it’s entirely possible.

And in 20 years Kobe, Jordan, and almost everyone from before the evolution into analytics based ball will all be clowned. I was reading the replies on the nba Facebook page showing the 2k ratings of the top 75. The final day had Kobe, Jordan, and Kareem as 98s and 99s and people asked how that’s possible when they had bad 3 point ratings. One was like “Jordan is a 65 from 3 how does that get him 99 overall?” like it was such a failing you can’t possibly be rated highest all around.

Those are the fans empowered by these endless “But look at the such and such percentage….” trend. You think those fans see Kobe shooting like Giannis from 3 well into his established superstardom and don’t laugh? He shot 30, 31, and 25% from 3 for three straight years the last two of which he was a title winning superstar. Under 33% from 3 for like 10 seasons.

The free throws obviously help that but kids these days will absolutely come to the conclusion Kobe couldn’t shoot just like dishonest adults say about Jordan now.

The days are gone where a midrange specialist gets full respect as a scorer because it’s damn near impossible to do well by the numbers unless you’re also padding it with a lot of threes KD style.

I don’t think there’s much chance Kobe’s standing lasts when a generation of Steph and Harden clones have come and gone.

Basketball skill isn’t appreciated when the shooting numbers don’t come with it. He’s gonna be seen as missing a massive puzzle piece.

I don’t like the whole trend but it is what it is. When Michael Redd jr retires with 26ppg for his career having shot 43% from 3 for his career on 9 attempts a game the question on him as a scorer vs Kobe is not gonna go the way either of us hope.

[eliteballer]

Half the topics on this forum are about a guy who was drafted almost 40 years ago. Kobe and Lebron debates will be going on for decades. There are several of us who have been here doing it for 2 decades already. I hope I’m not here two more but it’s entirely possible.

And in 20 years Kobe, Jordan, and almost everyone from before the evolution into analytics based ball will all be clowned. I was reading the replies on the nba Facebook page showing the 2k ratings of the top 75. The final day had Kobe, Jordan, and Kareem as 98s and 99s and people asked how that’s possible when they had bad 3 point ratings. One was like “Jordan is a 65 from 3 how does that get him 99 overall?” like it was such a failing you can’t possibly be rated highest all around.

Those are the fans empowered by these endless “But look at the such and such percentage….” trend. You think those fans see Kobe shooting like Giannis from 3 well into his established superstardom and don’t laugh? He shot 30, 31, and 25% from 3 for three straight years the last two of which he was a title winning superstar. Under 33% from 3 for like 10 seasons.

The free throws obviously help that but kids these days will absolutely come to the conclusion Kobe couldn’t shoot just like dishonest adults say about Jordan now.

The days are gone where a midrange specialist gets full respect as a scorer because it’s damn near impossible to do well by the numbers unless you’re also padding it with a lot of threes KD style.

I don’t think there’s much chance Kobe’s standing lasts when a generation of Steph and Harden clones have come and gone.

Basketball skill isn’t appreciated when the shooting numbers don’t come with it. He’s gonna be seen as missing a massive puzzle piece.

I don’t like the whole trend but it is what it is. When Michael Redd jr retires with 26ppg for his career having shot 43% from 3 for his career on 9 attempts a game the question on him as a scorer vs Kobe is not gonna go the way either of us hope.

Nah.

We've got message boards, data, basketballreference, youtube..people putting things more in perspective historically these days.

It doesn't take a a brain surgeon to see when the league goes from what the stats were in 98 or 2004 to Westbrook averaging triple doubles that something is up.