Scott Van Pelt Show "Kobe's Not Clutch"...

[raptorfan_dr07]

Kobe's always been a clutch player. One of the best in the league throughout his career.

Where many of us have problems is when the media and his stupid fans try and make it seem like he's some legendary closer(I hate that term by the way) or is so far beyond his peers in clutch situations. The evidence, both visual and statistical show that this is not the case. He's actually much closer to the rest of the pack. Nothing to be ashamed of, just that he's not as clutch as he's made out to be. You shouldn't fear him any more than you would Dirk or Melo or CP3, etc.

You get crap like this:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basket...5060074.column

Calling him the "greatest closer in basketball history" and you see where the BS comes from.

[bleedinpurpleTwo]

Kobe is obviously clutch.
You cannot look at stats. They don't tell the story.
How many times is Kobe getting the ball with 3 seconds remaining (thus a bad shot attempt)? How many times is Kobe getting doubled compared to others taking the last shot? etc etc

[Kiarip]

Why does shooting 32% deserve praise though??? it signals to me that hero ball leads to failure more times then not. Kobe would shoot better if he trusted the offense instead of jacking up low % jump shots.

Of course hero ball leads to low percentages, but passing the ball in the clutch leads to turnovers, and not being able to put up a shot in time or having a poor foul-shooter fouled, or having an even worse shooter take a well-defended shot, and etc.

Here's the truth about "clutchness," there's no such thing really.

Kobe never passes in the last seconds, as a result every single last second shot he takes is really tough. These are shots that would generally be considered bad shots in general, but during final seconds it's hard to get a good look, especially because you don't want to risk turn-overs, so no of course Kobe isn't gonna have 65% or 50% or even 40% shooting in the "clutch," why would he? those shots are physically the hardest to make because they are always very well defended, and he barely shoots like 45% from the field overall.

Everyone, whose last shot % is higher than their regular fg% either have a sample too small of last shots taken, or actually gets better shots in the last seconds, which means that either he or his team is lazy during the majority of the game (or if the sample is again small he could be playing against teams that break down defensively in the last seconds.)


So the lakers are gonna keep passing the ball to Kobe and hes' gonna keep putting up game-winners at roughly 30% clip or w.e he's been doing, but that's actually not that bad, because unless there's a huge defensive breakdown it's actually above average for the league in last-second makes.



Now just because there's no such as being "clutch," it doesn't mean there's no such thing as "choking," which you can do if you make the wrong decision statistically more often during crunch time than on regular.

For example, Lebron passing up an open game winning shot many times in a row is choking, because even if his team thinks the open man should take the shot, he should be the one who takes it if he's open.

As for someone who's their team designated crunch time shooter like Kobe, if he's turning over the ball a lot more than usual, or not being able to put up a shot in time, yeah he's choking, but if he's shooting and making 30% like he usually does, he's not, he's simply taking the last second shot.

[DonDadda59]

ESPN (doing the usual Jordan comparison(s) around this time of year) just showed a graphic, In game-winning/tying shots in the playoffs:

Michael Jordan [COLOR="Red"]9-18 (50%)[/COLOR]
Lebron James [COLOR="Red"]5-12 (41.7%)[/COLOR]
Kobe Bryant [COLOR="Red"]7-27 (25.9%)[/COLOR]

Take away whatever you want from that.

[DMAVS41]

Yeah Kobe's taken a nosedive these past two years in clutch play, but he's always been one of the best performers late in games. It's his rep in game winners that gets overblown - he makes the most but also takes and misses the most. His percentages are just slightly above league average on a high volume.

This. Kobe has been one of the best late game players in the league since around the 01 season. Anyone saying Kobe is not clutch is being absurd. As Chazzy says, its his rep on game winners..well, specifically playoff game winners, that is truly overblown.

But make no mistake, Kobe's play in crunch time in both the regular season and playoffs has been very good overall. Really only Dirk and Lebron have produced as consistently and as well as Kobe in clutch situations (meaning crunch time play and game winners) this era.

ESPN just showed some pretty shocking numbers:

Playoff game winners:

Jordan 9-18
Dirk 5-12
Lebron 5-12
Kobe 7-27

To Kobe's credit, some of those shots were very difficult, however, those shots/plays are of the utmost importance. Just think about a few examples last year and this year. Kobe missed the wide open shots in game 1 against the Mavs last year...if he makes, might change the entire series. Dirk makes the game winner in game 2 against the Heat. If he misses that the Mavs likely lose the series. Durant making the game winner against the Mavs in game 1. Series goes at least 6 if he misses that.

Winning and losing can be extremely fragile in the NBA playoffs and often times it comes down to late game play unless you have a dominant team like the 01 Lakers.

So the point is not to take it to either extreme. Kobe is definitely clutch...he's just not remotely as clutch as his rep.

[swi7ch]

They also said Billups was 3-27 in his last 30 clutch situations....

Bill Simmons has a great article on why people should stop calling Billups "Mr. Big Shot."

[DMAVS41]

Bill Simmons has a great article on why people should stop calling Billups "Mr. Big Shot."

He's literally been the worst player on game winners since the 06 season. I swear if you make a couple big shots at some point in your career you are forever known as being clutch.

Billups has been terrible.

There was a poll last year about which players would GM's want taking the last shot. Kobe was 1. Billups was 2.

Carmelo didn't make top 5 iirc.

[DMAVS41]

Kobe is obviously clutch.
You cannot look at stats. They don't tell the story.
How many times is Kobe getting the ball with 3 seconds remaining (thus a bad shot attempt)? How many times is Kobe getting doubled compared to others taking the last shot? etc etc

The stats show that Kobe is clutch though. And you can absolutely look at them.

You can look at clutch play, super clutch play, game winners, offensive efficiency, and record in tight games.

What more do you need?

And by the way, Kobe is statistically one of the most clutch players of this era. Only player I think performs better would be Dirk overall. And even then that is debatable.

If you are talking about solely game winners, then no, Kobe is nothing special....especially in the playoffs.

But overall? The stats show that Kobe is clutch. Not sure what people are looking at....

[Kiarip]

He's literally been the worst player on game winners since the 06 season. I swear if you make a couple big shots at some point in your career you are forever known as being clutch.

Billups has been terrible.

There was a poll last year about which players would GM's want taking the last shot. Kobe was 1. Billups was 2.

Carmelo didn't make top 5 iirc.

Billups has terrible decision making in general with respect to when he should take those 3s, so I think that he can easily be considered quite clutch when compared to what he normally does.

[RazorBaLade]

Kobe's game winners arent that good because he takes the dumbest shots I've ever seen, the fact that he can even make one of them is a testament to his skill in big moments.. He's just not very smart at game winners.. Put him a clutch situation and he will perform and be smart, give him 5 seconds to make a shot and he will take a fall away 3 pter for no ****ing reason

[longtime lurker]

Kobe, Melo, Pierce. Those are the 3 guys I want in the clutch. Put them in any order you want, stats can kiss my ass

[RazorBaLade]

Kobe, Melo, Pierce. Those are the 3 guys I want in the clutch. Put them in any order you want, stats can kiss my ass

Same but I'll also take CP3. Dirk is a distant 5th but a clear 5th. Those 5 guys in the clutch, I'd sleep well if my team lost from a missed shot by them.

[Blue&Orange]

There was a poll last year about which players would GM's want taking the last shot. Kobe was 1. Billups was 2.

Carmelo didn't make top 5 iirc.

GM's are idiots...there was an article by some journalist about how clueless they are, sometimes i feel sorry for not bookmarking this things, but he went to a unnamed GM that was about to acquire a unnamed player, asked him if he wasn't worried about the microfracture surgery the player had, and the GM replied "He had what? How do you this stuff? "

Bu-bu-bu-bu Kobe is clutch, GM's\coaches said so.

[Kews1]

ALL that applies to "king james" as well. If we're gonna talk about it, then let's talk about it

i dont care about Lebron, hes not on the celtics he could be just as bad as kobe i dont even care, all im sayin is Kobes just overhyped.