what are you saying man? GTOOH! Kobe is 1st team all defense! ya know what that means, huh? are you a coach? no! coaches know Kobe is a great defender so just shut up! i don't wanna hear about watching tape to see for my own eyes! the coaches' word is enough for me. i can't be bothered to think for myself. that's why there are coaches. so they can think for me. i don't care about reams of tape or solid evidence whatever, blah, blah, blah. what matters is what coaches said. if they said drinking piss would make me a basketball player better than Kobe i would do it. that's how good their word is man. they can never be wrong!
Overall Kobe was ok. Not terrible, but not great either. However, he was invisible in crunch time in the first 3 games. He didn't do anything and his team lost 3 winnable games because of how they performed in crunch time.
And I keep hearing about the Lakers perimeter defense letting them down. Who is a huge part of that defense? Kobe.
Go back and look at the series. Kobe did nothing defensively. He was late on rotations and his close outs were awful.
Kobe was not the biggest problem, but he was definitely a problem.
LOL, 1st all-defensive team. What a joke and what a shame for Tony Allen and all the true defensive players/specialists.
Overall Kobe was ok. Not terrible, but not great either. However, he was invisible in crunch time in the first 3 games. He didn't do anything and his team lost 3 winnable games because of how they performed in crunch time.
And I keep hearing about the Lakers perimeter defense letting them down. Who is a huge part of that defense? Kobe.
Go back and look at the series. Kobe did nothing defensively. He was late on rotations and his close outs were awful.
Kobe was not the biggest problem, but he was definitely a problem.
Revisionist history/talking out of your ass at its finest.
Because it's true, you can't flip a switch. They had their streak after the All-Star break but fell back into their funk and we're too over-confident to get back on track fast enough. Looking at that roster, it's impossible to deny that they should have made it to the WCF. Their heads just weren't in it.
Pau Gasol never showed up to any of the games. If your reason is any different than that, then you don't know what the **** you are talking about. About every Laker showed up for that series at some point except him.
Overall Kobe was ok. Not terrible, but not great either. However, he was invisible in crunch time in the first 3 games. He didn't do anything and his team lost 3 winnable games because of how they performed in crunch time.
And I keep hearing about the Lakers perimeter defense letting them down. Who is a huge part of that defense? Kobe.
Go back and look at the series. Kobe did nothing defensively. He was late on rotations and his close outs were awful.
Kobe was not the biggest problem, but he was definitely a problem.
Kobe was bad defense, but the dude has so much injuries he looks like a shell of himself. The biggest problem I thought was the coaching job. The defensive rotation was terrible. The guys just weren't on the same page. Big ups to the Mavs, but I still think they will lose to OKH. Lakers are just too old and injured to run w the Mavs, but not OKH.
The truth is i didn't think the Mavs are good. I just think the Lakers suck.
I see what you're trying to do here OP, but you're off base.
The only two players who are "too old" are Fisher and Kobe. Ron Artest to an extent too, but he at least does a decent job defensively.
Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and Derek Fisher were the biggest problems for the Lakers last year. Phil didn't give a shit, Kobe can't defend for shit anymore, and Fisher hasn't been a good enough defender to defend the 2nd best perimeter player on the court for years. And that's what he's forced to do since Kobe gets to defend the weakest offensive perimeter player at all times.
Now that Phil's gone, LA needs a new PG, and needs to either replace Kobe, or start weening him off of all his FGAs. Kobe can't take over a series anymore. LA needs to go through their BIG Big 3, Gasol, Bynum, Odom. Not Kobe first, then the BIG 3 get the trickle down touches. That isn't winning shit. And it didn't.
More on Phil Jackson:
One of their biggest problems is now gone. Phil Jackson. Phil clearly didn't give much of a shit throughout the season. I mentioned this earlier in the year too, and it just made a bunch of Lakers fans mad. They claimed that's just how he coaches. But seriously, I've seen Phil coach for years and years and years. This year was not normal Phil Jackson coaching. He seemed to just sit there daydreaming during key momentum swings in games. As if he, like most Lakers fans, just figured the Lakers would flip the switch and be good all the sudden without needing to micromanage sometimes during games.
Phil seemed disinterested throughout the season. He acted like a coach who wanted to retire the year before, but hung around to get another ring with a team he figured would win it without him having to put much effort in. Of course, he also got a large payday. Phil is gone, Lakers are better for it. A worse coach who cares more will do a better job.
The Lakers are also slow. But OP, their slowness is mainly an issue in their backcourt, NOT they frontcourt. Kobe and Fisher don't get back to stop fast breaks, they get burned on the perimeter in the halfcourt, and it makes everything else harder for the bigs. Gasol sucked in the playoffs, but he's been key for the last 3 years. Let's not act like Bynum and Odom and Gasol are why LA didn't win. They are LA's biggest strength.
And Dirk is battling a knee issue. Dirk just plays through injuries so well because of his timeless game.
But yea, Kobe was terrible on the defensive end, average on offense, and awful in crunch time.
Just couldn't get it done. Not sure why you blame anybody else all the time. The Lakers were in position to win all of the first three games.....and then Kobe went invisible in crunch time and bricked another game winner.
While Dirk played great late and so did the Mavs. A running theme of our debates this year. Kobe vs Dirk in close games........guess those stats weren't that far off.
Kobe , Kobe , Kobe , Kobe , Kobe etc. not anyone else just kobe. Of course ill pretend like I want to place a little blame on the rest of the team here and there but i'll always revert it back to kobe why ? because thats what I does.
Kobe , Kobe , Kobe , Kobe , Kobe etc. not anyone else just kobe. Of course ill pretend like I want to place a little blame on the rest of the team here and there but i'll always revert it back to kobe why ? because thats what I does.
It's Phil, Fisher, and Kobe. Not just Kobe.
LA -can- win again with Kobe, but Kobe needs to take on a reduced role and needs to actually start playing defense again. He isn't the same player. LA also needs a new PG, and they are already addressing the coaching problem. So now it's just the garbage backcourt defense that needs to be fixed now.
Re: The Truth : The Reason The Lakers Lost.
