"Kobe Bryant is not as money as we think" - Henry Abbott

Fisher is more clutch than Kobe.

:facepalm if you guys could ignore the whole kobe/espn shit, its a decent point. Everyone goes iso late in games, why?

[QUOTE]"Kobe Bryant is not as money as we think" - Henry Abbott [/QUOTE]

"Hero basketball" in general is not as money as we (actually, as you) think. I'm a Lakers' fan and I always supported Kobe, but what happens so often is ridiculous. I don't know whether this guy has an agenda against Kobe (I don't read him), but it doesn't matter, because in this case he's right. The Lakers are the most predictable team of them all in the clutch. "Give the ball to Kobe and cross your fingers". Zero player movement, zero ball movement, zero alternative shooters. LeBron got ripped because he made a mistake by trying a bad pass in the ASG and a non-winning pass in that Utah game, although he did pass to an open teammate, while he had 2 players following him. Yet, Kobe commits crucial mistakes multiple times per game by taking all kinds of ill-advised shots in the clutch, but for you it doesn't matter because he's doing what the "leader", the "alpha male" is supposed to do.

Margins of losses of the Lakers this season:

1, 9 (Sac), 9, 11, 8, 11 (Mil), 12, 2, 11, 9, 5, 7 (Lin), 12 (Pho), 15, 3 (Det), 5 (Was).

We could have easily won 5 more games if we had worked out some plan B's instead.

[QUOTE=LeFraud James]They are going to have an absolute FIELD DAY once/if Lebron wins a ring.

I can already see the article headlines.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/1/30/129093925625517925.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=BlackWhiteGreen]:facepalm if you guys could ignore the whole kobe/espn shit, its a decent point. Everyone goes iso late in games, why?[/QUOTE]

Apparently because team basketball is too Euro, too sissy and too boring for the casual fan, who wants to see heroic individuals, not heroic teams.
I'm glad Magic doesn't play nowadays. He'd get criticized so much for passing up shots.

I dont kno' who this "Henry Abbott" guy is but he gets some cool points on that shit.

f[COLOR="Black"]u[/COLOR]ck Kobe

If you shoot that many as Kobe you are supposed to make some shots and the public will only remember your made shots. But you have to keep in mind that missing almost every shot with the game on the line is one thing, but havingthe authority to shoot every shot with the game on the line is another. Kobe is a poor performer when the game is on the line but I respect that he earned the right to do whatever he wants.

[QUOTE=LeFraud James]Agenda is so obvious.

All of those meaningless words put together into neatly organized paragraphs. :facepalm

The author of that garbage and the OP would gargle LeBron's nuts in their mouth if they had the chance.[/QUOTE]

Well your not biased at all.

I actually like Kobe more than LeBron, but what more can I expect from a username like yours ?

Idiot.

Dirk, Kobe, Pierce, Melo, Rose are the clutchest players in the league.

[QUOTE=Psileas]"Hero basketball" in general is not as money as we (actually, as you) think. I'm a Lakers' fan and I always supported Kobe, but what happens so often is ridiculous. I don't know whether this guy has an agenda against Kobe (I don't read him), but it doesn't matter, because in this case he's right. The Lakers are the most predictable team of them all in the clutch. "Give the ball to Kobe and cross your fingers". Zero player movement, zero ball movement, zero alternative shooters. LeBron got ripped because he made a mistake by trying a bad pass in the ASG and a non-winning pass in that Utah game, although he did pass to an open teammate, while he had 2 players following him. Yet, Kobe commits crucial mistakes multiple times per game by taking all kinds of ill-advised shots in the clutch, but for you it doesn't matter because he's doing what the "leader", the "alpha male" is supposed to do.

Margins of losses of the Lakers this season:

1, 9 (Sac), 9, 11, 8, 11 (Mil), 12, 2, 11, 9, 5, 7 (Lin), 12 (Pho), 15, 3 (Det), 5 (Was).

We could have easily won 5 more games if we had worked out some plan B's instead.[/QUOTE]

It's too bad they aren't more Laker fans like this.

Excellent post. I see this often times as well, when I'm watching Laker games.

And I agree that Abbott does have an agenda against Kobe. He's been writing so many articles against the guy for things that are, for the most part, common knowledge to hardcore basketball fans.

[QUOTE=Psileas]"Hero basketball" in general is not as money as we (actually, as you) think. I'm a Lakers' fan and I always supported Kobe, but what happens so often is ridiculous. I don't know whether this guy has an agenda against Kobe (I don't read him), but it doesn't matter, because in this case he's right. The Lakers are the most predictable team of them all in the clutch. "Give the ball to Kobe and cross your fingers". Zero player movement, zero ball movement, zero alternative shooters. LeBron got ripped because he made a mistake by trying a bad pass in the ASG and a non-winning pass in that Utah game, although he did pass to an open teammate, while he had 2 players following him. Yet, Kobe commits crucial mistakes multiple times per game by taking all kinds of ill-advised shots in the clutch, but for you it doesn't matter because he's doing what the "leader", the "alpha male" is supposed to do.

Margins of losses of the Lakers this season:

1, 9 (Sac), 9, 11, 8, 11 (Mil), 12, 2, 11, 9, 5, 7 (Lin), 12 (Pho), 15, 3 (Det), 5 (Was).

We could have easily won 5 more games if we had worked out some plan B's instead.[/QUOTE]
I dont really think abbot has an agenda against kobe, but he is the posterchild of clutch hero ball, despite the actual facts. He has been pushing this view of isos in the 4th as bad bball and using kb as the example for a while now. I actually agree with him on almost all of his points. Just look at the role of bynum and pau down the stretch in these last two games. They win both if kobe plays more as a decoy/facilitator in the 4th. I think the quote from bynum from the ASG is pretty telling.

On the other hand, if a star does pass up the shot (aka lebron) and the open look doesnt drop, they get lambasted by the illinformed media and public. Now, should they care about that? hopefully not, as they should make the smart and higher % bball play everytime.

[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/m361v.gif[/IMG]

one thing that irritates the shit out of me with abbott's arguement, is that he takes late-game execution as a given.

he makes it seem like teams could get great shots by running standard offense, if they just[I] tried[/I].

but, in reality, defense late in games step up. a lot. so simple screening and cutting, having everybody on the same page, its not as simple as just deciding to do it. it takes great execution, which is a skill that lots of teams lack.

fact is, most teams make small mistakes on defense every possession, thats why simple offenses work. somebody gets lost on a screen, somebody misses a rotation, somebody is ball watching, these things occur in regular situations and yield baskets for the offense. offenses rely on defenses making mistakes.

but in crunch time, when the defense is locked in, these mistakes are greatly reduced, so the offensive teams suffer, if they are running standard sets.

im not going to defend kobe, but this idea that all you have to do is decide to run some screens, everything works perfectly, and you get lay-ups is nice in theory, but when the other team is digging in defensively, and the pressure is on, executions suffers.

thats why teams go to isolations. you dont have to worry about execution and cohesion, because it is so simple. get him the ball, get out of his way, and we get a decent shot. as opposed to running some elaborate screening motion, where there are a lot of moving parts, where only one thing has to go wrong, and the play is ruined.

you need very smart players to run good plays at the end of games, and most teams dont have enough of these smart players to make it work, so they resort to isos.



in an ideal situation you have 5 smart guys (like say the celtics or spurs) or a great floor general (cp3) who can get everybody on the same page, then you can run real plays, and get good shots. but if you have metta world peace, or andrew bynum, you are probably going to have to resort to something [I]much[/I] simpler.

But what i don't get is how people just assume that giving the ball to Pau or Bynum to take the last shot would necessarily work out. How do you know? People just scream "Give it to the bigs!"

I mean, Kobe has been a winner throughout his career playing the way he has. I mean, in his mind he's probably like, "Why change now?"

[QUOTE=chips93]one thing that irritates the shit out of me with abbott's arguement, is that he takes late-game execution as a given.

he makes it seem like teams could get great shots by running standard offense, if they just[I] tried[/I].

but, in reality, defense late in games step up. a lot. so simple screening and cutting, having everybody on the same page, its not as simple as just deciding to do it. it takes great execution, which is a skill that lots of teams lack.

fact is, most teams make small mistakes on defense every possession, thats why simple offenses work. somebody gets lost on a screen, somebody misses a rotation, somebody is ball watching, these things occur in regular situations and yield baskets for the offense. offenses rely on defenses making mistakes.

but in crunch time, when the defense is locked in, these mistakes are greatly reduced, so the offensive teams suffer, if they are running standard sets.

im not going to defend kobe, but this idea that all you have to do is decide to run some screens, everything works perfectly, and you get lay-ups is nice in theory, but when the other team is digging in defensively, and the pressure is on, executions suffers.

thats why teams go to isolations. you dont have to worry about execution and cohesion, because it is so simple. get him the ball, get out of his way, and we get a decent shot. as opposed to running some elaborate screening motion, where there are a lot of moving parts, where only one thing has to go wrong, and the play is ruined.

you need very smart players to run good plays at the end of games, and most teams dont have enough of these smart players to make it work, so they resort to isos.[/QUOTE]

I think its more about just not doing something that isn't working. Kobe is shooting 27% overall in crunch time this year while taking 28 shots per 36. Words can't describe how truly horrendous that is.

You have to try something else. Anything. Just not iso Kobe or Kobe ball because it simply isn't working.

And as a whole, iso ball late in games doesn't work that well from the perimeter to begin with.

Its all about results.