Why was Kobe infamously “inefficient?”

[Bronbron23]

That's an understatement Kobe was the least efficient ATG of the modern era in the Finals, at least of guys without a 1 or 2 series sample size.

Not surprised. He played most of his finals in the toughest scoring era ever. That combined with his age for the first three and his shot selection in general there's no surprised he'd be significantly worse.

[BigShotBob]

Not surprised. He played most of his finals in the toughest scoring era ever. That combined with his age for the first three and his shot selection in general there's no surprised he'd be significantly worse.

They don't care much for context

[Hey Yo]

Having the MDE as your 1st option makes it easier for teammates to score.

[Bronbron23]

They don't care much for context

Yeah its kind of crazy tbh. Every great defender who faced kobe talks about how he was the hardest player to defend yet apparently people on here who never played a nba game in their life know better. It's hilarious

[SouBeachTalents]

The excuses for Kobe's Finals inefficiency need to stop. Guys from the same era would routinely perform better AND more efficiently than Kobe would against the same competition. Just look at his first 2 title runs.

vs. 2000 Pacers
Allen: 22 on 55%TS
Iverson: 27 on 48%TS
Houston: 19 on 54%TS
Kobe: 16 on 41%TS

vs. 2001 Sixers
Reggie: 31 on 61%TS
Vince: 30 on 57%TS
Allen: 27 on 61%TS
Kobe: 25 on 50%TS

Then even in the FMVP years, look how Kobe performed compared to LeBron vs. Orlando & Wade vs. Boston, those two played SIGNFICANTLY better than Kobe did, on much higher efficiency, with worse supporting casts to boot.

I already know what the responses will be, that Kobe was extremely efficient against the Nets, his one outlier in 7 series, and that LeBron struggled just as much as Kobe did against the Celtics. But those outliers aside, more often than not, Kobe was almost always less efficient than his perimeter peers against the same competition.

The excuses that get made for a supposed top 10 player of all times individual performance are ridiculous, especially when they can be debunked with any research.

[Bronbron23]

The excuses for Kobe's Finals inefficiency need to stop. Guys from the same era would routinely perform better AND more efficiently than Kobe would against the same competition. Just look at his first 2 title runs.

vs. 2000 Pacers
Allen: 22 on 55%TS
Iverson: 27 on 48%TS
Houston: 19 on 54%TS
Kobe: 16 on 41%TS

vs. 2001 Sixers
Reggie: 31 on 61%TS
Vince: 30 on 57%TS
Allen: 27 on 61%TS
Kobe: 25 on 50%TS

Then even in the FMVP years, look how Kobe performed compared to LeBron vs. Orlando & Wade vs. Boston, those two played SIGNFICANTLY better than Kobe did, on much higher efficiency, with worse supporting casts to boot.

I already know what the responses will be, that Kobe was extremely efficient against the Nets, his one outlier in 7 series, and that LeBron struggled just as much as Kobe did against the Celtics. But those outliers aside, more often than not, Kobe was almost always less efficient than his perimeter peers against the same competition.

The excuses that get made for a supposed top 10 player of all times individual performance are ridiculous, especially when they can be debunked with any research.

It's not always as simple as stats dude. Kobe was similar to mj qnd more recently steph in that they draw so much of the Defensive attention. Bron dosn't really deal with this. Teams rarely feel like they need to double or Triple bron because if you don't he's gonna absolutely torch you. You can defend bron head up with regular help defense and he'll get his 25-30 as usual but it won't be any worse than that. This makes it easier for teams to defend brons teams because other players are gonna be open less due to not having to over help on bron. It's why his teams almost never had the number 1 offense.

This is clear as day to everyone who knows the game btw. The only people who don't see it are bron stans.

[Lebron23]

Poor Man's Jordan

[SouBeachTalents]

It's not always as simple as stats dude. Kobe was similar to mj qnd more recently steph in that they draw so much of the Defensive attention. Bron dosn't really deal with this. Teams rarely feel like they need to double or Triple bron because if you don't he's gonna absolutely torch you. You can defend bron head up with regular help defense and he'll get his 25-30 as usual but it won't be any worse than that. This makes it easier for teams to defend brons teams because other players are gonna be open less due to not having to over help on bron. It's why his teams almost never had the number 1 offense.

This is clear as day to everyone who knows the game btw. The only people who don't see it are bron stans.

Huh? LeBron averages more ppg in the playoffs than Kobe does, and is 6th all time in career playoff ppg, so I'm not sure what "won't be any worse than that" is supposed to mean. He's legitimately as great a playoff scorer as anybody besides Jordan. Hell, he averaged more ppg in his first ever playoff series than Kobe did in his entire career

But LeBron has virtually nothing to do with the point I was making in my previous post. Just dismissing the factual record and evidence of his performance as "just stats" is bullshit imo and a copout. Every superstar caliber player is the focus of the opposing teams defense, and none of them shot as inefficiently in the Finals as Kobe did on a regular basis, even with peak Shaq on the team.

[Bronbron23]

Huh? LeBron averages more ppg in the playoffs than Kobe does, and is 6th all time in career playoff ppg, so I'm not sure what "won't be any worse than that" is supposed to mean. He's legitimately as great a playoff scorer as anybody besides Jordan. Hell, he averaged more ppg in his first ever playoff series than Kobe did in his entire career

But LeBron has virtually nothing to do with the point I was making in my previous post. Just dismissing the factual record and evidence of his performance as "just stats" is bullshit imo and a copout. Every superstar caliber player is the focus of the opposing teams defense, and none of them shot as inefficiently in the Finals as Kobe did on a regular basis, even with peak Shaq on the team.

Dude you missed the point. I know he averaged more ppg. The argument is the reason he did that is because he faces less defensive attention than kobe.

[Rysio]

The excuses for Kobe's Finals inefficiency need to stop. Guys from the same era would routinely perform better AND more efficiently than Kobe would against the same competition. Just look at his first 2 title runs.

vs. 2000 Pacers
Allen: 22 on 55%TS
Iverson: 27 on 48%TS
Houston: 19 on 54%TS
Kobe: 16 on 41%TS

vs. 2001 Sixers
Reggie: 31 on 61%TS
Vince: 30 on 57%TS
Allen: 27 on 61%TS
Kobe: 25 on 50%TS

Then even in the FMVP years, look how Kobe performed compared to LeBron vs. Orlando & Wade vs. Boston, those two played SIGNFICANTLY better than Kobe did, on much higher efficiency, with worse supporting casts to boot.

I already know what the responses will be, that Kobe was extremely efficient against the Nets, his one outlier in 7 series, and that LeBron struggled just as much as Kobe did against the Celtics. But those outliers aside, more often than not, Kobe was almost always less efficient than his perimeter peers against the same competition.

The excuses that get made for a supposed top 10 player of all times individual performance are ridiculous, especially when they can be debunked with any research.

For 01 Allen and vince played 7 games vs kobes 5 and they were forced to score every game so they had some hot games that make the averages look great kobe had no hot games and was only looking to score in 2 out of 5 games.

[j3lademaster]

Because he's held to top 10 all-time standards.

[999Guy]

It's not always as simple as stats dude. Kobe was similar to mj qnd more recently steph in that they draw so much of the Defensive attention. Bron dosn't really deal with this. Teams rarely feel like they need to double or Triple bron because if you don't he's gonna absolutely torch you. You can defend bron head up with regular help defense and he'll get his 25-30 as usual but it won't be any worse than that. This makes it easier for teams to defend brons teams because other players are gonna be open less due to not having to over help on bron. It's why his teams almost never had the number 1 offense.

This is clear as day to everyone who knows the game btw. The only people who don't see it are bron stans.

Kobe didn’t get more defensive attention than Prime LeBron, ever. Especially not on a team with ****ing peak Shaq.

[Bronbron23]

Kobe didn’t get more defensive attention than Prime LeBron, ever. Especially not on a team with ****ing peak Shaq.

I agree he didn't while he was shaq but kobe was still pretty young with shaq. In his prime after shaq he absolutely faced more defensive attention than bron did.

[bizil]

Kobe ACTUALLY shot a good FG%. 45% for a high volume perimeter scorer ISN'T great. But AIN'T bad either. But when u see guys like MJ, Gervin, Bird, KD, Bron, etc. shooting 50% and even higher CONSISTENTLY, it's MORE IMPRESSIVE to me. It's means their shot selection is impeccable. And they ONLY resort to hero ball when it was time. As great as the Mamba was, he was MORE HERO BALL BASED. Even when the game situations didn't call for it. The BIGGEST difference between him and MJ was shot selection. When u look at that Golden Age of SG's, Mamba, AI, T Mac, and Vince were NEVER great FG% type of guys. Wasn't just Kobe, just a sign of the times. Hell even Ray Allen NEVER shot 50% FG in a season for his career. With that said, FG% can be OVERRATED at times.

[HoopsNY]

Kobe's inefficiency is being overblown here. Take a look at prime years for him and guys from his era and their primes both reg season and playoffs:

Kobe '99-'13: 46% | 45%

Allen '98-'11: 45% | 45%

Iverson '97-'08: 43% | 40%

Carter '99-'09: 45% | 42%

McGrady '01-'08: 44% | 43%

Miller '99-'01: 44% | 44% (backend of prime)

Ellis '08-'15: 45% | 44%

Redd '04-'09: 44% | 47% (limited playoff time)

Hamilton '01-'10: 45% | 44%

Houston '99-'04: 45% | 46% (limited playoff time)

Wade '05-'17: 48% | 48%

Kobe shot the ball better than everyone here not named D. Wade but usually faced much tougher competition given his time spent in the Western Conference. The rest of these guys with the exception of Ellis were out East. So, what are Kobe haters really ranting for?