My Theory about Kobe's Higher Minutes

And you finish with the conclusion that Kobe feels he does not have enough help.

…what was the point?

Basically, I’m positing that Kobe has decided he needs to carry the team because he has things to prove and that he doesn’t trust his teammates to do it themselves. He did last year and it didn’t turn out so good. So now he’s back to Kobe-ball in order to win games. In reality, his help is about same as last year (I don’t think Shannon was much better than our current options). Blake is playing much better. It’s just that Kobe no longer believes that his team can manage without him playing the minutes he’s playing.

considering how many points the first unit scores in their minutes. Even last year, we complained about the bench. Are you telling me that

Blake-Brown were a better backcourt than Blake 2.0 – Kapono/Glock? I don’t know. I think they are about the same. The frontcourt is what has changed.

Barnes-Odom-Bynum/Pau vs. this year’s Murphy/McRoberts

It’s clear the bench is struggling but not especially because of the backcourt. So my point is Kobe is getting the same help he’s always got. The difference from last year to this year is that he no longer trusts the team as a whole to get it done. So before we complain about the lack of help, the truth is that our frontcourt is not as strong.

And note that Kobe has played more when Bynum, McRoberts, Murphy, etc. were out. He doesn’t trust the rest of the team to support him and so he takes more shots.

ive seen kobe go 0-8 too many times when he has two towering 7 footers in the paint. best solution for starting 5 would be to bench pau and fish, start morris/blake and murphy/mcroberts. kobe’s gonna shoot them out of the 1st half anyway. once his wrist is ready, 3rd and 4th qtr thats when hes at his absolute best. kobe shouldnt have any trust issues with the starting 5 hes played with them for a long time now. 2 rings and 4 runs later, this shudnt be an issue. at all. period. yes the bench is terrible. theyve always been terrible—thats why odom was sent to the bench to have someone who can create his own shots, and even then they didnt really fair well, especially last season. kobe is playing more becuase odom isnt there. the lakers 3pt game is suspect—infact problablyt he worse in the league, that doesnt fair well. they cant stretch the floor, they get NO fast break pts. but again, they have the advantage every single game with the front couart. and they need a PG to boot. blake is glass joe/sick boy all in one, hes a bust. fish is old man winter, he needs to come off the bench, no way fish should be getting more than like 10 min a night. seriously. laker front office failed to pickup anyone and i do mean ANYONE that can help the team. yes they filled holes, but never made an effort to get better after the CP3 bs what went down (my hat off the stern and the league for ruining our season). the lakers will do fine once they realize they have a special front court. brown continues to baffle me with his rotation. he needs to get in pau’s a$$—no reason for him to avg less than 25 a game. NONE. too skilled, too big not to. maybe even make him come off the bench with fish. two vets would do wonders when the starters sit. i like bynums play so far—hes aggressive early and always calls for the ball, but he does commit stupid fouls too early—idk what hes tryng to prove but he needs better control. hes still on my sht list for last years playoff dud. he was a punk for what he did…anyway, rebuilding year at best, 6th seed, maybe they will win first round, but there are about 5 more well rounded than the lakeshow, and SA may be old but they can flat out get it done on tough nights. i like the DH trade talks because hes DOMINANT down low. something pau and bynum need to tape to their foreheads—if we had 3pt shooters in place we could run like the magic, only we have the best closer in the game.