Do The Lakers Miss The Machine?

[vinnie]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

[Snakehead]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I think you are right on.  We've seen the last few games Kobe try to put everything on his back and shoot his way to wins like he used to and it just is not happening anymore, he is not on the level of Wade or LeBron, that was evident in the Heat game.  If he was smart and a good team mate he would defer to his team mates more.  It'll be interesting to see how he handles this part of his career because his selfishness will not make it pretty if he doesn't put his ago aside.

[Who]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I thought that decline happened last year.

I don't see much difference in Kobe this season vs last season.

[moiso]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I thought that decline happened last year.

I don't see much difference in Kobe this season vs last season.

I agree.  He seemed to be bailed out by hitting a lot of lucky long fallaways last year.  He started to lose his ability to get to the rim years ago.

[hpantazo]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I think you are right on.  We've seen the last few games Kobe try to put everything on his back and shoot his way to wins like he used to and it just is not happening anymore, he is not on the level of Wade or LeBron, that was evident in the Heat game.  If he was smart and a good team mate he would defer to his team mates more.  It'll be interesting to see how he handles this part of his career because his selfishness will not make it pretty if he doesn't put his ago aside.

you would think that after his team mates, especially Gasol and Artest, bailed him out in game 7 last year, that he would have no problem deferring to them. I guess not. How many shots have Bynum and Gasol gotten lately? Not nearly as many as they should be getting.

[Mike-Dub]

Kobe has done this his whole career.  Adrian Wojnarowski wrote about this last year during the finals, but as we all know Perk got hurt and it was a hack job fourth quarter by the refs and Lakers in game 7.

The Lakers last year were good enough to overcome Kobe's selfish play, specifically Pau Gasol.  

It will be completely different this year when we both meet in the Finals with a healthy KG.  KG will have a field day on Pau.

[hpantazo]

at least our team last year, when they lost interest, still got up for the big games against the top teams. The lakers got throttled on xmas by the heat and last night by the spurs, they are bad at the moment.

Also we didn't have any situation like Kobe blaming his teammates and none of our players were selfishly jacking up shots and ignoring their teammates.  Not saying they can't or won't get things together but it's not the same situation.

we did have internal problems with players accepting their roles that was inferred to often last year, it's just that our team kept it in house as much as they could, but last year's team did have some chemistry issues.

[Snakehead]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I think you are right on.  We've seen the last few games Kobe try to put everything on his back and shoot his way to wins like he used to and it just is not happening anymore, he is not on the level of Wade or LeBron, that was evident in the Heat game.  If he was smart and a good team mate he would defer to his team mates more.  It'll be interesting to see how he handles this part of his career because his selfishness will not make it pretty if he doesn't put his ago aside.

you would think that after his team mates, especially Gasol and Artest, bailed him out in game 7 last year, that he would have no problem deferring to them. I guess not. How many shots have Bynum and Gasol gotten lately? Not nearly as many as they should be getting.

Well I would still have a problem deferring to Artest, but certainly not Gasol, the rightful MVP of last years Finals.  It's a funny stat: against the Spurs Kobe missed 13 shots in a row and Bynum and Gasol only shot 12 combined shots in the whole game.

[Snakehead]

at least our team last year, when they lost interest, still got up for the big games against the top teams. The lakers got throttled on xmas by the heat and last night by the spurs, they are bad at the moment.

Also we didn't have any situation like Kobe blaming his teammates and none of our players were selfishly jacking up shots and ignoring their teammates.  Not saying they can't or won't get things together but it's not the same situation.

we did have internal problems with players accepting their roles that was inferred to often last year, it's just that our team kept it in house as much as they could, but last year's team did have some chemistry issues.

Yeah you are right about us having issues last year but still it was nothing like this for the Lakers right now.  We didn't have a player with a track record of calling out and blaming his team mates and ignoring his own faults like Kobe has.  If you look at the quotes I posted on the first page there are serious issues, it sounds like the other Laker players and even Phil Jackson can't talk to Kobe and Kobe says things like "I'll have to get it through their heads" when he is the biggest problem with the team right now.  I'm sure we kept things more in house but I think this is a different animal. 

We didn't have a player taking and missing 13 shots in a row and our two best interior players (and second and third best players on the team) only taking 12 shots in the same game.  We never have had that kind of selfishness, even if we have had some.

[Fafnir]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I thought that decline happened last year.

I don't see much difference in Kobe this season vs last season.

Yeah I agree, Kobe lost his athleticism most noticably last year. It started to slip in the 08-09 season and now he's playing the game completely under the rim.

I'm still angry that Ron Artest salvaged Kobe's 6-24 game. Both are declining to the point that Odom/Gasol/Bynum will have to carry the Lakers.

[hpantazo]

at least our team last year, when they lost interest, still got up for the big games against the top teams. The lakers got throttled on xmas by the heat and last night by the spurs, they are bad at the moment.

Also we didn't have any situation like Kobe blaming his teammates and none of our players were selfishly jacking up shots and ignoring their teammates.  Not saying they can't or won't get things together but it's not the same situation.

we did have internal problems with players accepting their roles that was inferred to often last year, it's just that our team kept it in house as much as they could, but last year's team did have some chemistry issues.

Yeah you are right about us having issues last year but still it was nothing like this for the Lakers right now.  We didn't have a player with a track record of calling out and blaming his team mates and ignoring his own faults like Kobe has.  If you look at the quotes I posted on the first page there are serious issues, it sounds like the other Laker players and even Phil Jackson can't talk to Kobe and Kobe says things like "I'll have to get it through their heads" when he is the biggest problem with the team right now.  I'm sure we kept things more in house but I think this is a different animal. 

We didn't have a player taking and missing 13 shots in a row and our interior players only taking 12 shots in a game.

I can't argue with that, no one on our team can touch Kobe's selfishness.

[hpantazo]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I thought that decline happened last year.

I don't see much difference in Kobe this season vs last season.

Yeah I agree, Kobe lost his athleticism most noticably last year. It started to slip in the 08-09 season and now he's playing the game completely under the rim.

I'm still angry that Ron Artest salvaged Kobe's 6-24 game. Both are declining to the point that Odom/Gasol/Bynum will have to carry the Lakers.

It's funny how Kobe tried to blame his decline last year on injuries. What's his excuse this year? In the meantime, KG took a lot of crap from everyone especially Gasol last year and never blamed his injury, and look at him now.

[Fafnir]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I think you are right on.  We've seen the last few games Kobe try to put everything on his back and shoot his way to wins like he used to and it just is not happening anymore, he is not on the level of Wade or LeBron, that was evident in the Heat game.  If he was smart and a good team mate he would defer to his team mates more.  It'll be interesting to see how he handles this part of his career because his selfishness will not make it pretty if he doesn't put his ago aside.

you would think that after his team mates, especially Gasol and Artest, bailed him out in game 7 last year, that he would have no problem deferring to them. I guess not. How many shots have Bynum and Gasol gotten lately? Not nearly as many as they should be getting.

The reason that the Lakers are struggling is that Pau Gasol has played very poorly on the offensive end. They're trying to run their offens through him and its not working right now.

Kobe see this and goes into hero mode.

[hpantazo]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I think you are right on.  We've seen the last few games Kobe try to put everything on his back and shoot his way to wins like he used to and it just is not happening anymore, he is not on the level of Wade or LeBron, that was evident in the Heat game.  If he was smart and a good team mate he would defer to his team mates more.  It'll be interesting to see how he handles this part of his career because his selfishness will not make it pretty if he doesn't put his ago aside.

you would think that after his team mates, especially Gasol and Artest, bailed him out in game 7 last year, that he would have no problem deferring to them. I guess not. How many shots have Bynum and Gasol gotten lately? Not nearly as many as they should be getting.

The reason that the Lakers are struggling is that Pau Gasol has played very poorly on the offensive end. They're trying to run their offens through him and its not working right now.

Kobe see this and goes into hero mode.

They still have Bynum and Odom down low, and going away from Gasol is not going to help get him on track.

[Fafnir]

Kobe has been a great player over his career, but am I the only one thinking that he is finally starting to age and has lost quite a bit this year?

I thought that decline happened last year.

I don't see much difference in Kobe this season vs last season.

Yeah I agree, Kobe lost his athleticism most noticably last year. It started to slip in the 08-09 season and now he's playing the game completely under the rim.

I'm still angry that Ron Artest salvaged Kobe's 6-24 game. Both are declining to the point that Odom/Gasol/Bynum will have to carry the Lakers.

It's funny how Kobe tried to blame his decline last year on injuries. What's his excuse this year? In the meantime, KG took a lot of crap from everyone especially Gasol last year and never blamed his injury, and look at him now.

KG is over 7 feet tall though, if he was Kobe's size he'd be below the rim too.

Besides age and injury blur together at some point, KG looks like a healthy but older version of 07-08 KG. I just hope he stays that way.