You Have Gasol, Howard, Nash: Use Them Kobe

When I tuned into the Lakers-Celtics game Tuesday night, I saw just about the same thing I saw last year:  Kobe Bryant had the ball in his hand jab stepping for fifteen seconds then taking a jumper.  The only difference from last year is he has an arguably top five distributor on his team and a powerhouse center.  He seems to not have noticed this, since Steve Nash isn’t handling the ball as much as he should.  All of the headlines since Nash’s injury are missing this.  I saw one today discussing how Kobe will be affected with Nash out.  He isn’t going to be and that’s the whole problem. 

So far in two games, Kobe has shot 61.8% from the field and 44.4% from three.  He’s doing this without the help of Steve Nash.  These are great numbers, but Kobe won’t be able to keep doing this.  He is going to need to let Nash handle the ball while realizing Howard should get more touches down low.   

At this point in his career, Kobe is going for stats.  He wants to set records, and he is most likely going to keep moving up the scoring record list to past Karl Malone and possibly even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at number one.  However, the only way he is going to pass Kareem is by utilizing Howard and Nash.  The more Nash handles the ball the more open looks Kobe will get.  Kobe could essentially be a stand still jump shooter with Nash distributing for him.  The Lakers have too many threats with Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard also on the team.  When Howard and Gasol get touches, they are going to almost always draw a double team.

Someone is going to be open for the pass out.  It is going to be Kobe a lot of times, and he should be getting easy open baskets.  I know it is going to be hard for Kobe to adjust to not handling the ball, but he should if he really wants those scoring records.  The less he has to create shots for himself, the more his body is going to be preserved to keep scoring on pace for the number one spot (about 23 points a game for five more seasons to reach 38,387 points).

More importantly, I picked Kobe on my fantasy team this year because I’m banking on him shooting 50, 40, 85.  He isn’t going to keep this two game shooting percentage for the whole season without Nash.  I’m sure lots of people who drafted Nash also want Kobe to defer.  Nash has just 8 assists total this season.  That’s ludicrous.  Fix it Kobe; I’m sick of jab steps and faders.