UPDATE No. 2: Kobe Bryant still has not made a public comment about the hiring of Mike Brown, but he was willing to meet with the new Lakers head coach on Tuesday at his home in Newport Beach. Brown later traveled up to El Segundo for his his first press conference and said Bryant will remain the leader of the Lakers. "This is still his team. We'll make sure that he'll have the ball in the sweet spots that he likes," Brown told the media, including ESPNLosAngeles.com. "He has a great understanding of my vision and he's onboard." Brown said he has also spoken with Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest. ---- UPDATE: Kobe Bryant isn't the only one in the organization that has not commented about the hiring of Mike Brown. According to the Los Angeles Times, only Pau Gasol and Magic Johnson via Twitter have voiced their opinion about the Lakers new head coach. "For Jim Buss, this is a bold move hiring Mike Brown and I hope it all works out," Johnson tweeted. "I'm excited about our new coach, I hope he can lead us to more titles," Gasol tweeted. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak was a guest on The Dan Patrick Show and said he Jerry Buss and Jim Buss agreed that Brown was the right coach to move the team forward. "I wouldn't say one person has more input than the other," Kupchak said. "Having said that, obviously at the end of the day, the owner would make a final decision." ---- The Los Angeles Times tried to get a reaction from Kobe Bryant regarding the hiring of Mike Brown as the new head coach of the Lakers, but all they got was a no comment. According to the newspaper, people around Bryant said the shooting guard was "confused" by the decision to hire Brown. Bryant had endorsed Brian Shaw for the job. ESPN the Magazine's Chris Broussard has spoken to sources and they said Bryant is "on board with the hiring." Brown was interviewed by ESPN and said he had exchanged text messages with Bryant. Brown said he is "looking forward to getting to know Kobe and being able to work with him to go and get us a championship."
Kobe needs to start adapating. He is obviously not in his prime anymore and his game needs a few ajustments.
It's up to his teammates to protect the lead when he sits. Kobe played 5 less MPG last year, but had to come back into several games late, after the bench would blow double digit leads.
At this point, kobe should know how to utilize his skills to let hem be efficient on the court. Id prefer quality time on the court, better plays and distribution while utilizing your teammates (more assists) and shots in small quantiyt but great quality heading up to the 4th... He needs to adapt and realize that he can't make all the impossible shots he used to his in previous years. Since he has more time to rest and strengthen up, I think he can bounce back and can still average around: 22/23ppg - 3.5 rpg (bigs should work harder on the boards) - 5.5 apg and 46-47%FG, 85% FT (3 most important stats imo, Kobe hasn't been a sure thing at the FT line the last 2 years, he hasn't been given a lot of calls but he should make the most out of them by knocking them down, are the busted fingers bothering finally him?) while playing the same amount of minutes he did last year during regular season games (below 34).
Brown wants to run through the post...lets fucking do it. Jesus Christ, we've got two great post options...utilize them. God damn it.
^ AMEN! (damn I agree with Mamba again) Just a shadow of the tri next season. I hear the offense he wants to run is similar to the Spurs offense run when the Admiral and Duncan teamed up. We need a faster PG to run those pick and rolls! Quite a few to pick from! Who should we try and pick up? Point Guard (name, team – 2010-11 salary – status) Aaron Brooks, Phoenix Suns - $2.0 million – Restricted ($3.0 million Qualifying Offer) Andre Miller, Portland Trail Blazers - $7.3 million – Team Option ($7.8 million) Goran Dragic, Houston Rockets - $2.0 million – Team Option ($2.1 million) Leandro Barbosa, Toronto Raptors - $7.1 million – Player Option ($7.6 million) Rodney Stuckey, Detroit Pistons - $2.8 million – Restricted ($3.9 million Qualifying Offer) T.J. Ford, Indiana Pacers - $8.5 million – Unrestricted Carlos Arroyo, Boston Celtics - $1.2 million – Unrestricted Ronnie Price, Utah Jazz - $1.3 million - Unrestricted Patrick Mills, Portland Trail Blazers - $0.9 million – Unrestricted* Sasha Vujacic, New Jersey Nets - $5.5 million – Unrestricted Sebastian Telfair, Minnesota Timberwolves - $2.7 million – Unrestricted Charlie Bell, Golden State Warriors - $3.9 million – Early Termination Option ($4.1 million) Willie Green, New Orleans Hornets - $4.0 million - Unrestricted Mario Chalmers, Miami HEAT - $0.9 million – Unrestricted* Jason Williams, Memphis Grizzlies - $1.4 million – Unrestricted Earl Watson, Utah Jazz – $1.2 million - Unrestricted Pooh Jeter, Sacramento Kings - $0.5 million – Team Option ($0.8 million) Jose Barea, Dallas Mavericks - $1.7 million – Unrestricted Sundiata Gaines, New Jersey Nets - $0.7 million – Unrestricted* Chris Quinn, San Antonio Spurs - $0.9 million - Unrestricted Royal Ivey, Oklahoma City Thunder - $1.1 million - Unrestricted Marcus Banks, New Orleans Hornets - $4.9 million - Unrestricted Earl Boykins, Milwaukee Bucks - $1.4 million - Unrestricted Anthony Carter, New York Knicks - $1.4 million – Unrestricted Acie Law, Golden State Warriors - $0.7 million - Unrestricted John Lucas, Chicago Bulls - $0.7 million – Unrestricted* Ben Uzoh, New Jersey Nets - $0.5 million – Unrestricted*
dragic would be a good pick up for the future as i think he could evolve into a good pg with bynum, but for now, from that list, barbosa stands out as the best option, but he got a bad contract. brooks might work, but i havent seen any of his games in some time so i dont know too well what he is like. from what i remember he was real quick and played picks pretty well.
Brooks is too much of a jacker IMO (though he's a good shooter), I'd love Dragic though. Young, fearless, tutored by Nash, and has a 3 point stroke too.
