SI "PASSING Judgment" In this weeks Sports illustrated, there is an article on Kobe and the lakers. On one of the pages, there is a box called "PASSSING Judgment" which is a stat about kobes assist versus the teams record. It is directed toward's shaqs statements last week. I want your takes on this... Eight or more assist Lakers are 36-19 winnning pct .655 Five to seven assist 107-39 .733 Zero to four 200-95 .678
I think its a misleading stat. 1. There's no context 2. Why was he passing more? Was he passing more, because he was the 'in out man' when shaq is out? If you remember, kobe tallied 4 or 5 tripple dubs while shaq was out, begining last season, however they lost quite a few of those games. Kobe had to create offense, setup other players, and draw double teams. He was making a lot more passes (leading to more asissts) but he didn't have the in/out game that Shaq brings. Whereas, on a 5-7 assist night, the ball goes into Shaq, he dribbles down, a double comes, Shaq passes out, ball goes to Kobe, Kobe passes to open man. Its just one possible scenario.
What people dont know about kobe is that his record without shaq is above 500 which is pretty damn good.. esp with the scrubs the lakers have had the past few years. And also last year when shaq was out with his baby toe injury the other lakers shot like 30% it def. wasnt kobes fault, plus they were missing another starter at the time as well
I agree with Manu on this one. I just posted it because I thought it was interesting. I live in L.A. so i see a lot of laker games and I can tell you Kobe puts up better all-around numbers when Shaq isn't around, but of course they lose. The reason for this is that they break from the triangle more often, and the ball is kobe's hands more often. Also, you don't usually get assist for throwing the ball into the post. That's why it bothers me sometimes when people say kobe only puts up better numbers than [insert name here] because he has Shaq on his team. It is my believe that kobe would avg. a near triple double if he were on another team. If you say Kobe has more rings than [insert name here] because he plays with Shaq, that of course if certainly true.
