About most of the time Kobe is the blame for everytime the Lakers lose. Especially, in the Finals. They say he shoots too much, takes bad shots, and trys to do to much to win the game. Sometimes, he does have rough nights. But think of this! IF SHAQUILLE ONEAL hit most of his freethrows they probably would've won 5 championships in a row, and Shaq (through the years) would've shattered all records in points. He would average 40 pts and score probably 50 if he had made his freethrows. (IF somebody has enough energy to go look at the stats and calculate...maybe I'm not 100% right...but they would've done a lot better...I'm to lazy to use stats right now). This isn't a stupid if-this-than that...because you can say anything like that: If Kobe hit his shots, they would've won the game If they played different teams they would've won the game. If Kobe passed more.. But this is different. He had perfect oppurtunities...You are 15 feet away from the basket...You can take your time..Bend your knees...aim..fire...HE HAS BIG HANDS...When there is a will, there is a way. Shaq is lazy..he can get more rebounds if he wanted to...dude's a beast..he can block the hell outta each shot if he wants too..but he's to lazy...his career is declining. PS: It's weird how we go by the best team, by record. Because than really doesn't tell you anything. Because the Lakers beat the T-Wolves and the SPurs which are way better teams than the Pistons...but they came up with the win...So does that mean the Pistons are better than them and the Spurs and T-wolves....no...It's all about consistency/defense/matchups/CHANCE You can't win em all. The Lakers weren't themselves in the FINALS...KOBE/Shaq weren't themselves. Malone/Payton surely were not doin't Jack. Well, can't wait till the 04-05 season to start. PEACE
I read somewhere that Shaq fell out of a treehouse when he was little (when he was little he was big, I should say younger) and broke both of his wrists and that contributed to his poor FT shooting..maybe not a lot but it affected it...also you make it seem like Shaq's hands have nothing to do with it, his hands are almost bigger than the ball, which makes it really hard to shoot the ball with consistency from out, yes he could of done better than this year, like the year before that when he shot his career high in FT%, but you cant blame him for all of it...somethings just cant be changed.
shaq's ft woes are understandable, i would like to see him at least 60% from the ft line though...(yes i would even like to see him shoot 60% from the ft line in a heat jersey)...his hands are huge, which makes it very difficult to control the motion of the ball (think shooting a baseball for most of us) but with practice he should still be able to hit 60% from the line... and the pistons just figured out how to expose the weakness of the lakers, not to knock on flip or pop but larry brown is just a superior coach and understood (and had the right personnel) to stop that laker team...but i agree...i think both the spurs and the twolves (with a healthy cassell) would have beaten the pistons even though they couldnt beat the lakers...
I would agree. I shaq did hit at least 75% from the charity strike damn, he would be really unstoppable. 40pts a game easily.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ADubb20:</div><div class="quote_post">What about Kobe's FG percentage? It blows.</div> Well he was forced into some shots..he didnt have any open looks, Prince was all over him and I give that to Prince, he affected Kobes Game a lot...
the old saying goes, "what's done is done". Let it go, in the finals the pistons were the better team, they outhustled and outplayed the Lakers, Not just Shaq or Kobe. You keep saying what if, well what if wilt chamberlain hit 75% of his free throws? the blame cannot go to one man alone
lol what if Shaq hit his free throws If Shaq shot 60% from the line this year, he would've averaged 22.6 points as opposed to 21.5 points shooting 49%. In 99-00 if Shaq had shot 60% from the line as opposed to 52.4%, he would've averaged 30.5 points as opposed to 29.7 points. Now if Shaq had shot 65% as opposed to 49% this year, he would've averaged 24.1 points instead of 21.5 points. Let's look career wise, if Shaq had shot 60% in his career from the line he'd averaged 27.7 PPG instead of 27.1 PPG. 65%, 28.3 PPG 70%, 28.8 PPG 75%, 29.3 PPG 80%, 29.8 PPG Shaq averaged about 10.5 free throws a game in his career, so the difference between him shooting 50% and 60% is 1 point, 50% and 65%, about 1.5 points, and 50% and 70%, 2 points a game, and 50% and 80%, 3.2 points a game. If Shaq in the finals this year had shot 92% from the line, he would've averaged 31.3 PPG. If Kobe in the finals this year had shot 63.1% from the field, he would've averaged 33.9 PPG Now obviously those are the extremes, but let's tone it down, if Shaq had shot 70% from the line he would've averaged 28.9 PPG If Kobe had shot 46% from the field, he would've averaged 26.2 PPG, doesn't look like either of thsoe would've covered the deficits they lost by, but with different factors, different things change, the butterfly effect would come into play.
What's done is done, and I don't know why you guys are even talking about this anymore. True Shaq's free-throw shooting has hurt us in the past, but Kobe had a pretty low FG% last year, so you really can't say too much to a guy shooting 58% from the field. The Lakers still got to the finals four times and won it all three, and I've enjoyed that team a lot over the years. But Shaq's gone so just move on, and look forward to what we're going to see next year. I know I'm looking forward to it, no matter what happens. EDIT: ^ all you do is take Shaq's FTA's per game ( 10.4 last year ) and times that by the percentage you wanted him to shoot at ( 60% - .6 ) then you get 6.06. then you add the difference of those FTM to his real FTM (4.9) and his total points, you get 22.66..
