Splits
09-12-2015, 03:55 AM
54
http://cdn-jpg.si.com/sites/default/files/2015/08/27/kobe-bryant-100.jpg
KOBE BRYANT
Lakers | Guard | Last year: 24
If this was a list of the NBA’s most famous players, or its most popular, or its richest, Kobe Bryant would be roughly 50 spots higher. But those aren’t the driving factors at play here, and the Lakers’ shooting guard no longer rates near the top of the NBA’s class on a value basis. Bryant is now 37 and coming off three consecutive season-ending injuries that have limited him to 41 games total since April 2013. Father Time is blowing into his hands and walking towards the scorer’s table.
Indeed, there is a pretty good case to be made that Bryant shouldn’t be on this list at all. Bryant had the worst effective field goal percentage (.411) of any NBA player to take at least 700 shots. Nevertheless, Bryant’s usage rate (34.9%) was second-highest in the league, trailing only Russell Westbrook. Simultaneously, Bryant had the worst defensive rating (112.6) of any player that logged at least 1,000 minutes, and he ranked 81st out of 91 shooting guards in Defensive Real Plus-Minus. That’s what happens when you gamble off the ball with Donald Trump-like discretion and play transition defense like a flabbergasted tourist whose money belt has just been ripped off his waist in broad daylight.All told, the 21-win Lakers, who were impotent in every facet, somehow managed to improve on both offense and defense when Bryant was out of the game. Watching Bryant shamelessly freelance in his career’s last chapter is undoubtedly more entertaining than watching mediocre nobodies straining to keep their heads above water, but both methods of play are headed to the same destination: the lottery.
Yet they rank this fool in the top-100 (http://www.si.com/nba/top-100-nba-players-2016?page=2&devicetype=default)
http://cdn-jpg.si.com/sites/default/files/2015/08/27/kobe-bryant-100.jpg
KOBE BRYANT
Lakers | Guard | Last year: 24
If this was a list of the NBA’s most famous players, or its most popular, or its richest, Kobe Bryant would be roughly 50 spots higher. But those aren’t the driving factors at play here, and the Lakers’ shooting guard no longer rates near the top of the NBA’s class on a value basis. Bryant is now 37 and coming off three consecutive season-ending injuries that have limited him to 41 games total since April 2013. Father Time is blowing into his hands and walking towards the scorer’s table.
Indeed, there is a pretty good case to be made that Bryant shouldn’t be on this list at all. Bryant had the worst effective field goal percentage (.411) of any NBA player to take at least 700 shots. Nevertheless, Bryant’s usage rate (34.9%) was second-highest in the league, trailing only Russell Westbrook. Simultaneously, Bryant had the worst defensive rating (112.6) of any player that logged at least 1,000 minutes, and he ranked 81st out of 91 shooting guards in Defensive Real Plus-Minus. That’s what happens when you gamble off the ball with Donald Trump-like discretion and play transition defense like a flabbergasted tourist whose money belt has just been ripped off his waist in broad daylight.All told, the 21-win Lakers, who were impotent in every facet, somehow managed to improve on both offense and defense when Bryant was out of the game. Watching Bryant shamelessly freelance in his career’s last chapter is undoubtedly more entertaining than watching mediocre nobodies straining to keep their heads above water, but both methods of play are headed to the same destination: the lottery.
Yet they rank this fool in the top-100 (http://www.si.com/nba/top-100-nba-players-2016?page=2&devicetype=default)