Kobe Bryant is in the middle of the final season of his career, a career that ranks him among the NBA‘s greatest players of all time, but he’s not going out on top. After two-straight injury-plagued seasons for Bryant, the pitiful Los Angeles Lakers expected better from the legendary shooting guard in his farewell, but instead Bryant has been their biggest disappointment.
As usual Bryant has taken control of the offense, refusing to take a reduced role despite his mediocre play, and it has cost his team dearly. He’s one of the league leaders in usage percentage (30.6 percent) with D’Angelo Russell in second, not even coming close at a rate of 23.1 percent. Bryant is shooting a sad 35 percent on 17 attempts per game, a pitiful 25 percent from downtown on an inexplicable seven attempts per contest, and carrying the team’s worst offensive rating, producing just 92 points per 100 possessions.
We all know that the notorious ball-hog prefers to set up isolation plays for himself, but this year he is struggling even in those situations. That hasn’t stopped Bryant from running iso plays for himself on 3.8 possessions per game, according to NBA Stats. To put that number into perspective, that’s the same amount of iso plays Kevin Durant has averaged.
Unlike Durant, though, Bryant has been wildly ineffective, averaging just 2.6 points on these plays and shooting only 26.6 percent. As you might guess, Bryant’s play has affected the team. With their starting shooting guard/small forward on the court, the Lakers have an offensive rating of 97.8. But as bad as he has been on offense he has hurt the Lakers just as much, maybe even more, on defense.
The Lakers are ranked dead last in the league in defensive rating, 28th in opponent’s points per game, and they’re not getting any help from their superstar. During Bryant’s 986 minutes on the court, the Lakers have their worst defensive rating — a staggering 112 points allowed per 100 possessions — and in the 987 minutes without him they have their best rating, an admittedly still pitiful 102.8 points allowed per 100 possessions. Bryant is second to last among small forwards in defensive real plus-minus, with an individual defensive rating of 111, and an Enes Kanter-like minus-2.8 defensive box plus-minus.
With Bryant on the court he has a net rating of minus-14.3 — tied with Roy Hibbert for the Lakers’ worst number — and a net rating of minus-6.1 off the court, meaning that Bryant in total accounts for a minus-8.2 points per 100 possessions difference when on the floor. Think about that. Bryant makes his team that much worse, and if it wasn’t for the absolutely awful Hibbert he would be making his team worse than any other player.
The once revered legend is hurting the Lakers’ future, and their young talents in Russell and Jordan Clarkson have become secondary acts to Bryant’s farewell tour. The worst part about all of this is that no one wants to remember Bryant this way.
