I'm trying to minimize the Lakers posts, but the wonderful 82games just posted a very interesting article that addresses some things that I was puzzled by earlier, namely Kobe's crazy off court stats. (Side note: those links change as people come and go, not a good feature, the link from that Whew post now goes to Laron Profit).
In that article, Kevin Pelton points out that the Lakers without Kobe have a better defensive rating than any full team in the league. On the other hand, their offensive rating is way worse than any full team in the league. I still think the small sample size has got to be a factor, but it's up to 388 out of 1840 total minutes and still holding steady.
He goes on to point out two things: Kobe is one of the best at not turning the ball over, and with him on the floor, practically everybody shoots better.
This ties right into recent discussions about who can be a ballhog, and when it's good or bad. Taken as a whole these stats tell me that Kobe is doing the right thing. It'd be great if Lamar or others stepped up, but Kobe's style of play is making his team better.
Let's look at Kevin Garnett for comparison. His on court / off court numbers are way saner: The Wolves are better at offense and defense when he's in, just like you'd expect with a two-way superstar. Field goal percentage goes up for almost everybody with him on the court in the same way (Dupree and Madsen are the ones that go down- interesting pair). KG is in the top 50 instead of the top 15 for turnovers, which is still pretty good. So I don't think KG is a harmful ballhog, but we all knew that.
One interesting difference between them is rebounding- with Kobe, the Lakers get 3.8 percent more of their offensive rebounds, but 3.2 percent less of their defensive. With KG, the Timberwolves get 4.1 percent fewer offensive rebounds, but 6.1 percent more of their defensive. To me that says that Kobe is not a strong rebounder himself, but takes more shots that the big men can grab for put-backs when the defense has collapsed (something mentioned in the 82games article). KG on the other hand is a rebounder, but as Charles has pointed out, isn't trying for offensive rebounds as much and prefers to get back on defense. It may also mean his missed shots are more likely to be rebounded by the other team (because they're isolation plays maybe?)
Well, food for thought. Go Lakers!
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