re: Is Kobe a team killer?

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He missed 18 shots. A missed shot hurts your team almost as much as a turnover

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Well he's an old shooting guard on a team with zero other offensive threats. Do you honestly expect him to shoot well on THIS team when he's a career 45% shooter? He's been a long jumpshooter for years, but now he doesn't have any other offensive threats to create easy shots for him.

I love that people are pointing at Kobe as the issue with this team when he's literally the only guy on the roster that is above average at his position. The narrative is that Kobe shoots too much and is hurting his team, but no one wants to focus on Lin's inability to play defense. Or the fact that Boozer, an undersized, jumpshooting big, is your next best offensive option. Or that journeymen like Xavier Henry and Ronnie Price are the guys you rely on for bench production.

I also think the "well anyone could lead the league in scoring with that many shots" argument is incredibly stupid (not to suggest you made the argument). There's very few guys that can consistently get a good look night in and night out without teammates creating for them. Most would consider Harden to be the best SG in the league, but he's shooting under 40% this year IN HIS PRIME. He's averaging 25ppg largely because he gets to the foul line, and he has another legit superstar to free up space for him to operate. He's missed 15 and 16 shots in consecutive games on a really good team. Kobe is averaging 28ppg on 39% shooting; Harden averages 25ppg on 39% shooting.