Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 at 9:00 am  |  201 responses

Kobe Bryant Says This is the Most Talented Team He’s Been On


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Over the span of 16 seasons, Kobe Bryant has played alongside plenty of talented ballers in Los Angeles. Numerous All-Stars, current and future Hall of Famers have helped Bryant win five NBA championships, but he’s apparently never seen anything like this year’s Laker team.

According to Kobe, this is the most talented squad that he’s been a part of.

Reports the LA Times:

Kobe Bryant was also there in El Segundo, make no mistake, saying this was the best team he’d ever been part of “on paper,” the catchphrase for managing expectations uttered by almost everybody of significance Monday.

“On its face, it’s the best talent I’ve been around,” said Bryant, entering his 17th NBA season. “Whether that translates into winning a championship, that remains to be seen. But just on paper, you’re obviously talking about defensive players of the years, MVPs, All-Stars. You’re talking about a myriad of things where guys are on top of their position and have been at the top of their position.”

Talent and star power aside, chemistry is what will determine how successful these Lakers can be. And for what it’s worth, the team’s two biggest forces (Kobe and Dwight Howard) think they’ll get along swimmingly on and off the court.

As Kobe Bryant points out, there’s a big difference between talent and finding the secret sauce that leads to winning a title.

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  • Junior Taylor

    Actually, Kobe is right on this one. That 2004 Laker team had 2 HOF that were way past their prime (Malone/Payton) and a feud between Shaq/Kobe that damn near tore the team apart.

  • RKJ92

    I mean clearly you think Mike Brown can handle that :D

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Who mentioned Bosh? I didn’t. We’re talking about the Lakers bench, not comparing the Lakers and Heat. But if you want to bring up the Heat, when LeBron sits, Wade is usually playing. Now, Wade and LeBron can be sitting but Ray Allen and Chris Bosh will be playing. Not a bad lineup. Derek Fisher is no longer on the Thunder. When Westbrook sits, Eric Maynor now is back as a solid backup PG. And “Where are all the intelligent ppl at?” isn’t a question that truly intelligent people ask.

  • headlines

    Nope. He never said that.

  • danpowers

    lol, well… i think they wouldve had their… issues

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    Travis Knight also

  • shockexchange

    Cosign Junior Taylor. Remember, everything is “relative” Today’s league is more watered down. To have stockpiled Pau Gasol / D12 at the same ____ time is darn near criminal.

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    That’ll be interesting to watch..

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    I agree

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    Agree with you in this

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    Wades getting old too. Hes losing his touch… Isn’t he like 31 now? I’d say wade and Kobe cab match up speed wise

  • http://twitter.com/niQknacks niQ

    ever played tic-tac-toe?

  • LakeShow

    lol

  • LakeShow

    What planet was that on?

  • LakeShow

    Brian Cook is rolling in his grave…

  • LakeShow

    Ooh, and Luke Walton, ie the poor man’s Brian Scalabrine.

  • LakeShow

    There are players that can??

  • LakeShow

    Pau Gasol averaged over 2 blocks in the playoffs. He is a decent rim defender. Compared to Dwight he isn’t, but that speaks for most. Pau has averaged 1.7 over his career.
    Jordan Hill averaged 2.6 blocks per 36 mins.
    So, yes they do have other rim defenders besides Dwight.
    Kobe is better than D-Wade and has shown that in his head to head match ups.
    MWP guard’s LeBron better than 90% of the L.
    Bosh’s “quickness” has never been a problem for LA.
    But your free to your view.

  • LakeShow

    Ever heard of Jodie Meeks? Christopher Douglas Roberts? Jordan Hill?

  • LakeShow

    Their starting lineup is 1st though…

  • Drig

    This is idiotic lol……

  • Drig

    So tell me how many contending teams in the 80s and 90s were/are clearly better than the Celts, OKC, Miami and to a lesser extent, Spurs of this era????

  • Drig

    The same can be said for OKC and Lakers and Spurs and Celtics.

  • Drig

    And how does that in any way make it okay for those guys to have great teams and not Kobe?? He’s gonna have a lesser load this season but that is something LAL need him to take care of. Just like the rest of the big 4.

  • Drig

    Jordan Hill is pretty decent although he racks up fouls pretty quickly. Sacre is going to be on the team. Meeks will provide shooting but little else. Same with Jamison. Ebanks is gonna be good. Blake is gonna return soon too. The fact of the matter is, LAL managed to stay in teh convo without any bench for the last 5 odd years. Improving your O and your D AND getting a bench at the same time doesn’t make you very top heavy. They don’t boast the depth of the Clips or the Celts but they have a pretty decent bench………on paper.

  • Drig

    Pretty sure that two of Metta-Dwight-Pau-Nash-Kobe are gonna be on the floor at any given time. Now, do you think Wade-Allen-Lewis is much better than Dwight-Nash-Meeks/Jamison/Ebanks ??? I don’t think so.

  • Drig

    Lakers in ’03 and ’09 and ’10 had pathetic benches. Kobe and Nash will not be sitting at the same time. That is a given. Blake will be handling PG duties when Nash takes a breather alongside Kobe. Now, when one of our top 4 are injured and one more is in foul trouble, that is when we’re gonna be in trouble. But I don’t see that happening for more than 3-4 games max this season. And it’s unfair to compare the team with teh most depth in teh L to the Lakers. A better comparison would be the Celts esp. when you consider that we didn’t even have a bench last season.

  • Drig

    We also stockpiled on MikeB / half-decent bench to level the playing field. :P

  • realTalk

    They were all wayyyy better? Its unreal how many people think players like Jordan, Magic, and Larry are all WAY better. Your crazy if you don’t think Kobe could contend with these guys.

  • shockexchange

    Lots. Celts, OKC and Miami were all top heavy with no bench. The Spurs were really deep, though, and any guy could beat you on a given night. That said, you could take the top 12 teams in the NBA from the ’80s or ’90s and they would split each one of those teams’ wigs.

  • shockexchange

    Here we go with the “Mike Brown can’t coach” nonsense. Phil had Pau Gasol / Andrew Bynum at the same ____ time, Odom, MWP and Horry Jr. he still got sent packing early in the playoffs. Don’t blame Odom, Gasol, Shaq, Norm Nixon, or Fisher, blame the “chuckwagon who’s had the benefit of playing on teams with exceptionally more talent than the rest of league.” If you still need a scapegoat … there’s always Phil.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Actually, he did. Said it while being interviewed at the Olympics. You just didn’t read it.

  • headlines

    Did you? If so, do you have a link? If he said something to that effect I’d think people/media would be quick to popularize it.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Dwight and Nash and one shooter against Wade/Bosh and two shooters? I’ll take the latter.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Starting lineup doesn’t play the full game. Be a little objective if you can. At some point, Dwight will be in foul trouble given that the Lakers perimeter defenders won’t be able to keep the likes of Westbrook, Durant, LeBron, D-Wade and every other slasher from getting to the basket.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Also, one of those shooters that Miami now has is the best 3 point shooter in the history of basketball if you’re going by makes.

  • Redd

    How? Everyone else has been saying the same. Lol

  • Redd

    Lakers fans were talking about how the Lebron only won because of the Heat having 3 superstars, now the Lakers have 4 Allstars(3 superstars) and its different? Kobe’s career will now never compare to Jordan’s. Truth hurts.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Okay, so let’s say Blake and Kobe are playing together…are they going to be able to run the same offense that they run with Nash in the game? Is Blake going to look at Kobe and not give him the ball when he’s demanding it? Nash has Kobe’s respect to the point where he won’t demand the ball from him most likely. Point being that the offense will probably turn into Kobe shooting bad shots while Nash is out of the game. It is fair to compare the Heat to the Lakers when folks are saying that the Lakers are the best roster on paper when if you look deeper than the starting 5, it’s not true. I’ll take a deep team over a team that has the best starting 5.

  • LakeShow

    Yes, which is why we have discussed how they actually have a bench. Jordan Hill and Antawn Jamison is a potent backup front court. Pau Gasol is a better Rim defender than you give him credit. So to act as if Dwight is the only Post player on the team is ridiculous.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    You say that as if those three guys are consistently candidates for 6th man of the year lol. Hill had a few good games last season. CDR has yet to do anything noteworthy. Same with Jodie Meeks. Face it. The Lakers bench isn’t nearly as good as the Heat or the Clippers and the Thunder’s bench isn’t that much better, but they’re better.

  • sheldon

    Lakers sucks…Kobe sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Gasol is still a finesse player and even more so on the defensive end. That’s what he is. Dwight is the only post defender worth talking about. That’s not ridiculous. It’s the truth. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had a lot of trouble getting to the rim against Bynum and Gasol during this past postseason didn’t they? Dwight is a better defender than Bynum, but he won’t stop those guys from wanting to finish at the rim. Guys know that Dwight is prone to fouling and there’s no other defender on that team worth worrying about.

  • LakeShow

    Well versed argument.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Compared to the frontcourts of the other great teams other than Miami (who doesn’t really need a big frontcourt given that LeBron makes up for everything they don’t have), the Lakers backup big men are significantly worse than the Clippers backup bigs and the Thunder’s bigs. Look at the 3,4 and 5 positions. Lamar Odom alone is better than both Jamison and Hill. Ronny Turiaf isn’t a scrub. Grant Hill is still solid and an above average defender. Matt Barnes is irritating on the defensive end. David Ebanks compared to Grant Hill and Matt Barnes? The Clippers are just a deeper team, period. If Perry Jones actualizes 70% of his potential, he’ll be a solid rookie this season. Paired with an underrated Nick Collison. Better than Ebanks, Jamison and Hill.

  • http://entelleckt.com/exclusive-mp3 Entelleckt | Mike Wyatt

    meaning 04 Glove actually played defense?

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Wade is 30. Not nearly as many miles on his knees as Kobe even with the procedure he had done last summer. Wade is a lot faster and quicker than Kobe.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    No. Which is why if the Lakers get past OKC and meet Miami, I don’t think they’ll win. LeBron and Wade won’t be stopped.

  • LakeShow

    Antawn Jamison hasn’t had the chance at 6th man of the year because he has always started. He has a good chance at it this year. He averaged over 17PPG last year.
    Jodie Meeks shot nearly five 3 pointers a game a season back and hit 40% of them. Career 37% 3 point shooter. He also hit’s his free throw’s 9 out of 10 times. He is a very good backup guard.
    CDR has shown a ton of potential and has shown himself to have some NBA worthy talents, your right that he hasn’t done anything noteworthy. But he has shown the ability to do note worthy things. Jordan Hill has shown that he can be a solid back up. He has put up numbers when given the minutes.
    Everyone know’s that being deep is over rated in the playoffs anyway.
    It’s whatever man, your free to your opinion, just know that Lakers fans are very pleased with the bench.

  • http://entelleckt.com/exclusive-mp3 Entelleckt | Mike Wyatt

    Think back almost 10 years to the last ASG Jordan was in…that was “twilight” Jordan. Now imagine the current Kobe playing ’92 Jordan.

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