Kobe Bryant Knows Absolutely Nothing About How To Win In The NBA

[Undefeated] - “The Lakers are going to surprise a lot of people. Rob [Pelinka, the Lakers’ general manager] has smartly built a team of physical players. Big, versatile, fast, physical players. He understands that if you want to challenge Golden State, you can’t challenge them with shooting. That’s what they do. You’ve got to beat them somewhere else. You have to beat them with size. Chippiness. Feistiness. Strength and speed. And he has a team that has that. He has a mixture of vets that are still in their primes and young kids that are hungry and open-minded and willing to learn. A team that can compete and challenge. That is a dangerous mix.”

Excuse me? The hell is Kobe trying to say here? You don’t beat the Warriors with size. That’s absolutely false. Just take a look at the teams that have challenged them in the playoffs during their run. Those teams would be the Cavs, Rockets and Thunder (pre-KD). None of those tams beat the Warriors with size.

You beat the Warriors with versatility, not size. You beat them by being able to match their death lineup with one that can chase shooters off the 3-point line. You need a versatile big that can step out on the perimeter and defend Draymond. That’s what makes that death lineup so tough. You have 5 guys who can shoot. You have 5 guys that can take someone off the bounce. That’s where you need to neutralize Golden State and putting a big who can protect the rim but gets lost in space is not how you beat the Warriors.

I agree that you can’t get into a shooting contest with the Warriors. You lose that every time. But, look at what the Rockets did to them up until game 7. You need to be able to shoot to compete with the Warriors. You don’t trade 2s for 3s and the Rockets made sure not to do that. Again, this goes to having bigger wings. Guys like Ariza and Tucker were important for the Rockets, similar to how someone like Ingram and Kuzma will be important for the Lakers.

The Lakers do look like a team that can push the Warriors, but in terms of challenging them? It’s going to take a bigger jump from guys like Ball, consistent play from Hart and Ingram. Whenever the Lakers and Warriors play it will be interesting to see how Luke Walton hands the rotations too. During the game last night, the Lakers did a handful of different looks, most notably putting LeBron with the 4 young guys and going small and then playing LeBron with McGee, Rondo, KCP and Ingram. Somewhere in between there has to be the right mix.

I think this assessment though just makes Kobe 8-for-24 on NBA assessments.