Los Angeles Lakers’ coach Mike Brown understands basketball fundamentals. If you have an athletic big man who can score, give him the rock. That’s right. Give Andrew Bynum the ball, Kobe Bryant be damned!
It’s no different from what Phil Jackson tried to do when Shaquille O’Neal was there. Sure he had a dangerous scorer like Bryant on his roster but running the offense through a low post scorer like Shaq made more sense. Shots in the paint are higher percentage shots, plus when teams would try to double Shaq it created easier shots for the rest of Shaq’s teammates.
That included Kobe. But a young, brash Kobe had dreams of being the next Michael Jordan and wanted to be the focal point of the same offensive scheme that helped Jordan attain six rings. It didn’t seem to matter to Kobe what was best for the team.
That of course was many moons ago. Different time, different Kobe. Now that Bryant has advanced in age he more than welcomes having someone help him carry this team and make his life a little easier.
Too bad that help comes in the form of Andrew Bynum. In six years with the Lakers, Bynum has only had two seasons where he played more than 54 games and only one season where he averaged more than 30 minutes-per-game.
Health issues have been a big reason for Bynum missing so much time on the court and now Mike Brown wants to make him the focal point? Get real people.
Nice storyline though. Let Bynum carry this team so the older players can rest more and be energized for a deep playoff run. If you buy that I’m pretty sure Mike Brown has some swamp land in New Jersey he wants to sell you.
No, this is obviously a ploy. General Manager Mitch Kupchak wants to boost Bynum’s value so he can trade him before the fragile big man breaks down again which isn’t a bad idea.
So it definitely pleases Kupchak to see Bynum get off to a good start. Bynum scored 29 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and swatted two shots in his first regular season game of the year. If he can sustain that effort for about a month it will be easy for Kupchak to deal him to some unsuspecting sucker for a boatload of talent or maybe even Dwight Howard.
Then again there is always the possibility that Brown and Kupchak actually believe that Bynum has finally put his health issues behind him and is ready to cement himself as the next great Laker center. Sounds nice right? Yep, it sounds just like the stuff Hollywood dreams are made of.
Roosevelt Hall is an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2 and also writes for Shatter The Backboard. He can be contacted at RHall@shatterthebackboard.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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