Does Kobe's teammates need to step up as well?

All this talk about Kobe needing to be more efficient and he leads the league in minutes played. Do the others need to step it up more than ever?

The offense runs through Kobe, you cant question the man who brought 5 rings, including bringing two for Gasol and Bynum.

What his teammates need to do is expend all their energy on defense so that Kobe doesnt have to. Right now Kobe's offense is suffering because he has to work so hard on D to make up for his teammates mistakes.

Allen Iverson got the NBA finals with his teammates all working their butts off in his name AND AI SHOT UNDER 40% WHILE WINNING AN MVP.

Kobe's teammates are better than AIs were, if they finally get the memo their job IS TO REBOUND AND DEFEND THE PAINT we can win some more rings this year.

Right now Kobe's offense is suffering because he has to work so hard on D to make up for his teammates mistakes.

hold on....








Please someone lock this topic before this guy embarrasses Laker fans even more with this non sense

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:

Right now Kobe's offense is suffering because he has to work so hard on D to make up for his teammates mistakes.

hold on....








Please someone lock this topic before this guy embarrasses Laker fans even more with this non sense

I see a lot of effort on Kobe's part on defense but does it translate to shutting down his guy? No, but there is effort.

Also, he is playing practically 40 minutes a game and leads the league in minutes played per game, the last time I checked.

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:

Right now Kobe's offense is suffering because he has to work so hard on D to make up for his teammates mistakes.

hold on....








Please someone lock this topic before this guy embarrasses Laker fans even more with this non sense

This.

Ya, Kobe's D has been terribad for years, of course there's some occasional mediocre-solid D, but still...

Congo Cash wrote:Ya, Kobe's D has been terribad for years, of course there's some occasional mediocre-solid D, but still...

I agree.

He plays a lot of minutes and having the hustle back on defense and at times he gets burned. His teammates STILL have to play harder.....

Before the season:
"Kobe is finally fully healed! He will destroy the league!"

Season starts and Kobe gets owned by Denver:
"He has a torn ligament on his wrist! What he's doing with a torn ligament is amazing. It's also just one game."

Kobe goes on a temporary/short 8-game rampage after the Denver game and says he's healed:
"See! Kobe's back!"

Right after, he begins sucking every other game:
"Mike Brown has no offensive scheme! It's just one game!"

Then, Kobe has one of the worst months ever:
"It's because we have no PG! Kobe can't do everything. Other players need to step up! Besides, it's just one game! "

We proceed to get a PG and Kobe still sucks while everyone else is playing better:
"Kobe's still learning how to play with Ramon. It's just 1 game."

Kobe still sucks.
"Kobe's playing too many minutes! It's also just 1 game!"

Mike Brown benches Kobe and lets him rest. Kobe is no longer playing 40+ mpg but around 37:
"WTF?! Why is Mike Brown benching Kobe?!"

Kobe then proceeds to have 2 horrendous months:
"He's working too hard on defense!"

To answer your original question:

Yes, Kobe's teammates need to step up and play better just like he needs to play better. It's such an obvious answer, I'm not really sure why you felt the need to ask the question. No one on the team is playing at an optimum level right now.

But, this thread is not really going to go the direction of discussing Kobe's teammates based on the early responses. It's going to end up being yet another discussion about how Kobe is playing and we already have more than one open thread for that. Going to lock this for that reason.