gotemcoach:

Not even two minutes into the 3rd quarter of last night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, with 16 seconds left on the shot clock and a 6-point lead, Los Angeles Lakers’ center Andrew Bynum walked up the court and shot a 3-pointer from the top of the key.  If you’re into this sort of thing, the video is available to watch here.

He missed.

I wouldn’t say he missed terribly.  The shot had a nice touch, but fell right of center.  The Warriors rebounded, but couldn’t even get the ball past half court before Lakers’ head coach Mike Brown ventured down to the end of his bench to substitute Josh McRoberts for the still 24-year old Bynum.  Andrew would not see action the rest of the quarter, and only a scant few minutes in the fourth, as LA struggled to maintain it’s lead over the undersized Warriors team.

Spanning his 7-year NBA career, Andrew Bynum has taken 7 threes, making one (two nights ago, in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies).

It is not against the rules for a center to take a 3-point shot.  Off the top of my head, Mehmet Okur takes them, Andrea Bargnani takes them, Spencer Hawes takes them.  Manute Bol took them.  Pau Gasol of the Lakers, who plays the center position each and every game for the same Los Angeles Lakers, has taken 19 of them this season alone.  So why would first-year coach Mike Brown punish Bynum after launching his own?

Because he missed? If that shot had gone in, would Brown have pulled him?

I’m certainly not lobbying for Bynum to start taking more shots from deep.  I clearly see the error in him launching basketballs from 24 feet away.  If I had my druthers, Bynum wouldn’t move from directly underneath the rim on both ends, he would never put his arms down, and he would have his entire skeleton fortified with the indestructible metal alloy, adamantium.

Andrew Bynum shouldn’t take 3-point shots because he is simply not effective at making them.  However, by the numbers, a lot of Lakers, in a lot of different positions, are not effective either.

The Lakers 3PT% during the 2012 NBA season:

Andrew Bynum: 25% (1-4)
Pau Gasol: 26% (5-19)
Metta World Peace: 26% (33-125)
Kobe Bryant: 28% (73-254)

If Mike Brown wants to punish someone for taking and missing a bad 3-point shot, he can stand in the middle of a huddle, put on a blind fold, point his finger, spin himself in a circle, and bench the player he stops on.  There are only two teams worse at making 3’s in the NBA, and one of them is the Charlotte Bobcats, which is, as we all know, a franchise that should be put on a rocket ship and blasted into the sun.

When asked about the very public censure (the Lakers played on NBATV’s Fan Night), Brown said, 

“That’s something that I felt could have taken us  out of rhythm, and so that’s why I took him out of the game.”

Ohhhhh!  I get it.  It’s not that Bynum took the shot, it’s that it was taken outside the flow of the offense?  Mike Brown, I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Kobe Bean Bryant…

I’m not defending Bynum or his errant shot (Kevin Ding did that far more beautifully than I ever could).  My issue is with Mike Brown.  Brown needs to be consistent with his actions, his coaching.  If you’re going to punish someone for hurting the offense, you better punish everyone who does the same.  Different sets of rules for different players will breed contempt.  Pau Gasol, like Bynum, is a seven footer who should be operating predominantly from the post, yet Gasol’s taken multiple ill-advised three point attempts with impunity.  Pau spoke to the press about Bynum,

“That’s not his game. Hopefully it’s just one bad game, it’s out of the way.  We’ll be fine. Andrew understands.”

I’m sure Bynum appreciates the lecture.  Let’s take a look at the first 135 seconds of the Lakers loss to the Grizzlies 3 days ago:

10:52 - Pau Gasol misses 16-foot jumper
10:33 - Pau Gasol misses 19-foot jumper
10:15 - Pau Gasol misses 17-foot jumper
09:45 - Pau Gasol misses 17-foot jumper

Please, Pau Gasol, tell me more about who should be taking what shots.

So what does Brown do after Gasol misses the Lakers’ fourth shot in a row to start the game?  Nothing.  He didn’t bench Gasol for playing outside his strength.  He didn’t bench Gasol for repeatedly making the same mistake over and over.  Yet, two days later, Brown does punish Bynum, and Gasol decides to be didactic?

“I guess, ‘Don’t take 3’s is the message, but I’m going to take another one and I’m going to take some more, so I just hope it’s not the same result.”

- Andrew Bynum

You know what kind of people hate inconsistent treatment, and public emasculation?  24-year old kids like Andrew Bynum.  He’s been watching Kobe Bryant jack shots for 7 straight years, doing exactly what’s been asked of him without complaint, to the tune of back-to-back championship titles.  He’s been underestimated, relegated to third wheel status behind Gasol, and sometimes fourth behind Odom, injured and understandably frustrated with his career to this point.  Now he’s finally healthy, coming into his own during a wild, unpredictable season, while learning a new system on both ends of the court, still adjusting to play with a ball-dominant Kobe Bryant, and waiting in the paint for the rebound off Pau Gasol’s missed 3-point shot, and you’re wondering why he’s lashing out?

Tip of the iceberg for Mike Brown.  Earlier this week, the head coach publicly benched Bryant, only with ESPN cameras this time, for playing exactly the way Kobe’s played his entire career.  Brown’s explanation? 

“I felt I wanted to make a sub at the time.”  

Here’s an idea, Coach Brown: instead of punishing both men in front of the cameras, talk to each behind them.  Give those players the respect a man, and multi-million dollar, championship athlete deserves.  And when you get frustrated again, Coach Brown, please remember: these Lakers’ go as far as Bryant and Bynum drag them.

This road will never be easy for the new coach.  Brown is replacing Phil Jackson, a man who is not only world-famous for dealing with team strife, but could earn the respect of his players simply by flashing his golden knuckles.  On the other hand, Brown’s résumé shows a history of weakness.  In his only other head coaching job in the NBA, Brown let LeBron James ran roughshod over Cleveland.  Could Mike now be over-compensating to avoid the same criticism?

This NBA season is different than any before it, with compressed schedules, accelerated travel, and no practice time, now more than ever head coaches need to be pillars of support and models of consistency for their players.  The only thing Mike Brown has done consistently is tinker with his lineups.  Two weeks ago, Josh McRoberts couldn’t get off the bench, and rookie shooting guard Andrew Goudelock was playing 15-20 minutes per game.  Now, it’s completely reversed.  A certain level of experimentation is expected for a new coaching staff and new offensive and defensive systems, but somebody remind the head coach there are only 16 games left.  NBA teams like to find a groove just before the Playoffs.  The Lakers will be lucky to have a locked rotation.

This core has won titles together, and it’s clear Mike Brown does not have their respect.  Bynum said he’d shoot more from distance.  Bryant called the coaching staff “inexperienced.”  Steve Blake was the starter “for the remainder of the season,” but Brown has changed course, and is still searching for the right mix off the bench.  To top it off, are the players now worried if they make a mistake they’ll be punished on cable television?  

Cats and dogs, living together…  All in a day’s work for Lakers’ head coach Mike Brown.

Think Derek Fisher could have helped with this mess?

@gotem_coach

Wonderfully written.

And I truly believe that Mike Brown has isolated most of this team. In the same way that some say Carmelo ‘got Mike D’Antoni fired,’ so to will happen to Mike Brown if he clashes with Kobe & Bynum, two players making about $40 million collectively this season. Reasons like this are why the Lakers probably should have gotten Rick Adelman when they had the chance.

gotemcoach:

If you look at the back of your hand, you’ll notice muscle.  Some tendons, ligaments.  Probably a vein or two.

Now, look at the above photo again.

From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:

With those torn ligaments in his right wrist – an injury that should’ve required surgery and three months of rehabilitation – Bryant is forever one collision from serious seasonal consequences. When he fails to keep the wrist moving during a game, it will swell significantly.

Kobe tore the lunotriquetral ligament in the wrist of his shooting hand.  The lunotriquetral ligament is a series of bands of connective tissue that link the lunate and triquetral bones.  Since Kobe’s lunate and triquetral bones did not displace during his fall in the Lakers’ preseason game against the Clippers, Byrant eschewed surgery, leaving him with what medical professionals refer to as “fat-hand.”

Kobe’s bad wrist and “fat-hand” restrict his movement, weaken his grip on the ball, and drastically affect his shot.  The injury is no more evident then when Kobe is on the free-throw line.  Kobe’s made over 7,000 freebies, and taken almost 8,500.  His stroke has been refined over 16 seasons.  Nowadays, every Kobe free throw is accompanied by an overt, nervous body English.  He leans, bends.  His arms flail as he tries to will the ball into the basket.

You:  Well, Neil, if Kobe’s wrist affects him that much when he’s just standing still taking free throws, doesn’t it affect everything else he does, from dribbling to the difficult jump shots he takes, even more so?

Me:  Yes.

Yet he persists.  Kobe Bryant’s ability to play through pain and significant injury is admirable, dare I say inspiring. 

From Bill Simmons of Grantland:

Kobe is a tough dude. Gotta hand it to him - he plays with legit injuries about as well as NBA player I can remember.

We’re at the point in Bryant’s career where any non-catastrophic injury is written off as a relative non-factor - never to keep him from missing time - and all of his catastrophic injuries are written off as non-catastrophic. 

He’s an absolute warrior.  Our memories of Kobe scoring, and winning titles, on a myriad of injuries will balloon like a tall tale.  “Remember the time Kobe scored 44 with two left arms?  Yeah, his right arm got shot off by a bazooka, so he bought a left arm on the German black market, had it sewn on, and hung 44 on Ruben Patterson.”

Of course, Bryant’s willingness to battle while wounded is, in part, a pointed strategy in his ongoing Résumé War with Michael Jordan.  Kobe’s legacy will undoubtedly benefit from every injury he has played with, and will play with, over the course of his career, but the best way for Bryant to pass Jordan on the All-Time list will be to pass him in championship rings.

We’re certain the Lakers can’t win a title without Bryant, but can they hang a banner with Bryant so clearly not even close to 100%.  Last season’s knee and ankle injuries never hurt Kobe more than when he walked off the floor in Dallas, a victim of the Mavericks’ Playoff sweep.  This year, I can promise you, Bryant’s wrist will not be getting better.

According to the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding, Bryant is receiving a numbing injection before every game.  Head Coach Mike Brown admits the injury “could be hurting Bryant more than he is letting on.”  Take it from Kobe’s personal trainer (also, famously, Michael Jordan’s personal trainer), Tim Grover:

“I’ve never seen anyone do what Kobe’s doing right now.”

Maybe that’s not a good thing?  We’ll never know because Kobe Bryant is playing tonight. 

Did you hear about the time Kobe blocked a shot with his anger?

@gotem_coach