hmmm…watching a lot of those games, i can see why kobe does take a long shot: they had PG’s who were scared to touch the ball…the C and PF seemed aloof at times…it just seemed like no one else comes to play EVERY game. with that said, i want the guy who wants to play and win take the shot. well..it’s true the Lakers “lived and died” with Kobe…5 titles though? i’d say, bad shot or not…they “lived”.

It’s really the 15-23 foot shots that get him in trouble (under 40% accuracy from the field). His accuracy isn’t worse from that range than the NBA average – it’s just that he takes that “bad” shot so frequently.

What happens is that he doesn’t have the same explosiveness that he had in his younger days, so unless the defender in front of him bites on one of his fakes and jukes, Kobe gets stranded 18 feet from the basket with the shot clock winding down and ends up taking a contested jumper.

Steve Nash should help out Kobe with that, but it will require an adjustment by Kobe to play off the ball and work to find efficient shot opportunities.

Again, that’s nearly 12 shots a night at a 41% clip when you have an absolutely killer C/PF combo that makes 55-60% of their shots quite consistently. This is horrendous decision making. Thank god he’s playing next to ridiculously good offensive rebounders or some fans might actually realize his team’s success is the product of those bigs who hit their shots, rebound the misses from all those long-2′s, and control the defense.

http://www.behindthebasket.com/btb/2012/3/3/its-christmas-time-for-analytics-fans.html