Sure he's a top 5 player, but my big question is:
Can he really be a winner by himself?
When Shaq is out, you all know that the Laker's record stinks. He takes a whole lot more shots, gets his 40, but they almost never win. I think for the most part, teams (with cap space) will look at him this season while the two bigs are out to see if he can really carry a team. (Though, even if they go on a 10 game losing streak, he'll still be probably the most heavily recruited Free Agent ever.)
He, IMO, is coming dangerously close to Shareef Abdur-Rahim range (Nice Stats but loses....). For the average player, they'd already be considered that, with the record he has by himself, but for Kobe, with 3 rings, noone brings it up.
I'm not insulting him just yet, so don't come at me like I'm another Kobe hater, but it's always something in the back of my mind as I'm reading the paper (when Shaq is out of course.)
Can he really be a winner by himself?
When Shaq is out, you all know that the Laker's record stinks. He takes a whole lot more shots, gets his 40, but they almost never win. I think for the most part, teams (with cap space) will look at him this season while the two bigs are out to see if he can really carry a team. (Though, even if they go on a 10 game losing streak, he'll still be probably the most heavily recruited Free Agent ever.)
He, IMO, is coming dangerously close to Shareef Abdur-Rahim range (Nice Stats but loses....). For the average player, they'd already be considered that, with the record he has by himself, but for Kobe, with 3 rings, noone brings it up.
I'm not insulting him just yet, so don't come at me like I'm another Kobe hater, but it's always something in the back of my mind as I'm reading the paper (when Shaq is out of course.)