The Lakers are going to be a mess of overlapping ball-dominant guards next season, and head coach Byron Scott is scrambling for ways to even out what could be a very unbalanced rotation. One of Scott’s bright ideas could be to deploy Kobe Bryant out of position at times.
In an interview with David Aldridge of NBA.com, Scott talked about his vision of utilizing the Black Mamba at a variety of different spots on the court in 2015-16.
Kobe can play one, two and three. There’s no doubt in my mind. And there’s some games. against some teams, where he’ll probably play four. With his tenaciousness, the way he guards people and when his mind is set, if I say ‘Kobe, you’ve got him,’ he takes that as a challenge. You know how he is. He’ll compete.
Bryant has always been a natural 2-guard, but shifting him over to regular minutes at the small forward position isn’t really all that surprising on Scott’s part. Of playing the 3, the 17-time All-Star even confidently told trainer Gary Vitti, “I can do that” according to a Sunday report by Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times. But the revelation that Scott wants Bryant to play the power forward position on occasion is sure to evoke some turned heads and quizzical glances.
Looking past the initial shock value of Scott’s proclamation, the move would make sense as a situational tactic. The league is going increasingly small and superstar wing players have often shifted to the post as they’ve aged in order to preserve their bodies. One example is Michael Jordan, who saw work at the 4 as a Washington Wizard. Another one is LeBron James, who, though famously sour on playing the position for Erik Spoelstra during his Miami tenure, is essentially a power forward at this point of his career in David Blatt’s offense. Bryant’s back-to-the-basket game has always been strong with his pristine footwork, fadeaways, and fundamentals giving him the necessary tools to survive, and even thrive, in the post.
The 36-year-old Bryant is certainly no stranger to being asked to step out of his comfort zone. The ousted Mike D’Antoni used to regularly bestow point guard duties on him from 2012-14. Plus, Basketball Reference even claims that Bryant has prior experience at the 4, estimating that 1% of his total minutes came at the power forward position in the 2012-13 season. While that may have been the result of Mike Brown’s ludicrous Princeton offense experiment, a move to the post shouldn’t be that challenging for Bryant in theory.
Still, by now I’ve learned to take all of Scott’s coaching decisions with a grain of salt. Hopefully, he doesn’t situate Bryant as a stretch-4 to jack up long 2s on offense and get abused down low by grizzled opposing power forwards on defense. We shall see.
At least this brings us one step closer to my pipe dream of seeing Bryant, Nick Young, and Lou Williams share the court together for at least 15 minutes every night. The Los Angeles Lakers, ladies and gentlemen.
