Regarding Bynum, I seem to remember him having a similar stretch last year when he was just anemic on the glass. I agree with Sanchez – Bynum seems to be a lot more proactive as a rebounder when he’s scoring and getting lots of touches. That to me is more of a concern than his passing.

Like I said earlier though, it’s never advisable to say “oh, look at the stats, that tells me *everything* I need to know” because that’s likely not true (unless you’re looking at something from a pure numbers standpoint – i.e. how many rebounds does a player avg. a game). And on the flipside of that, stats can be very useful in revealing what else is going on that may not be obvious to the naked eye. These perspectives should be paired more often to get a more complete synopsis of what is actually happening.

Many good points can be made on both sides of this debate – stat heads aren’t wrong when they say that Kobe is not as efficient a player in the clutch as his reputation suggests & Kobe fans aren’t wrong when they say that Kobe is one of the best finishers in the game and a player that they’d want taking the last shot (or making the play) at the end of a close game.

All that said, I’d lean towards wanting Kobe over almost any player put in that last second situation – stats be damned. And it’s not because I don’t think the stats are valid, I think they are. I just think, in this case, the stats are limited and they don’t take into account so many other factors that have a bearing on the the actual game. Like, for example, the attention that Kobe draws and how that attention creates openings for teammates so that even when he misses he’s drawing defenders and creating second chance opportunities for teammates (or in last nights game how he drew the attention of Fish’s defender just enough to create the opening for Derek to hit his big shot). If I’ve learned anything from watching Kobe for all these years, it’s that he’s a tactician – he sets up the game in the way that a chess player sets up his opponent for the kill in 10 more moves. And it’s because I see Kobe in this way that a forced jumper with two minutes left makes so much more sense when with 30 seconds left he makes a successful play that is a derivative of that previously unsuccessful one. Said more simply, you take the good with the bad, but I know that some of that bad is strictly a set up to make the game changing play 5 possesions from now (in the same way you may sacrifice your Queen to earn checkmate later in the match).

When he does, he loses all credibility, although with the Blazers at least he’s aware of what he’s doing.

I mean, regarding clutchness, did he not notice who scored the last 7 points for the Lakers when we were down 100-106? And after watching all those games, does he know that OT points are worth their weight in gold?

As for the crunchtime clutchness, you want somebody who can create his own shot, launch it, and practices hard enough so it has a good chance of going in.

Whether it actually does or not really doesn’t matter much because it is indeed a small sample size.

It’s weird, because Simmons is just as anti-Kobe/Lakers, but he doesn’t hide under the cloak of “journalism” like Abbott does, so it’s easier to stomach.

Especially, because Simmons is a zillion times more entertaining/funny (except for the column he wrote after last year’s finals that he should have titled, “Maybe Kobe won the title, but he’s still a phony.”