It’s been said and fairly obvious that the Lakers won’t make any major moves or development until Kobe Bryant is gone. Aside from the rumors that free agents don’t want to play with him, the team is focused on the last season of their franchise superstar. Coach Byron Scott has been criticized for benching young players like DeAngelo Russell, Julius Randle and others and letting Kobe hijack the offense despite numerous missed shots; aside from tanking, they’re also making sure the focus is on Kobe’s farewell.
via ESPN:
“Under normal circumstances [in a season like this], at some point, you would probably concentrate on just developing all your young players,” Kupchak said Tuesday. “But we can’t do that right now. This [season] is really a justified farewell to perhaps the best player in franchise history. And, God-willing, he’s going to want to play every game and he’s going to want to play a lot of minutes in every game, because that’s just the way he is. And as long as that continues, which it should, then that’s 30-35 minutes that you might give to a young player that you can’t. How do you get a feel for your team going forward when you know that your best player is not going to be there next year? So it’s really hard to go forward until he’s no longer here. That’s not a bad thing. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing at all. It’s something that I think is a good thing. In some regards, there’s a silver lining. Our younger players can make mistakes, and it can kind of go under the radar because Kobe garnishes so much attention. Every game, it’s about Kobe. Even when he doesn’t play, it’s about Kobe. So in a lot of regards, there’s a silver lining that our guys can develop under the radar and maybe make a mistake or make two mistakes and it not be a big deal.”
