Kobe and The MoreShotsThanPoints Club

So far, Kobe Bryant is having a very interesting season in which he will reach a few milestones. He will almost certainly move past Michael Jordan in points scored and Shaq in field goals (and might also pass Dr. J in that category).

Unfortunately, he's also already passed Jordan in field goal attempts and has recently set the record for field goal misses. Let's be clear, this isn't a bad thing. Setting the record for misses in the NBA is a lot like setting the MLB record for pitching losses (Cy Young) or strikeouts as a hitter (Reggie Jackson); you've got to be an amazing player to achieve it, and it's more about longevity than the quality of the player.

I'm actually more tantalized by an obscure possible "record": Will Kobe be the first member of the more-shots-than-points club to lead the league in scoring? As I noted in that Hall of Shame piece, 111 players have played more than 1000 minutes while shooting more shots than the points they scored. Kobe isn't that inefficient, but he's flirting with the threshold.

Here are all the scoring leaders going back to 1978 (I used a threshold of 500 minutes, which may differ from the NBA's official way of calculating this):

 

Not since Allen Iverson has a player leading the league in scoring come this close to the one-point-per-shot threshold. Generally, when a player cannot reach that threshold, coaches aren't going to let the player heave enough shots to win the scoring title.

But Kobe is a different story. I think we can all agree that Byron Scott won't be benching Kobe any time soon, nor is he likely to tell him to stop shooting.

Of course, the season is still quite young, and given Kobe's knack for getting to the line, I think it is unlikely that his efficiency will drop that much lower, but it would still be an interesting story.

One thing that has mystified me is that there seems to be this perception that Kobe is doing everything he can to win, and his teammates are holding him back. Which is, of course, ridiculous. Kobe is by far the least productive player on the Lakers, and it is largely because his scoring has been awful. His true shooting is a poor 48.4%, while the rest of the team is averaging over 53%. In fact, the Lakers have a top 10 offense very much in spite of Kobe, not because of him.

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