columnists should really consult with beat writers before they write a piece, just to make sure their opinion is rooted in actual facts, not the "eye" test. Then again, I don't know if Whitlock is always concerned with such things.

Chris Broussard and his trusty anonymous sources, tackled this issue too: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8763408/nba-opposing-gm-coach-says-los-angeles-lakers-problems-stem-kobe-bryant-shooting-too-much

What Kobe Bryant is doing this season is both phenomenal and unprecedented. No player in NBA history -- not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not Moses Malone, not Karl Malone, not any of the league's famed ironmen -- have come close to scoring as Bryant has in his 17th professional season.



Heck, most greats -- guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and Jerry West -- didn't even play 17 seasons.



So for Bryant to be leading the league in scoring at a 29.5 ppg clip while shooting a career-high 47.7 percent from the floor is nothing short of incredible. Before Bryant, Abdul-Jabbar had been the gold standard for well-worn scorers, averaging 23.4 points in his 17th season. But Abdul-Jabbar, who was 38 during that season, was clearly not near his prime, averaging just 6.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks, well below his career averages of 11.2 and 2.6.



Bryant, while not the athlete he once was, is still producing at the same level he always has, posting 5.2 rebounds (5.3 is his career average), 5.0 assists (4.7 career) and 1.6 steals (1.5 career).



So it's very difficult to argue that Bryant is doing anything wrong in what statistically is one of his best seasons. And numbers never lie. But there are other numbers that say Bryant's offensive blitzkrieg is actually hurting the struggling Los Angeles Lakers more than helping them.

This season, the Lakers (12-14) are just 4-11 when Bryant takes 20 or more shots in a game. Yet, they are 8-3 when he shoots less than 20 times. And it's not necessarily because of the opposition.


"

When you play the Lakers, you don't worry about stopping Kobe. You just make sure those other four guys don't have career nights because you can beat the Lakers with Kobe scoring 34, 35 points.

"
-- An opposing NBA assistant coach With Bryant attempting fewer than 20 shots, the Lakers have beaten the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Brooklyn Nets, all of whom have better records than the Lakers.

The four teams Los Angeles has beaten with Bryant shooting 20 or more times? The bottom-dwelling Detroit Pistons, Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards, and Charlotte Bobcats, who have a combined record of 32-64 (.333).

The eight teams the Lakers have beaten with Bryant taking fewer than 20 shots have a slightly better combined record of 87-112 (.437).



This trend intrigued me so I decided to go back even further, checking the numbers for the previous two seasons. The evidence was overwhelming: When Bryant has fewer than 20 attempts in a game, the Lakers are outstanding. When he shoots 20 or more times, they're only slightly above mediocre.



Last season, the Lakers were 26-19 when Bryant took 20 or more shots. That's a .578 winning percentage. Not bad. But they were 10-3 in the other games, a winning percentage of .769. In 2010-11, Phil Jackson's last season as coach, the Lakers were 24-17 (.585) when Bryant shot 20 or more times and 33-8 (.805) when he took fewer shots.



So in the past three seasons, including 2012-13, the Lakers are 54-47 when Bryant shoots 20 times or more. To put it in perspective, that .535 winning percentage equates to a 44-38 record in 82 games. In that same span, when Bryant takes fewer than 20 shots, the Lakers are 51-14 (.785), which would be a 64-18 mark in an 82-game season.



It seems pretty clear cut: The Lakers are better, and would be better this season, if Bryant shot less. At least that's what the statistics say.



But I didn't want to jump to conclusions simply based on the numbers, so I decided to call some of the league's basketball minds to get their take on the topic. I wanted to know whether Bryant needed to be reined in, or whether he's simply shooting so much because the Lakers' roster is so limited and it's the only chance they have to stay in games.



I asked one general manager, an assistant coach and two scouts, all of whom work for teams that have played Bryant and the Lakers this season. Their opinions were strong:



The assistant coach says:

"Absolutely, Kobe's shooting too much. When we played them, we told our guys, 'Look, we don't necessarily want Kobe going for 50. I mean, we're going to guard him. But we're not going to double him, and we're not going to try to get the ball out of his hands.' Our main concerns were not to let Jamison hit a bunch of 3s and not to let Dwight go crazy down low. There's no question they would be a better team if Kobe shot less. Why do you think Gasol struggles? He's going to struggle in any offense where he doesn't touch it.

"At the end of the day, it has nothing to do with D'Antoni and his system. It's all about what Kobe will allow to happen. When you play the Lakers, it's like they don't have a system. It's whatever Kobe chooses it to be. If he wants to take all the shots, he'll do that. He'll pacify his teammates early in the game, but then he'll throw up a heat check and if he's got it going, nobody else touches the ball. And then the other team benefits because the other Lakers won't defend as hard and they won't be engaged because they're not a part of the game on the offensive end. Kobe has to trust you, and it looks like he thinks most of his guys aren't trustworthy yet.

"The problem between Kobe and Dwight is that you can't have Dwight on the floor in the fourth quarter, so how can you play through him. In Kobe's mind, that's why he doesn't pass the ball to Dwight. But the Lakers really need to sit down with Kobe and say, 'At this stage, this is what's best for the Lakers. We've got to play through our bigs.'


US Presswire
The Lakers should emulate Memphis' bigs tandem but they can't because of Kobe."Memphis is the best high-low team in the league with Marc Gasol and Randolph. The Lakers could play that way with Dwight and Pau, but with Kobe shooting 28 times, that's not going to happen. That could definitely work, but the key is getting Kobe to sign off on it. The thing about this league is that every team is known for something. When you play the Lakers, you don't worry about stopping Kobe. You just make sure those other four guys don't have career nights because you can beat the Lakers with Kobe scoring 34, 35 points. Your biggest worry is if Kobe scores 25 points and has eight assists and then Dwight has 20 points and 16 rebounds and Pau has 18 and 11 and Nash scores 16 with 10 assists."


The scout says:


"One thing our coach always says is, 'Kobe's probably going to get his 28 points, but let's make sure it's on 28 shots and not 16 shots.' I would like to look at some box scores in detail to see if the Lakers are down in the fourth quarter and Kobe starts shooting a lot to lift them to a comeback, or to see whether he was getting to the foul line a lot in those other games where he didn't have as many field goal attempts.



"Watching the Lakers play the Knicks this year was hard to watch because the other Lakers were just so bad. It was like Kobe was trying to do all he could just to keep that game close. And hey, if Dwight's not going to try his butt off and if other guys aren't going to try their butts off, then I'm going to give the ball to the guy that's going to go for it, and that's Kobe. I don't think it's that Kobe doesn't trust his teammates; it's just that he trusts himself more. A questionable shot by him still might be better than a good look for one of those other guys. To me, they look disinterested.


"There's no chemistry. They're not pulling for one another. They're just a collection of individual talent that happens to be in the same place wearing the same uniforms. They look listless. Not Kobe, though."



The general manager says:


"Everyone thinks the problem is everybody else but to me, the problem is Kobe. Take a look at Andrew Bynum's quotes the other day, where he said Kobe stunted his growth. He didn't like playing with Kobe.



"And Pau? Pau's a really nice guy and Kobe just walks all over him. On the one hand, it's good for Pau because it helps make him tougher but overall, I think it hurts his game. Kobe can smack Pau upside the head and Pau will still go back to him and say, 'Yes, sir.' He's just too nice of a guy. But Pau can play. They won a few championships with him, so this notion that Kobe doesn't have anyone to play with and that he has to take all these shots is just wrong. Go back to the Oklahoma City series. Everybody blamed it on Pau and Bynum, but to me, it was more Kobe's fault.



"And we know what kind of a player Dwight is. He's not at his best because he's coming off the back injury and because of the system D'Antoni's running, but it's obvious to me that Kobe doesn't trust him. And I'm not so sure he likes the way Dwight jokes around so much."



Another scout says:


"That's been debated a lot -- whether Kobe is shooting too much. It's hard to argue against that if they're 8-3 when he doesn't shoot it 20 times. But I'd have to look at each game and study the game situations to really come to a conclusion. I don't think he's purposely hogging the ball or doing things selfishly to keep the team from winning. He's not trying to do anything to hurt the team. If he is shooting too much, it's only because he thinks that's what he has to do for the Lakers to win.



"My gut reaction is to say that Kobe does not need to shoot less. He's a top 5 player in the league, he's leading the league in scoring and he's shooting a good percentage. That's a big key -- he's shooting a high percentage. It'd be one thing if he was forcing up shots and shooting poorly. But I will say this, when you have as much talent as they do, you shouldn't have to shoot it as much as Kobe has been."