Ranking every Kobe Bryant season with the Lakers: 17. 2014-15
Kobe worked his way back for the 2014-15 campaign, his 19th in the league at the age of 36. He battled injuries for most of the year while playing in 35 contests. Scott in his first year as coach with the team didn’t manage Bryant’s minutes well, often overplaying him.
There were multiple instances that he played Bryant over 40 minutes in a game. This is something at that age and after all those injuries, he should not have been near those numbers. Kobe did put up some good games this season and although his burst was gone, he displayed more vision and showed to be more of a passing guard.
On November 30th in a win over the Toronto Raptors, Bryant would drop a triple-double and become the oldest player to have a 30 point triple-double. In the 129-122 win he dropped 31 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. Shooting 45.8% on the night this would turn out to be his best game of the season.
His volume was very high, shooting 20.4 shots per night, he made 7.6 of those shots. His shooting splits were 37.3/29.3/81.3, which showed he was continuing on the heavy decline post Achilles injury.
After resting for two games, Bryant returned to play the Pelicans on January 21st. Unfortunately he would suffer a torn rotator cuff and miss the rest of the season. Adding to the long list of injuries he had built up through his career to all the nagging ones he suffered this season.
Bryant would be voted into his 17th All-Star game which he would sit out with his injury. The team would finish 21-61 and miss the playoffs for a second straight year. His offensive rating for the season 102.1 and his defensive rating was 113.9, which was a -11.8 net-rating.
Highlight of this season would come when Bryant would pass Michael Jordan on the all-time points list. He accomplished the feat on December 14th, vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves surpassing 32,292 points.
At that stage in his career Kobe was struggling each night with pain. It was tough to watch as he continued to battle every night. He was a true competitor and he never wanted to sit out, load management wasn’t a thing to Kobe.