Brandon Bass signed a free agent deal to join the Lakers this summer, which means if things go as expected, he'll get a chance to play alongside Kobe Bryant in what may very well be his final NBA season.
Bass is so excited about that, he may honestly be delirious.
Speaking with Terrance Harris of Nola.com, Bass talked about the challenge of helping to turn around a team that has been among the league's worst over the past two seasons. And he cited the mere presence of Bryant as one of the main reasons he believes it's possible.
"It's quite a challenge but I felt like we've got enough players right now with the signing of Lou Williams, the trade for Roy Hibbert and then myself and we have arguably the best player in the game still," Bass said. "When he is healthy he is a monster still. If he is healthy he's right up there with the best players in the league, that's LeBron or whoever the best players in the league are."
Nope.
Bryant may still be capable of playing at an All-Star level at times, but whether he is healthy enough to do so remains to be seen. Last season, surrounded by the likes of Jeremy Lin, Nick Young and Carlos Boozer, Bryant rarely trusted anyone on the offensive end of the floor, and tried to literally do things all by himself. His shot attempt numbers were as high as his shooting percentage was low, and he became less efficient while wearing down physically as the season progressed, to the point where injuries forced him to shut it down after just 35 regular season appearances.
Bass has been in the league 10 years now, which means that he saw Bryant win three championships during his formative years. Bryant is idolized by many players in the league who are Bass's age, so there's perhaps more of a willingness by that group to take the leap of faith necessary to believe that Bryant is still capable of performing at an elite level.
But to say he's up there right now with guys LeBron James, Stephen Curry, James Harden and several others is a factually incorrect statement.
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[via PBT]
