This is getting out of hand. Kentavious-Caldwell Pope must have somehow stolen the soul of Kobe Bryant and inserted it into his own body through his nasal passages, because he’s chucking the ball like it’s his retirement tour and he’ll never play basketball again. I get that he wants to get a big new contract this off-season, but violating the sanctity of Kobe’s immortal soul-essence is not the way to do it. Neither is showing yourself off as a low-efficiency volume-scorer.
KCP was 11 of 31 on field goals this game. He shot the ball 31 times! That’s the most that any individual Laker has shot the ball this season (tied with LeBron James, who has definitely earned the right to shoot as much as he wants in a way that KCP definitely has not). When you expand the list to all teams, KCP drops down to 41st, but that’s still completely outrageous and unacceptable. The only role-players who appear above him on the “most field goals attempted” list are Jordan Clarkson with 34 and Julius Randle also with 34 (if you consider those guys role-players).
It’s interesting to note that Dirk Nowitzki, on the same day he announced his retirement, also went 11-of-31 from the field, and only scored thirty points. But that’s different because his time in the NBA is definitely coming to an end, and also because he’s a living legend and KCP is just a guy who shoots a lot of shots.