Kobe Bryant is arguably the best all around player in the NBA today. His defense is astounding, he has led the league two years in scoring.  His ability to create shots and score on anyone is second to none.

 But for the Lakers to be succesful this season isn't going to come down to whether Bryant can get others involved in the offense. It isn't going to come down to who can come off the bench and help. What it's going to come down to is whether or not Kobe can keep from turning the ball over so much.

 As great of a player as he is, Kobe tends to lead the league in turnovers a game consistantly. Last night in a pre-season lost the the Golden state Warriors 111-110, Kobe's stats looked like this. 17pts- 5ast.- 5reb- 1stl. and 6to. that's half of what the whole Warriors team had for the game.

 Now you would say that the rest of his stats look descent for the first pre-season game and I would say you are correct. Thing is if Kobe and the rest of the Lakers do not turn the ball over so much they would actually have beat the Warriors pretty soundly. Even though they only lost by one point with such a high number of turnovers (18 total for the whole team) against such elite teams in the regular season this would mean a blowout and not a one point deficit.

 The question here is does Kobe handle the ball to much? Isn't that what a PG's job is? If you ask me I would say yes he does. So until the Lakers get someone in the backcourt to handle this responsibility this will continue to happen to Kobe. When he has the ball teams immediately double up on him. They don't wait for him to make a move then bring help he's to good for that. So when teams do this it's hard for him to find someone to get the ball to because lets face it the Lakers have some of the laziest players I have ever seen.

 I'm as big a Kobe fan as anyone, but this is something that has annoyed me for years. Turnovers can kill a team, especialy when after a turnover it's hard to get back and play defense. You are not only physicaly out of position but you are mentaly disturbed when it happens. I still think the Lakers are a good team and will make the playoffs. How far they go well we will not know till that time comes. But you can be assured that if Kobe as an indivdual and the Lakers as a team continue to turn the ball over as much as they did lastnight and have for some years now, it will not be very far.