Kobe is culprit, plain and simple. There is nothing wrong with the offense if you like depending on Kobe to make or break you. It's his lack of effort on the defensive end. Team defense falls apart cause Kobe doesn't go through screens, fails to switch, or close out on his man. Then he usually tries to act as if the breakdown was caused by someone else. A lot of times, you see other players run out and cover for him and they tend to get the blame.
I've seen this happen the last few seasons but this season, it's just too obvious. At this point, Sarver is licking his chops thinking about the Lakers' pick.
On defense, yes. Kobe is a big problem on defense, but he's not the only one. There is a total lack of communication on d. The problem is you have to cover for Nash, and Kobe is a gambler. That means he's out of position to cover, then D12 is having to rotate a man before he should have to. If Kobe could stay at home, or Nash could guard better, the interior d wouldn't collapse as much.
However, the offense should be good enough to carry the D, even with lapses. Kobe is having a career year...his usage rate is lower this year, and efficiency up. Missed shots by Pau, MWP and Meeks, plus massive turnovers by D12 (he is stripped every other time with the ball, and makes a weak post move 2 out of 3 times) are the offensive problems. These also lead to runouts for the opposing offense, and massive turnovers. Kobe is very guilty of ballstopping, but he is actually improving there. But the WORST culprit in ballstopping is MWP. He gets the ball and pounds it into the floor. That does not work in Dantoni's system.
Pau can play the role needed, but doesn't want to. He's going to be traded, it is a certainty. I'm only wondering if Metta joins him. The ballstopping from both of them kill the offensive flow. Kobe is buying into the non ball stopping (other than when they ISO him still, which is still way too much) but MWP won't. He wants to drive and screw up a shot at the rim.
Meeks needs to never dribble, just shoot...but he too wants to make plays and dribbles into turnovers. Overall, this team is just not cohesive. Honestly, the two guys who seem to be on the same page are Kobe and Nash, who a lot of people thought would have problems playing together. Nash and Pau haven't resulted in anything at all, and Nash and Dwight have been lukewarm at best. Kobe and Nash play really well with each other, but it starts to become a bit of a two man game with them on the perimeter and that doesn't bode well for crunch time either.
Kobe and Nash are smart enough to figure it out. Dantoni might not be, but he's got two high IQ players out there that better get this team winning some games soon.