I think Kevin is probalbly the best pure shooter or scorer in the game, but his biggest attribute is how much of a team player he has been (in the past) and how all his shots came in the flow of the offense and how hard he fought to move without the ball and help the team in every possible way he could.
This year his focus has seemed less on helping the team and more on proving how good he is. This is selfish and a bit contrary to his nature and hence he has struggled this season.
It is a bit ironic that Kobe who in my estimation is a natural egotistical jerk and therefore has always thrived in anything that will bring glory to himself has begun to learn the importance of teammates and Kevin who is a natural teammate is now thinking he needs to show everybody he is the “man” on the team.
I am somewhat impatiently tired of watching Kevin try to be the “man” every night and hoping to see the return of the old Kevin who always gave his best to help the team win.
When that happens, I expect we will see many more explosions of offense as he helps his team win. But in the meantime, I am afraid we are going to see many more 9 of 23 or whatever as Kevin continues to try to prove how big a superstar he is.
We would never have seen the old Kevin go 1 of 14 in a stretch like he did against Portland. The old Kevin wouldn’t have done anything of the kind to hurt his team so much, but this Kevin has something to prove and a scoring title to win.