I have been screaming for this to be tracked forever, and now it might be, with the name "Kobe Assist"
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...ic-kobe-assist
Long story short, is that a guy who gets to the bucket, drawing three defenders in the process, misses a shot- only to have his teammate put it back for an easy dunk/layup should get credited for more than just a missed shot. Yes, he missed the shot but he pulled the defense out of position and created an easy opportunity for a wide open teammate. How different is that from an assist?
Derrick Rose had 5-6 of these a game, which was one of the reasons Boozer's numbers were actually good when he was on the floor with Rose.
Anyway, with regard to how this relates to our team- I think Rivers leads the team in Kobe assists. He had two that I could remember last night where he got to the rack, missed and either Lopez or Anderson had easy layups. I am not arguing Rivers is even an average NBA player at this point, far from it, but shouldn't this count on the pros side (against the growing list of cons)?
Just food for thought