Lakers fans got some exciting news the other day with Kobe Bryant being cleared for basketball activities, if he can still even play. Kobe has had injury trouble the last couple of seasons, something Lakers head coach Byron Scott is keeping his eye on.
Scott told the Orange County Register that he’s putting a “minutes cap” on Kobe to help reduce the risk of injury.
“I think the biggest decision is playing time,” Scott said. “That’s something we have to talk about. Other than that, there really is no other decision to make. He wants to play, and he wants to go out the way he wants to go out, if this is indeed his final year.”
Scott would continue to say:
“He and I have talked a number of times on the phone, we’ve talked about playing time, we’ve talked about back-to-backs, we’re going to probably sit down as we get closer to training camp or as we get in training camp and even talk more about it. Because the one thing I want, if this is his last year, I want him to go out standing. I don’t want him to go out hurt. I want to make sure I do everything in my power to make sure we stick to the game plan, as far as his minutes and as far as back-to-back games.”
We tend to see this with older players whose careers are coming to an end. Last season, and basically his entire career with the Nets, Kevin Garnett would never play more than 20 minutes a game and never played in back-to-back games.
It’ll be interesting to see Kobe play this year, coming off an injury, I’m curious as to whether he actually has any gas left in the tank.
