Kobe Bryant's highly anticipated return might not be as spectacular as some Lakers fans expect.
Byron Scott, the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, indicated that he intends to watch Bryant's playing time, saying that he wants to use the star's knowledge as an important asset to win games.
In a report by Yahoo! Sports, Scott talked to A Martinez of 89.3 KPCC and shared how he plans to treat the superstar in the upcoming NBA season.
Martinez asked, "Now you've known Kobe Bryant since he was a teenager, since he first got to the league. You were on the first team he played on with the Lakers. When it comes to Kobe Bryant, he's been in the league a long time, a lot of miles on those wheels. How are you going to get him to relax? To just sit down once in a while?"
Byron said, "Yeah, Kobe's his own man. We know how hard he works, we know how driven he is. But think he's at the point too where he's so much more mature, and he understands that he only has a few more miles left on that body, you know, maybe two, maybe three years. And I think he's probably more acceptable to accept the fact that you can't practice every day. There might be some games where you can't play this game or that game. But that's all to be determined. We have to sit down before training camp and go over some things because I can't have him going twice a day in training camp. That's what the young guys are supposed to do."
He continued, "He's been here long enough and understands his game better than anybody here, what it takes to win. I got to use that knowledge that he has as well. I'm going to treat him like he's an assistant coach as well as a player."
According to NBC Sports, Bryant averaged 36.6 minutes per night in his career. He played over 47 minutes in three of the six games before he injured his knee in December 2013. In the last decade, Kobe only missed fewer than 10 games. Considering his age and previous surgeries, Byron Scott understands that the best way to make the most out of the star is to prevent any unnecessary strain on his body, in the same way that coach Gregg Popovich kept the aging San Antonio Spurs healthy and formidable through the years.
It is only a matter of whether Kobe is going to listen to him or not.
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