Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown wants to reduce Kobe Bryant's playtime - NBA Update
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is arguably one of the best players in the history of NBA.
He is 33 now and still as huge a threat inside the court. However, frequent injuries last season and the aging factor have slowed him down to some extent.
To prolong his career, he made two visits to Germany during the extended offseason for a platelet rich plasma therapy treatment on his knee and ankle which was a success.
Unfortunately at the start of this season, he injured his wrist by falling on his hand to avoid a downfall and although it has recovered but not fully. Bryant is the team’s backbone and now new coach Mike Brown plans to use him more sparingly so as to conserve
the super star.
At the moment, Bryant is averaging almost 38 minutes per game this season which is significantly above his last four seasons. In the coming games Los Angeles are hoping there might be a decrease that number.
Mike Brown recently hinted he is looking forward to reduce Bryant’s minutes in the court in order to make sure the shooting guard stays fit throughout the season. When asked to shed light on Tuesday during team’s practice session, he revealed,
"I hope so. I was shooting for 35 minutes (against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday), but there are gonna be times, especially in games like that, that I think we'll have a chance to win, where that 35 may go to 36, 37 and hopefully no more than that. I wanted
to keep it at 35, but I didn't do a good job with it.”
But in order to reduce Bryant’s time on the court, other players need to get more consistent with scoring, as currently they are not firing enough, making it difficult for Brown to give Bryant some rest during the game.
"Just hopefully, especially with the second group, just getting a rhythm. If we can get a rhythm on both ends of the floor, I know it would put me at ease a little bit more, and allow me to sit him a little bit more," Brown said.
Bryant has been phenomenal so far and is averaging 30.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. It would be interesting to see if a reduction in his playing time in the future affects his performances and that of the team.
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