Kobe Bryant has gotten off to a fast start this preseason in his return from shoulder surgery and it his Los Angeles Lakers fans feeling optimistic. The Lakers feel like they have improved their roster in a major way this year but Bryant may be the biggest key and question mark as to whether they will be able to improve as much as they hope and possibly compete for a playoff spot. With Bryant getting up there in age and returning from a season ending injury for the second straight year the Lakers may decide to sit him in back-to-back games, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Lakers head coach Byron Scott has said that he is hopeful to have Kobe play in all of the Lakers preseason games but when the season starts they will have to discuss what they are going to do in terms of resting him.
"He wants to play every game but we haven't talked about that yet. I talked to him a week ago and said, 'We need to sit down and talk about back-to-backs and pick and choose which ones you'll play in and which ones you' won't," said Scott.
Kobe will likely try to fight it when Scott tells him he needs to sit out the second half of a back-to-back but in the end it is likely best for him to rest from time to time. Kobe is now 37 years old, entering his 20th season and has played more than 46,000 minutes in his career so the Lakers want to do everything in their power to keep him healthy for the duration of the 82 game schedule. Another way the Lakers might keep him healthy is by reducing his minutes per game. Last season Bryant averaged 34.5 minutes per game but this year that will likely go down to about 28-30 per game at the most.
The Lakers have 18 back-to-back sets scheduled this season and they will likely be very strategic with the ones that he does sit out if they do decide to go that route. Scott will likely decide to rest him against lesser competition when he has the chance and get him in there against the better teams. The past couple of years it would have been detrimental to the Lakers to have a healthy Kobe resting for full games but this season they have a better roster and should be able to withstand their superstar missing a game here and there.
