One of the biggest talking points a month into the season for the Lakers has been the minutes of Kobe Bryant. It was the biggest talking point prior to the season and remains as such, namely because Bryant is averaging a staggering 35.7 minutes per game, a number far too high for a 36-year old.
Fortunately, both Bryant and head coach Byron Scott recognize the problem and finally appear open to fixing it.
Byron Scott says he might shorten Kobe's minutes by a couple per game. Main reason: Kobe's shots falling short = sign of fatigue.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) November 25, 2014
Kobe: "The 2nd half of games for me has been a struggle lately w/ my legs. My shots have just been really short even tho my legs feel good."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 25, 2014
Notably, in two of the last three games, Bryant has played over 39 minutes, his latest game seeing him play just shy of 44 minutes in an overtime loss. The result has been a clearly fatigued Bryant over the most recent stretch of games, his shots falling flat and short.
If you take out the first two games of the season for Bryant, which were both blowouts, then his average minutes is just shy of 37 per game. Despite his words at the beginning of the year, Scott has not controlled the minutes of the 19-year veteran.
Instead, he’s been obviously out-muscled by Bryant into more minutes. We recently looked into a new plan for Bryant and his minutes, but something has to happen without a doubt.
How many minutes do you think Bryant should see per game? Let us know in the comments below!