Lakers coach Byron Scott is playing around with the team’s line-up and is considering putting Kobe Bryant at small forward. The coaches and front office believe he has superstar potential and could be the person to finally take the torch. After missing 123 games over the last two seasons, that’s 75 percent of games over that span for those keeping score at home, we all know that Bryant wants to go out on a high note.
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Putting Bryant on the floor with Russell and Clarkson makes his job easier. People like Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, and Metta World Peace always had the trust of Kobe because he knew he could go to war with them and they would give him everything they had.
The Lakers had the ball in transition on 11.9 percent of their possessions last season, according to National Basketball Association stats, which ranked 21st in the league.
Kobe Bryant played five-on-five during Wednesday’s practice but he will be rested as a precaution during parts of training camp.
For a franchise that usually evaluates itself on wins and losses, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has shifted his expectations.
During the same interview, Bryant also talked about how his body was feeling after the first couple of team practices.
Bryant, 37, has been going hard during the first two days of the Lakers’ training camp in Honolulu, but claims that his offseason workouts were much more challenging. On Tuesday, Scott pledged to be more careful with Bryant’s playing time, admitting last season’s overuse still crept into his mind. “And then whether you want to scale back or I can’t play, we’ll figure it out when the time comes”. Neither can Bryant, who shot 36 percent in games where he played 38 or more minutes. “I could get to the spots I wanted to, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted to”.
“If he has a little pain in there, we’ll sit him down for precautionary reasons”, Scott said. “I’m a Laker, man. I’m a Laker for better or worse”.
While the Lakers returned to the Stan Sheriff Center for an evening practice that was expected to be more technical.
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Knicks fans across the globe have been drooling over the thought that the long-time Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard could hit the Big Apple. “I don’t expect him to conduct training camp any differently than he did past year”.
