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Kobe has said that he will change his game and entering his 19th season in the NBA, it is likely his minutes will be closely monitored. At media day today, Byron Scott once again confirmed that there is a plan for Bryant's minutes in an interview on Time Warner Cable SportsNet, though he hasn't discussed it with Bryant himself:
There is a plan, but have I talked to him and Gary Vitti about it yet? Not yet. That's something that we have to do as far as just sit down and talk about where I think he should be minute wise. I gotta get that from Gary Vitti as well [...] I don't want to tax him with a bunch of minutes early in the season and there's something else that we have to talk about is back-to-backs, how many minutes he plays on back-to-backs.
Scott has been adamant all off-season about lowering Kobe's minutes, but he has refused to say just how many Kobe will play.
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Kobe has always been among the league leaders in minutes played. Before last season's six-game run, Bryant hadn't averaged less than 33 minutes per game since his first two seasons when he was coming off the bench.
Seeing how the San Antonio Spurs have handled their veterans such as Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, it is possible that Kobe could see the same treatment under Scott as his career winds down.
[divide]Byron Scott Says Kobe Bryant Is Far From Retiring