“I have to make sure that when he’s up to those minutes, that’s it, no matter what the game situation is, as much as I want to win, as much as he wants to win, I’m not going to sacrifice his health to try to win games.”
– Byron Scott on Kobe Bryant’s minutes ahead of the 2014-15 season.
[divide]Heading into the 2014-15 NBA season, all the talk was about Kobe Bryant’s return and most importantly, how his minutes would be managed. Taking into consideration his age, overall minutes played through his 18-year career and coming off two consecutive season-ending injures, the ultimate goal was to have a minutes restriction in place to keep Kobe playing at a high-level for what will likely be the final two seasons of his career.
However, with every loss, there is a level of desperation that gradually increases to get that second win in this young season. Don’t get me wrong, the Lakers should absolutely be playing with desperation after eight losses in nine games, but it shouldn’t come at Kobe’s expense — mainly when games are clearly out of reach in the fourth quarters.
Friday night against the San Antonio Spurs provided an example of a troubling trend as Kobe suffered one of his worst shooting performances in his career as he went 1 for 14 from the field. Down 11 points to start the fourth quarter, Scott opted to continue playing Kobe the entire second half and despite the deficit ballooning and hovering around 15-18 points, continued to play him until 6:50 remaining in the game.
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As much as the minutes restriction was discussed throughout the offseason and preseason, Kobe’s minutes haven’t decreased at all and in one of the rare instances in his career, it finally caught up to him as he was on pace to play more than 40 minutes in a blowout loss when he clearly shouldn’t have been in. While Kobe will do whatever it takes to win a game, the five-time champion admitted even he couldn’t get through this latest illness following the loss via Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters:
“19 years in and your body just won’t respond when you’re sick and you’re used to being able to fight through those things … it’s tough.”
While Kobe clearly wasn’t himself and will naturally bounce back like he’s done throughout his entire career, the current situation sounds all too familiar. Unlike two seasons ago, there is very, very little margin for error now and the Lakers need him to play meaningful minutes at a high-level. Although we’re only nine games into the season and the return of Nick Young should help, Kobe Bryant’s minutes — sick or not sick — and how they’ve been managed is a major concern in the Lakers’ 1-8 start and potentially, for the rest of the season.
[divide]Kobe Bryant On Illness: ‘Used To Be Able To Fight Through’
CONTINUE READING: Kobe Bryant’s Minutes A Major Concern In Lakers Slow Start
“He wanted to see if he could push through it (illness) and I wanted to give him that opportunity.”
– Byron Scott on playing Kobe Bryant 35 minutes in a blowout loss to Spurs.
[divide]Before the start of the season, head coach Byron Scott said Kobe would play “between 30-40” minutes with most assuming the lower end of the spectrum — similar to Tim Duncan’s minutes under Gregg Popovich.
Nine games into the season, Kobe is averaging 35.2 minutes which ranks 25th in the entire league with a majority of those players being under 30 years old. While Scott did a fantastic job of managing Kobe’s minutes in the final three preseason games and the first two games of the season, the minutes played when the game is clearly out of reach in the fourth quarters have visibly increased.
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To end the preseason and start the regular season, Kobe was playing in eight-to-nine minute spurts which enabled him to rest between each quarter. While this distribution of minutes was ideal for the 19-year veteran who had only played six games in nearly two seasons, Kobe has been recently playing the entire first quarters and majority of the second halves — without rest between the third and fourth quarters.
As a result of the consecutive minutes played in the second half of games without rest for the most part, Kobe is on pace for his worst shooting percentage of his career (36.7 percent) and here is a breakdown of those shooting percentages by quarter via Basketball Reference:
1st Quarter: 19-50, 38.0 percent
2nd Quarter: 21-49, 42.9 percent
3rd Quarter: 23-65, 35.4 percent
4th Quarter: 14-46, 30.4 percent
Through nine games of the season, five of those were out of reach mid-to-late fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Kobe continued playing to start the final quarters without rest and was on pace for 40-plus minutes in a number of these blowout losses:
Houston Rockets (L, 90-108): 29 minutes
Phoenix Suns (L, 99-119): 28 minutes
Golden State Warriors (L, 104-127): 36 minutes
New Orleans Pelicans (L, 102-109): 36 minutes
San Antonio Spurs (L, 80-93): 36 minutes
Unlike previous seasons, Kobe’s minutes have to be managed and most importantly, they have to be meaningful minutes at this stage of his career. Through the course of an 82-game season, there will be times where Kobe will have to play 40 minutes and I’m more than comfortable with that, but those type of minutes shouldn’t come in blowout losses.
Taking into account Kobe’s age, overall minutes played through his 19-year career (and counting) and coming off two consecutive season-ending injures, the amount and distribution of his minutes through nine games hasn’t put him or the Lakers in a better position to win games.
Whether you like it or not, the truth is Kobe’s shot attempts will either keep or take the Lakers out of games with the lack of talent and continuity on the roster this season. For Kobe and the Lakers to have a chance to stay competitive and win games moving forward, he simply can’t continue to play the second half of games without proper rest and make a high percentage of those shots as the team’s closer.
[divide]Kobe Bryant On Illness: ‘Used To Be Able To Fight Through’