Kobe Bryant sat out of Monday’s Lakers practice to rest after playing just 32 minutes in the Lakers loss to the Phoenix Suns Sunday night. Lakers head coach Byron Scott said Bryant told him this morning that he felt good, which gave him more confidence to stick to Bryant’s minute restriction plan.
Last week, Scott mentioned he’s looking to come up with a long-term plan for Bryant, rather than a short term one, which is currently the case as Bryant’s availability is evaluated on a day-by-day basis. Coming up with that long-term plan is a little bit more difficult and going to take a bit longer, than Scott originally anticipated, however.
I think it might take this year to kind of figure out for the next year, how we’re kind of going to go about that plan, so right now everything that we’re doing is really a work in progress, and a lot of it really is indicated on how he feels.”
Ryan Kelly also practiced in full on Monday and Scott is hoping Kelly could be available as early as Friday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Scott wants Kelly to have several practices under his belt before he’s back in game action.
Welcoming Tarik Black took center stage after Monday’s practice. Scott said he’s already been thinking about where he’ll be finding minutes for both Black and Kelly in the rotation. He’s looking forward to Black putting pressure on the Lakers bigs.
I don’t like our bigs to be comfortable, thinking that they’re going to play just because they’re here. I want him to put pressure on these guys, understand that minutes aren’t guaranteed.”
Black discussed his time in Houston with the media and what he’s looking forward to bringing to this Lakers squad. Black prides himself on his defense, echoing a common cliche in his first interview as a Laker, “defense wins championships.”
[divide]Los Angeles Lakers Introduce Tarik Black