Byron Scott: Lakers may shut down Kobe Bryant in March

Lakers coach Byron Scott says that Kobe Bryant could be shut down if the team is not in playoff contention in March.

More from Los Angeles Lakers

Well, there’s this:

Lakers coach Byron Scott said if the Lakers aren’t in playoff contention in March, then the team will shut down Kobe Bryant for the remainder of the season.

(You can begin your laughter now).

Uh…ah…um, Byron, have you taken a look at your team lately? You do realize that you and the Lakers awoke on Wednesday a robust 10 games back of the eighth-seeded Suns in the Western Conference and that your team is on pace for 25 wins, which would be the franchise’s worst season since a misfit team that featured aging players like Gail Goodrich, Happy Hairston and Connie Hawkins guided the Lakers to a 30-52 mark during the pre-disco 1974-75 season?

Even worse: this season is on pace of being the worst season since the team moved out west in 1960 and would mark the second-most pathetic campaign of one of the NBA’s flagship clubs, topped only by the 19-53 mark set by the 1957-58 Minneapolis Lakers.

Playoffs, you say? Perhaps Scott may want to have a sitdown with Bryant now and begin discussing Operation Shutdown ’15.

Problem — and it’s a huge one — is that Bryant, playoffs or not, is unlikely to be keen on sitting down the remainder of the season, not when there’s an abundance of shots to go around in his longshot of a quest to walk down either Karl Malone or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the Association’s two most prolific scorers. Even firing away at a career-low .369 clip, the Mamba is still leading the NBA with an average of 21.5 shots per game, the second-highest mark of his career.

Another thing to remember on the Kobe Ego Meter: he comes to the area with the mindset that people come to see him play (true, since no one apparently is clamoring to get courtside seats to see Jordan Hill). Bryant is also playing with the mindset that the 2015-16 campaign will be his last (although that is subject to change with his whims) season, so one has to guess that he will want to provide fans with his absolute best.

Miracles do happen, yet it’s hard to imagine an Amazin’ Mets-like rally will carry the Lakers into the postseason.

More from FanSided