Lakers: Five reasons Byron Scott must be fired this season
By Tom West
4) Scott is playing Kobe too much
This was to be expected, and in some respects it’s totally understandable. While the Lakers have no hope of coming anywhere close to making the playoffs, it doesn’t matter quite as much if Kobe is playing more and missing more shots. From a wins and losses standpoint, it’s understandable that they want to see the Black Mamba on the floor during his final season if they aren’t going to be winning much anyway.
He’s averaging 30.9 minutes a night while, as per usual, getting his shots up. Of his 17.5 shots per game, he’s only making 30.9 percent of them with a 22.3 percent stroke from three.
It’s not exactly what you want when others could be taking a few of those shots.
In defense of Kobe, though, fans everywhere want to watch him play while they can. If that means shoot too much until a few go in, and take some crazy fadeaways, he’s earned the right to do so now. He’s at least giving many die-hard Kobe and Lakers fans what they want. Alternatively, Scott dropping his playing time by even just five minutes a game would be beneficial.
Plus, slightly fewer minutes will help maintain Kobe’s health through this season. At 37 years of age with the various achilles, knee and shoulder injuries he’s endured, less playing time and a slightly reduced role offensively will help keep his legs and conditioning in good stead throughout the year. Of course he needs to play during his ride off into the sunset, but he’ll enjoy his last season even more if he can actually play for all of it.
Next: Benching the future franchise player