Charles Barkley is never short on opinions. In an appearance on The Beast 980 Saturday, he shared some of those opinions on Kobe Bryant's current situation with the Lakers. While the Lakers initially played Kobe heavily in the early going, Barkley feels that philosophy was all wrong, and the Lakers should have been more realistic about their aspirations for the season. Here's what Barkley would have told the team, if he was Byron Scott:
“'Listen, we’re not going to be any good. Let’s try to get some young players and see who we got going forward. Kobe, you’re kind of a mentor. You’re going to play 25-30 minutes a night. At some point this season, you’re going to pass Michael Jordan. There’s no need to play you 38 minutes. We’re not going to be better. We’re not going to make the playoffs.' They should have had that gameplan from the beginning. In the beginning, he was playing 40 minutes in a couple games, which is just stupid."
Bryant averaged 37.1 minutes per game in November, then 34.2 in December. By January, the toll those heavy minutes had taken started to show, and Bryant was forced to miss as many games as he played before tearing the rotator cuff in his shoulder against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday. He has not yet decided whether or not to have surgery - which would end his season - and that decision is expected to come down Monday.
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